Summer Internship Diary: The First Week
I’m Jeff, I just finished up my junior year at DePaul, and I also just finished up the first week of my internship for this summer. Being that so many college students either plan to or are considering taking part in an internship at some point, I thought it would be valuable to share what my experience was like for the first week, so I wrote diary entries each day. Also, this is my first actual internship so I can definitely relate with anyone who is nervous to start theirs or does not have much experience and wants to learn about what it’s like. Hopefully you can gain some insight from my experience and feel better prepared when it’s time to start your own internship!
Day 1
To preface, I should give some background information on the internship I’m doing. I am a computer science major, and the internship is in the IT Infrastructure department at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. Luckily, their office is in Chicago, and it’s actually only a few blocks away from DePaul’s Loop campus area. The company is pretty large, so it’s not surprising that there were around 40 other interns starting with me on the first day. What may be surprising is that the internship is on a hybrid schedule, requiring three days in-office and two days of remote work each week. For the first week, the plan is to do our first two days remotely, taking part in an online orientation as a whole group, and then come to the office for the last three days. After getting out of orientation, I definitely feel excited about the program. Obviously no one really loves an orientation process, and doing it remotely over a Microsoft Teams call definitely makes it a little tougher to get through, but I was able to learn more about the company and meet a handful of other interns. I am excited to see what tomorrow looks like as we finish orientation, and I am very excited to get in the office on Wednesday and meet my team!
Day 2
So, today was a very similar vibe to yesterday, but it was definitely a little more engaging. Again, we were in a Teams meeting for most of the day, but the content was a little more interesting today and focused more on how the company actually does business. Also, there was more focus put on meeting and speaking with other interns, and I very much appreciated that. Looking forward to tomorrow!
Day 3
Okay, today was really cool. Obviously it was way more engaging to actually be in-person at the office with the other interns and employees, but the way they set up the day was really cool, too. We all arrived at around 8:30, mingled and had breakfast until 9, and then received a few presentations from recruiters for about an hour getting us excited about the program. Then at 10 we got to go on a tour of the office, and it was really cool to see a good chunk of the 57 story building and see all of the individual areas available to us. After the tour we received more presentations, this time from some ex-interns who had converted to full-time employees and you could tell that everyone was really excited seeing the actual potential that can come from the intern program to result in a full-time offer. After that we had lunch, got set up with our computers and logged in to the company system, and then were dismissed to our teams to start our actual work! I was finally able to meet my manager in-person, and he was super nice! I was also able to meet a few different people who I’m going to be working with and they were great too. Overall, the experience today was awesome and super motivating as we head into the full 10 week program.
Day 4
Today was our first day working 100% of the time with our assigned team at the office. I was really excited to get started, and the day ended up being really beneficial in terms of getting my bearings with the team, the role I’m going to be playing to help them out, and the overall vibe of the entire department I’m in. My manager was nice enough to let me sit in with a few meetings and observe, and that was super cool for me as I have never experienced actual real-world IT work and what it takes to run and manage the systems of a large company. Beyond that, I was able to meet a few more people in the department who I might end up working with at some point, and everyone I have met has been super cool and so nice. I was worried about being an intern and coming in as very young without much experience, but everyone is super nice about it and knows I am there to learn and gain as much practical experience as I can. As of now I have not received a formal assignment as far as actual work, but it’s only my second official day with the team so it makes sense, and I’m sure they will have something for me soon.
Day 5
Today was really enjoyable again, mostly because I got my first actual assignment! Similar to yesterday, my manager asked me to sit in on a couple meetings again and I met a few more people on the team. After that, one of them wanted to meet individually, and he had a project he was looking for some help on. The work I will be contributing is using a programming language and system that I do not have experience with yet, so I am really excited to get to work on it and learn a ton. It’s also part of a relatively big issue that the team is currently trying to address, so he made it clear that if I am able to contribute some valuable work to the solution it will definitely reflect well on me, not just within the team but with some upper level people too. Also, I was able to set up a meeting for next week with another team member who may have some work for me as well, so I am really excited for the weeks ahead. A big concern I had with this internship was that I would just be sitting around all day trying to find anything to do, but it seems like that won’t be the case and I will actually get to work on some cool projects and develop some skills! Overall, this first week has been a great experience for me, and I feel confident and excited to take on this program and get all I can out of it.
That concluded the first week of my internship, and I hope you found this quick set of diary entries beneficial in some way. One thing I want to highlight before I sign off is that I would not have been able to get this opportunity without being at DePaul. Through things I have participated in here, I was able to meet a lot of great people and one of them referred me to this program, and ultimately was the reason I got interviewed and accepted. There is a really valuable sense of community and long list of things you can take part in to build your network at DePaul, and it often results in great opportunities just like this one!
~Jeff