Case Study - Karen Mecz

Karen Mecz was offered an internship at Richmond Council’s Sustainability Unit in 2008, through the London Students Towards Sustainability project. Her experience there has helped her develop her career in the sector and she is currently working as a consultant for Carbon Smart.
 

My time in Richmond Council was a great experience that really helped me build upon the skills I already had in new directions.  Not only did I learn a great deal about practical implementation of sustainability at a local level, but I picked up essential professional skills had the opportunity to work with a great bunch of people.

A big focus of my work was stakeholder engagement with local residents, and I came to really enjoy the communication aspects of my internship.  Aside from this focus, I made sure to work with all the team members and pick up different skills from supporting them on a range of project work. Some of the key skills I developed

On applying for permanent jobs after my internship it proved a great talking point in interviews.  I had developed confidence in the field, and was able to understand where my strengths and limits were quite clearly within that, so I was able to ‘sell’ myself better at interviews.  I also had more relevant points to raise about working in the area, and could hold more informed discussions with potential employers, making interviews more of a conversation and less of a grilling.

I had improved my confidence in professional skills, and after a string of non-desk based work experiences it was invaluable to have an internship on my CV that demonstrated I could perform well in an office.

Furthermore, when I came to interview for the job I eventually accepted, they later told me that my internship had proved a key factor on my CV.  The fact that I had some experience in the field, and had started to build up contacts in an area that they were interested in proved vital to them offering me the job.  Two years on and I’m in the same job, and still working with some of the original contacts I built up from my internship!

On applying to an internship, make sure that it’s one you’re interested in and can demonstrate enthusiasm about, as this is a sure fire way to spark an employer’s interest. 

A short cover letter/email should be 2-3 paragraphs that demonstrate you’re both interested in their work and motivated to pursue this through an internship.  Just like any other job, this employer will want to know that you want to work with them, so make sure to do your homework on the company and can really answer the questions of ‘Why this internship?’ and ‘Why with this company?’.  To do that I would research their work, and the role they’re offering in so far as you can, to make sure you understand what they would want from you.  Also, think about why you would benefit from the role.  This will show your future employer that you’ve given a lot of thought to the internship, and are very keen to pursue it.
 
Send in your CV as an attachment (do note that sending a .pdf will prevent the formatting from messing up on different computers!), and keep it pretty short, certainly no more than 2 sides of A4. There are lots of guides on how to make a good CV, but the key message is to keep it clear and highlight all of your strengths.  Bullet points are great, and academic or work achievements should all be clearly laid out.

•    Once a student has got a placement, how do they get the most out of the internship?

As soon as you arrive make sure you introduce yourself to everyone you’re working with, or in the same office as.  Getting to know them all a bit better and offering to help on any projects they might be running (if your internship remit isn’t already strictly set out) can make sure they bring extra work around to you, so you get greater exposure to the company’s work.

It’s also helpful to know exactly what you’re there to do.  Have clear aims and objectives both for your work, and for your own development, to make sure you’re learning everything you want to.

As this is an internship and not a job, be prepared to take on the junior roles in the office and learn wherever you can.  I certainly did a lot of tea making, admin, and marketing work for the people I was working with, but this shouldn’t prevent you from learning.  Make sure that you have at least a balanced work load; if your company isn’t giving you the type of work you expected, then talk to your manager and try to rectify the situation.  You may still be doing some admin, but make sure it’s the sort you can learn from, e.g. gathering data for a larger project, not the most glamorous work but very useful to know!  The best approach is to treat everything as a learning experience, and make sure you go away leaving a positive impression of yourself on the people you worked with (you never know, they might want you back for a job!)