Hooray! Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you all had a wonderful week full of hearts, chocolate, flowers and love. My roommate Abby Rimel and I are en route to Colorado today. Abby, I and 20 of her high school friends rented a house up in the mountains for the weekend. It should be a great trip, if only I can make it back to Houston in one piece. Not really sure about this whole skiing thing.
Last week, I discussed my journey after college, and how to transition from a college student to a real life young professional. Hopefully, the transition will go more smoothly for you than it did for me. If at any point you feel overwhelmed, please don’t hesitate to call one of the alumni up for advice or a pep talk. Considering I give myself pep talks weekly, I have become kind of good at them. This week I thought we could dive a little bit deeper into office etiquette. Most of the items on this list probably seem really obvious, but you would be surprised how often people just don’t get it (myself included). This is especially crucial when interning for a company. Your actions are magnified as an intern because you being evaluated for a job offer at all times. I am by no means an expert, these are just a few items I have seen my boss comment on when working with the interns.
1. Don’t be a know it all ·
This is especially important as an intern. They expect you to be intelligent and ask good questions but you aren’t expected to know everything. You will make a better impression on your boss if you try to be a sponge and absorb as much from the summer as possible.
2. Don’t sleep at work ·
I know I know this seems super obvious; however, we had an intern that slept in his cube regularly. Needless to say, he did not get an offer. I know working all day from 730-5 is super hard, but that is why God made coffee.
3. Don’t date your coworkers ·
I could be wrong on this one, but 90% of the time I would say don’t date your coworkers. During our short time in the working world, we have seen this happen quite a bit. It has yet to end all happy and cute. If you do decide to go down this road, just realize what you are getting into and the effects it could have on your career.
4. Embrace your company’s culture ·
When I interned for ExxonMobil at their global downstream headquarters, they were always talking about safety. Being the naïve intern that I was, I didn’t understand why we were always talking about safety and how I could possibly hurt myself while sitting in my desk chair. We would make jokes and slightly mock how serious everyone was about the topic. Now that I work in a manufacturing plant, I see the hazards and risks first hand. Now, I completely understand why safety should be the number one priority, and wish I would have embraced the company culture sooner.
5. Dress appropriately ·
I have been on both extremes of this topic. Working at headquarters as an intern, we had to dress extremely nice every day. Looking back, I probably should have dressed more professionally and less like a poor college kid. However, when I started working at the plant, I hated wearing my blue baggy jumpsuit and boots every day. I would dress up, thinking I looked nice and presentable. I was then informed I needed to wear the jumpsuit so I appeared ready and willing to go in the plant at any minute. By looking nice and not wearing it, I was giving the impression to management I didn’t want to go outside and do what was required of a process engineer.
6. Be careful what you say on work chat and email ·
At least at our company, your boss can see it and use it to evaluate whether you get a job offer or not. Be very careful of the trail you leave on your work computer (emails, websites visited, etc.)
I hope y’all have a wonderful weekend! If you get the change go by The Burger Stand for some sweet potato fries and marshmallow dipping sauce. Hands down the best sweet potato fries ever!
Thanks again,
Kelly Lohmeyer