You've Got the MBA Internship, Now What?

In addition to the day-to-day duties of your internship, you may be asked to work on extra projects. Plus, you may need to take some time to network with co-workers and express your enthusiasm in returning to a company after graduation. Stephen Rakas, executive director of the Career Opportunities Center at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, encourages students to “manage their workload and ensure there’s time to express genuine interest in other people and their work.”

Managing your workload effectively can also open up opportunities to help others, a move which Rakas states “can pay off in many ways.” Just remember to check with your supervisor first before taking on extra tasks and don’t let any extra projects get in the way of achieving your main work goals.

While it’s a good idea to tell your employer about your enthusiasm for the internship and the company, your actions and mannerisms need to match your words. “If you say you want to work at a company, but you’re not acting that way, it’s hollow and it comes across as disingenuous,” states Dartmouth Tuck’s Masland. It’s also important to demonstrate your enthusiasm on a consistent basis, as opposed to waiting until you are nearing the end of the internship.

Doing great work is “the best way you can show enthusiasm for the firm,” according to Masland, who adds that “whatever you do, do it at the highest possible level of quality. It’s better to take a little extra time and a little extra work to in order to produce a higher quality work product.” 

You may be thinking that doing good work should go without saying, since no one wants to go into an internship and do bad work. Yet, if you take on too much or focus on the wrong things, the quality of work on display in your main project could conceivably suffer. Masland thinks that, in general, “it’s better to do less work at a very high level than to take on too much.”

While internship socials may sound like they are more about fun than business, most HR departments keep track of whether or not you attend these types of events as well as how you behave while in attendance. “Part of getting hired is also the social part – how you get along with co-workers. At events, employers are taking a look at that in a less formal setting because that is part of the work life,” Masland explains. That’s why you should attend any appropriate social activities during the internship, provided it doesn’t compromise the quality of your work.

“At the end of the day, co-workers are the ones who will decide whether you get an offer or not,” states Masland. Many of the people you work with during the MBA internship will have a say in whether you receive a full-time job offer at the end of the summer, not just those at the top. That’s why, in Masland’s opinion, “it’s important to have a good relationship with the assistant or the analyst underneath you. They all count.”

In many cases, companies are upfront about whether or not there’s a chance of a full-time position being offered at the end of the summer. If securing an offer is your aim, MBA interns should let their boss know how much they enjoy the work they are doing. “Be open and honest about the fact that you really enjoyed the summer internship experience and your hope that there will be an opportunity to come back,” states UCLA Anderson’s Weber. You should also remind your employer of what you’ve accomplished during the summer by summarizing the contributions you’ve made as well as what you’ve learned during the internship.

If you don’t get a full-time job by the end of the MBA internship, then it’s time to work on a plan for staying in touch with your contacts there. You can start by emailing your supervisor about your fall classes. You can also volunteer to continue helping out. One potential way to help is by continuing to work on your project through a paid internship that runs during the new academic year. In addition, Weber raises the example of a student who helped her internship company with on-campus recruiting. Since she was able to raise brand awareness for the company, they had continued interest in hiring her.

An MBA internship allows you to have a new professional experience and this experience can inform your subsequent career search. Whether or not a student receives a full-time offer to return to their internship company should also influence how an MBA pivots their career search, according to the Tepper School’s Rakas.