1. Revisit ProValues. We asked you to set expectations when you had just begun your internship. Now that you have finished, this is the perfect time to revisit it – you can identify whether your initial impressions about your internship were correct, along with whether your own thoughts about what you value in a work environment has changed.
But how can you use this information? Whether you have an offer or not, this is the time to stress-test what makes you happy to decide if you want to take the offer. Start testing other options too – are there new things you have thought about exploring? This is a low risk way to achieve that.
You can start leveraging your profile right now as you conduct informational interviews over the summer, and then use it further to narrow down which recruiters you want to talk to come fall.
Read on for a reminder of how the ProValues tool works and get started on identifying what you value in a job – as well as what you don’t like so much!
2. Update your resume. We talked about ideas to make your resume stand out in the fall; now is the time to make sure you put those ideas into play as you drive towards real concrete results in your last few weeks!
Take a few minutes to look at what you’ve accomplished this summer and ensure that you can answer yes to the following questions:
Do you have defined responsibilities and output?
Can you quantify the results of your summer work?
Will these bullet points successfully set you up to move towards your long-term goals?
3. Connect with colleagues on LinkedIn. You’ve probably already connected with all your fellow interns and anyone you’re working with directly at your internship (if not – get on that!). But who else have you met this summer? Alumni from your school or from your internship program; contacts you’ve made at networking events; clients you’ve worked with – these are all people you should be reaching out to for a connection on LinkedIn. Remember, you never know who might be able to facilitate an introduction for you!
4. Reconnect with those people you’ve met who may be helpful in getting you towards your first-choice career opportunity. Especially given that you’ll have a little time in between the end of your internship and returning to school, this is the perfect time to reach out to those individuals who you haven’t quite gotten through to yet, so that you can really connect with them once you have a little more time. This is particularly important if you are focused on one specific location – if you haven’t already, plan to take a few days there and fill each of those days with informational interviews. You’ll be glad you did once fall recruiting starts and you have a solid group of connections you can call on!