How to Accelerate Your Learning Curve During an Internship

“What in the world is that!?” I’m guessing you’ve already asked this question during your summer internship.  What makes an internship valuable is that immediately after you learn something new, you are thrown into hands-on experiences to test your knowledge.  After learning what a sales pitch is, you reach out to clients directly; after learning a new programming language, you write computer software according to that new information. The quicker you can become knowledgeable about what you’re working on, the more successful you’ll be. This article will show you how you can accelerate your learning curve.

1) When you collide with something you don’t understand, catch it before it slips away!

Write down that word or topic so you don’t forget it, and then start gathering information as soon as you can.

2) Learn for the sake of personal growth.

Even if what you’re learning about doesn’t relate to your specific job as a summer intern, you’ll still benefit by being knowledgeable about it. You could end up working in that particular field or you could use your knowledge to contribute to an important conversation.

3) Take advantage of all the resources available at your fingertips:

• E-books: provide in-depth information. Quora.com is a great resource, especially for tech students.
• Forums: give you the street-knowledge of the topic
• Magazines: are interactive and fun to read
• Blogs: allow you to interact with a community of specialists.  For instance, if you want to learn more about SEO, http://www.seomoz.org/blog is great.

4) Approach the Experts.

Look for the people who are cited in the articles you read. Research them. Go to their blogs and homepages. Send them a brief but insightful email. They may form a relationship with you, which would benefit your entire company.

5) Start the Conversation.

Your colleagues should be glad to respond to any questions you have.  If they don’t know the answer, then you have just created an opportunity for them to learn alongside you. Use Twitter and Facebook to post questions.  When you spark an online discussion, you never know what knowledge could be shared or who could join the discussion.

There is a gap between being familiar with a topic and being a master of it. You can bridge that gap by purposefully acting to accelerate your learning curve throughout your summer internship.

Want to find out more about National Intern Day and how you can win a cash prize? Head over to nationalinternday.com to get the scoop.