Hopefully you are learning and contributing during a great summer internship experience, and have found an environment in which you can thrive. Some summer internships are at companies that have a ‘formal’ internship process, which will make full-time offers to some or all of the interns that performed well. However, some companies have no formal internship program, and thus probably no formal ‘offer’ process. If your internship is ‘informal’ and the company has no history of hiring interns or making permanent offers to interns — what can you do? As we mentioned in our previous posts, first of all you’ll need to excel in your projects, network effectively, exceed expectations and exit gracefully. Here are some other ideas about how you might turn an informal summer internship into a job offer:
Seek Feedback at the Halfway Point: Since the internship is informal, the company probably does not have a formal review process. Thus, approximately halfway through the summer actively seek feedback from your supervisor. Inquire about whether you are focusing on the right things, ways that you can improve, add more value or work with more teams. This would also be the right time to express your opinion about how much you enjoy the project you are working on and the team you are supporting. You might even express your sincere interest in working at the firm full-time at this point. Since it is a company without a formal internship process, the response would likely be that they would need more time to consider this, but at least the seed of possibility would be planted. If things seem to be fairly positive in this conversation, tell them that by the end of the summer you will prove the value you can add to the firm.
Seek Feedback at the End: At the end of the internship seek feedback again. Depending on the situation, you may go beyond your direct report and talk with HR staff, or senior managers that you have become acquainted with. During this meeting again ask for feedback about your performance and the professional competencies that you have displayed. Follow up by reminding the person of the things you believe you did well, and the ways you over-delivered and benefitted the company. At that point it would be appropriate to directly state you intention to seek a full-time position. Obviously, the best-case scenario is that they offer you a job on the spot. However, if they still need to consider the situation further the best way to leave things might be to say that it would be much appreciated and welcomed if they could give you a full-time offer in the near future, since this would save you the time/trouble of going through the recruiting process with the dozens of international companies that will come to your business school in the fall. Remind them that they would be getting a proven talent and that you are willing to show your commitment to the company by taking yourself off the job market by accepting their offer immediately.
There is no guarantee that such steps would work, but if you play your hand well, you should move the situation in a positive direction. When all is said and done, both hard work and some luck play a big role in finding a job. As Thomas Jefferson said, “I’m a great believer in luck. And I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it.” Hopefully, with lots of hard work and a bit of luck, you’ll find yourself in the ideal position in the next stage of your career!