Being an intern can sometimes feel like you’re back in elementary school, standing at the very end of a really long line for the slide behind all of the “big kids.” When you’re not at the top of the elementary school food chain, you’re automatically at the bottom. This isn’t to say that it’s inevitably always bad at the bottom, just to suggest that you’re, quite frankly, not in charge. Being an intern is a very humbling experience. It reminds you that you can’t always carry the baton, don’t always have the very best ideas, and don’t always know the answer. But along with this, it teaches you so much about yourself.
Sometimes, being a stereotypical intern can feel like you’re working long days without much reward. You’re not getting paid in $, and sometimes you really feel the weight of that truth. But you’re gaining something else: You’re learning how to learn from other people. This is quite an invaluable thing to experience, in my opinion. I genuinely believe that if everyone felt this way for a short period of time, at some point in their lifetime, the world would actually be full of happier, healthier, more respectful, compassionate, and considerate people. This is because, when you’re an intern, you’re not the Alpha. You’re a Beta. And being a Beta is a very good thing.
As a Beta, you get to learn firsthand, what it means to be a ‘good’ Alpha. How do you like to be treated as an intern? Are there things that you wished your supervisor would do differently? What do you dislike about being an intern? What are you excited to have exposure to as an intern? What type of work do you hope you’re doing as an adult? If you could go back and switch places with your supervisor during your internship, would you change anything? What type of boss would you be? What kind of employees would you hire, why? By answering these questions, we learn so much more about ourselves, our experiences while interning, the companies or organizations we’d love to work for again and the ones we couldn’t say the same for.
Thus, being an intern is like getting a glimpse of your future. Because now that you’ve been exposed to it, you’re in a better position to craft your own.