Attention early job seekers, young school-leavers, corpers and whom it may concern!
Many times, we go into our internships hoping to learn a lot about a specific business area. While that is good, it mostly never happens…
Ouch! I didn’t introduce myself
My name is Benjamin Dada, a Masters’ Student at Lancaster University Management School. Between 2014 and 2016, I have worked with 5 companies, across all sizes (large →medium →High-growth StartUp → New StartUp) and across international boundaries (Nigeria and the UK) – and newest writer on TechCity! Congratulations are in order.
Back to the story; one thing you will quickly find out when you have been to many places and worked with/for all sizes of startups is that the rules are almost the same everywhere, but the application of them is largely dependent on the context at that point in time.
Bearing the above in mind, this post might be more suited to persons who get into roles at Big Companies (>500 employees etc) and not necessarily small scale companies where you can comfortably meet everyone on the 20-man team.
I got fired up to write this post following what Gary Vaynerchuk explained in this post.
After watching this video, then, you’d know why I said you should intern as a Receptionist!
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgsbG3WEmHs
That goes without saying interning as a Receptionist is the one job role that brings you face to face with EVERYBODY giving you an opportunity to meet people you probably would never have met through your 6 – 24 weeks at the company. In a cubicle.
On the skill side, the transferable skills of communication, problem-solving, creativity would be very useful in your career going forward. Also, you be able to boast of customer service, because, most times, not only employees walk through the door angry customers do!
Interesting twist, many jobs don’t give you the opportunity to intern as a receptionist because it really is a key part of the business outlook.
No harm in asking, though, what your asking would do is to show a new side of you. An enthusiasm they can probably use in another business area.
Please, do let me know how it goes.
Tip: Visit stutern.com to find Internship positions.