Advice from my First Work Day in LA:
These interns are not playing around!
Wear comfortable shoes. You will be standing around and walking a lot on your first day. Today, I stood for an hour meeting people at the breakfast welcome, walked around for 30 minutes on a tour of the building, then my new workmates suggested we walk to the lunch spot! I was very relieved I wore my best pair of conservative and comfortable but not too hideous work shoes.
Bring the paperwork they sent you. I completely forgot every shred of paperwork the company sent me back in my desk drawer in Boston. The woman from HR was nice about it, but I definitely looked like the intern who didn’t “have it together.” Also remember your passport, your driver’s license, and a cancelled check for direct deposit. I forgot all of these things, and I just felt the internal headshakes in the room.
Bring chapstick, a water bottle, and some Advil. You will be meeting dozens of people, most of whose names you will not remember. You will be smiling a lot and making a lot of polite small talk. I developed a raging headache after two hours of smiling and meeting people. You will be much better prepared to play nice if you are well hydrated with moisturized lips, and can stave off the smiling headache.
Act excited about what you’ll be working on. I am genuinely psyched about my summer projects and my manager. I think I’ll learn a ton and will get to flex my creative muscles and the things I learned in Marketing this year. I think the company worked hard to match me up with projects where I could learn a lot and shine. It’s top secret stuff (the candy industry is surprisingly ultra-competitive!) but it involves lots of creativity, managing relationships, influencing people, and social networking—all things I love! Conveying excitement makes people want to help you, makes people feel like you’re going to do a job, and sets a positive tone for the summer. When you learn what your projects are, don’t lie about your excitement, but you should definitely make it clear that you’re excited to learn and to contribute.
Debrief the day. Take time to reflect upon and think about the day. Call a friend and debrief and/or journal about it. Stepping back from the day and thinking of what went well and what could have gone better sets you up to be intentional about your summer rather than going on auto-pilot.
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Nice tips! Wearing good shoes and having hydrated lips should never be ignored.