Name: Janus
Class of 2013
Major: Economics
CFS Program: Business Field Studies

The best advice I can give you is to own your internship. If you don’t like the way something is done, ask the right people about ways to change it. Actively give feedback to those managing you, even if the advice is unsolicited. Actively ask for feedback, and then make an obvious and transparent effort to improve on the points you were less than stellar in. As interns, we may often expect to be told what to do, but the best interns are those that take matters into their own hands and find opportunities to work on things that excite them. Don’t get me wrong–you should still pull your weight, grab coffee for your boss if she asks, and enter tedious data into Excel spreadsheets if that’s part of your work, but it would benefit you to actively ask for additional work that you find more interesting. Walk around the office to introduce yourself; ask people out to coffee (just coffee, you’re an intern and probably can’t afford to pay for their lunch); and be outgoing. The more you shake up the place in positive ways, the bigger impact you’ll have on the organization and the more you can take away from the experience to speak about in future interviews. Plus, you’ll never have a better opportunity to take risks and experiment to grow your professional capabilities than in a CFS internship, where the stakes are much lower than if you were in an actual full-time entry-level position. Those whose livelihoods depend on their job have an incentive to be conservative in their actions; you as an intern have an opportunity to actively look for and make your mark on your company. The worst thing you can do is to sit around and wait to be noticed and given work. Don’t waste this internship by passively sitting by–make sure you get what you want out of it. That’s the best way to ensure that your CFS experience is successful.