What are internship training programs really like?

Your big day is coming up, the first day of your summer internship/job. Most likely, your first day will consist of meeting your new coworkers, learning about your company, and touring your office. In this article, I’ll tell you about my training process and others’ so that you’ll be ready to go on your training day.

Big picture training

For many positions, your first day of training will teach you about the company as a whole. Employers want to make sure that all of their new hires know about the company’s history, values and goals. The company I am interning at has been in business for over 150 years, so my first day of training was filled with company history. By the end of my first day, I knew all about the company’s foundation, major changes over time and company values. This day of “big picture” training is very important because it will teach you about the company that you’re going to be working for and it will help you understand the atmosphere of your office.

Departmental differences

There are several different departments in any large company and each one is different from the next. Departments have so much variance between them that often times each department will have its own training schedule. I’m in the Accounting and Finance departments at my company, and my training schedule was much different than the interns in other departments. I only had two scheduled days of training, where our sales interns had two full weeks of scheduled training. Keep in mind that some departments will have more training than others, and training can come in many different forms. For me, I no longer am in scheduled training, but I learn something new every day that I apply to my work.

How to Make the Most of Your Training

Make Friends!

Don’t go through training by yourself. You’ll most likely be in a group of other new hires for your training sessions, so make sure you talk to them and get to know them. Find out who will be working in your department, where everyone went to school, what other companies people have worked for, ask anything! You will be surprised how many people may have gone to or still attend the same school as you. I have met two people so far that either go to or went to Indiana University Bloomington at my company.

Get familiar with the company’s culture

You’ll most likely be learning a lot about your company’s history, founders, and current employees. It’s best to embrace that history, since you now work for the company. You will one day be a part of that company’s legacy – you might even be the CEO one day. Take this opportunity to dive into the company’s history.