How to Turn Your Internship into a Full Time Job

An internship is a temporary period of work experience offered by companies and typically performed by students, or as in our blog here can be structured as a 'Returnships' for more experienced people who have had career breaks. They can both be paid and unpaid internships, unpaid can offer school credits and experience as a benefit.

Internships aren’t just a great way for you to develop skills and knowledge within a specific industry, they are also a way for companies to pick new employees. If you really show your strengths within your internship, there’s a chance it could lead to more opportunities with the company. They are a great tool to provide you with hands-on experience in your desired career, together with a good understanding of how a business in an industry sector operates. On top of all that, you may just get a position at the end of it. This guide goes into how to best achieve that goal.

Nine Benefits of Internships

1. It gives you job experience

2. It can help build confidence

3. It can guide your career goals

4. It can give you the experience of a variety of duties, departments and positions

5. It can help build your resume

6. It can assist in creating a professional network

7. It can be a facility for strong mentorship

8. It can be a good source of references and recommendations

9. It can help a transition to a permanent job

10. Consider the Cost 

If you pick an unpaid internship there is inherent value for you in terms of the above list, but it does not come without a cost. The cost of accommodation and commuting for an unpaid internship can actually rack up. In fact, it is estimated that an internship can cost you over £1000 a month depending on where you live. So work out your budget and make sure you get the best value from your internship by giving it everything you have.    

Having the End Game in Mind 

You may be just looking at an internship for the experience it will give you, with the ability to gain some glowing references, or there may be a potential of a full-time position at the end of it. Either way, performing well and making a good impression has the potential of giving you what you are looking for. The following tips can help to boost your internship performance, maybe turning your internship into your first career step!

Start With Research

Before you start your internship, make sure you have researched the company you are about to work for. What are its company culture, mission and values? These details will help you understand how you can best work and interact within their environment. Have a look on Glassdoor and read about the company from anemployee's perspective. This knowledge gives you a head start in settling in quickly and can make you feel more at home with its work styles and practices. It also shows a positive attitude when people realise that you have done your homework on the company you are working for. 

Review the rules

As soon as you start remember to learn about the rules, procedures and other codes of conduct the company expects you to follow. This is usually given to you in a written format, take the time to read through it carefully. Understanding these gives you less chance of making any mistakes. If you have questions about something ask your supervisor before doing anything you feel could possibly be problematic. Following the rules shows you respect the workplace and this can give your supervisors peace of mind.

Take Initiative - Show Enthusiasm

In order to really stand out as an intern and increase your chances of being considered for a full-time position at the end of your contract, you need to take the initiative, be enthusiastic and stay busy. Whatever the size of your first tasks, remember to approach them with enthusiasm, get them in on time and to a high standard. If they see that you can be responsible and manage smaller tasks, they will be more willing to start you on more advanced tasks. When meeting with your supervisor, let them know you are interested in learning new skills that can help you complete your job well. When you have finished your responsibilities, illustrate your dedication to the company by asking for more work. If you know people are working on bigger projects that tweak your interest, take the initiative and offer your help. But, take it slowly and make sure you get all of your responsibilities done first to a high standard! Remember to showcase your work ethic, be punctual, provide consistent quality work and organise your tasks well.

Develop Relations with Your Supervisors

As the intern, you will probably have a direct manager or supervisor who will be training you. Your supervisor can potentially help you get a job in the future, with the company you are working for or elsewhere, so you should ensure you build good solid relationships with them. Being friendly and natural and allowing your personality to come across will make your working environment more personal. Try to establish a more personal connection rather than strictly discussing work. They will appreciate your interest in them, and it will also help them gain a fuller understanding of you and what you have to offer. You should also show your appreciation whenever you can, and make sure you thank your supervisors for their time and advice to show you are grateful for their input. 

Build Rapport with Your Colleagues

As tempting as it is, you should avoid only being friends with other interns within the company. Make sure you make the effort to get to know multiple people who work there, especially those who are older and have more experience. When it comes down to making a decision about offering you a full-time position, people are likely to fight your corner if they know and speak to you regularly. Getting to know more people within the company is also a great way to network with people for future opportunities. Employers also want to see strong teamwork abilities, so make sure you build professional and personal relationships with your colleagues. If you establish a good rapport and show a strong work ethic, your team will notice you are a great person to work with. You will also benefit from building relationships with members of other departments. Employers will always be impressed if you can build a reputation across different departments. If your name is on many people's lips, that can only be a positive thing!

Problem Solving

Problem-solving is a very desirable skill for employers, so try and showcase your ability to do this. Successfully resolving an issue for the company can be a strong indicator that you will be a great asset. Demonstrate your uniqueness, think outside the box and try and show you have a great critical thinking mentality for problem-solving. By having a positive impact on a business, you become an intern that is remembered and this can lead to a full-time position.

Seek feedback

Throughout your internship try to keep your job performance on track by asking for feedback from your supervisor or manager. Cross-reference this by asking other employees too. With all this feedback you can discover which areas you need improvement in. You can also learn where you are excelling, giving you the confidence to learn more. Employers really like to see when you can receive and implement their feedback, as it shows a sense of maturity and a willingness to push forward with self-development.  

Show Your Interest In Them

Ensure you show the company you are interested in staying for longer than just your internship period and explain why you would like to do this. If you work with them well and you look interested in working for the company then you stand more of a chance than not saying anything at all. You can maybe look at asking the hiring manager or the HR department about the probability of gaining full-time employment at the end of your internship, or get to hear about opportunities that arise after the internship has finished. Letting people know that you would like to work there will only be a positive. 

Conclusion

Although internships can be expensive they are beneficial in the long run. Even if you do not secure a full-time job, you will have met a variety of people within the industry you want to work within and this is essential for building knowledge within the sector. If you do not receive a full-time job offer or you are returning to full-time education, stay in contact with your supervisor and colleagues. You can connect with them on social media to keep in touch as you never know when these relationships will help you with your future career! 

More Resources

If you want to invest in yourself to get the best results in the job market, make sure you look at our other blog posts and articles to help you. Start with these two and you will not go wrong! How to Find a Job and our Ultimate Guide to Getting Your Dream Job! Then we have some great shorter blogs on interview techniques and CV writing below. Have a look at all of these and you will be set for any interview! Remember, 'Luck favours the prepared! We wish you all the luck and success with your future!

The Top 10 Interview Questions You Should ALWAYS Prepare For!

Research You Should Consider Before An Interview

Ultimate Guide to Preparing your CV

What makes a good and bad CV?

How To Completely Nail Your Zoom, Skype or any other Video Conferencing Interview!

What questions should you never ask in an interview?

How to Answer the Question: What are your Strengths?

How to Answer the Question: What motivates you at work?

Finding a New Job? - It's Time To Clean Up Your Social Media Presence

improve your CV

prepare for job interviews 

Also, remember if you are attending interviews you may get rejected, do not take this personally! A lot of things in life are a numbers game, meaning the more you get rejected the closer you will come to getting the job. It is simple maths, the more you do the better the chance of success. It is a healthy part of the process so read the article below and don't let rejection slow you down!

10 Top Tips for Coping With Those Soul-Destroying Job Rejections!

How To Completely Nail Your Zoom, Skype or any other Video Conferencing Interview!

Before COVID 19 video conferencing interviews were slowly gaining popularity within recruitment. They were a great way to save time for everyone, especially for first interviews. But post COVID19, this is now one of the main ways of interviewing. The end of severe restrictions are in sight and people are trickling back to their workplaces. Hopefully, soon we will be seeing the end of all restrictions. I’m sure we will see an increase in people back at offices, but will that mean fewer video interviews? Our take is there may be less, but we think that the first interview will still be dominated by video conferencing. It makes sense for both parties, we feel the second interview will see an increase in face to face activity, but with companies now realising they can employ anyone remotely and they can work from anywhere, then even a second interview may still stay online.   

Getting It Right The First Time!  

As we think that first interviews will still be dominated by video conferencing getting your online interview nailed is essential. You can't get to the coveted second interview if you fail at the starting blocks! Establishing a good video interview style is an essential tool for your career prospects. With this in mind, we have produced the following tips for you to prepare correctly for your next video conferencing interview! 

1- Get Comfortable With The video conferencing Platform 

Whether it's Zoom, Skype, Facebook or any other video conferencing platform, you need to feel comfortable with how it works. There is nothing worse than being totally blindsided by accidentally pausing a meeting and not knowing why or how you can get it back. Or all of a sudden you can't hear someone because you have leaned on your keyboard! This can really throw the whole meeting off balance for you. If you are not familiar with the software or app, download it and play around with it first! Call some friends and see what happens when you hit buttons or click on features, look at scene sharing and all the other features it has.

The fact you are using video conferencing software for your interview means that you are more likely to have technical faults or problems. If this happens, don’t stress. The interviewer understands that there may be issues, so try and stay calm and don’t be afraid to end the call and call them back if you need to. By staying calm and collected, you are showing them how you would act in a stressful situation, which they are likely to notice. Just make sure you know your software or app inside out before you do your interview, it may be a simple thing but it could be the make or break of the interview.

2- Ensure That Your Username Is Professional

If you already have a Zoom or Skype account from a few years ago or are in the process of setting up a new one, make sure your username is professional and not embarrassing. It's so easy if you have an old account to forget your avatars or user names that are already set within it. We don't want any beerMonster305's or PresecoQueen52's to degrade your interview before it starts! You want to look professional, so it's time to be boring and just use your full name or something close to it.

3- Get Dressed!

Although you don’t have to go into the office space for your interview, that doesn’t mean that it’s okay for you to stay in your pyjamas or sweats. Get changed and ready with clothes you would wear as if you were going in for a face-to-face interview. Also, don’t just dress professionally from the waist up (which can be tempting if you know they’re not going to see your bottom half!) Psychologically it plays a role to be dressed properly, you feel different and ready for the interview and you never know if you’re going to have to get up or move around. Just think, you wouldn’t go into a face-to-face interview without any trousers on, or just a jacket, shirt and jogging bottoms would you?

4- Think About Your Location

Make sure you have somewhere you can do the interview. Don’t do it from bed or a slouched position! If you can, sit at a desk or a table, that will really help. Turn the camera on and look at what is in your background. Make sure there is nothing embarrassing and try if you can to frame the shot and make the background look nice, or just video it against a plain wall. Another tip is you want to sit somewhere that isn’t too dark - somewhere near a window with natural light or a well-lit part of the room. This will make the video look much better! Try and avoid public places if possible, but if you need to do the interview from a café because you don’t have an Internet connection at home, make sure you let the interviewer know in advance. That way they will understand that there may be some background noise. 

5- Eye Contact 

Although tempting, avoid just looking at yourself in the bottom of the screen, it's a natural thing to do but don't. It is much harder to actually have eye contact through a computer or phone screen but direct your answers to your web camera. A good tip is to put the interviewers' video image right by your webcam, so when you are looking at them to speak your eyes are looking close to the camera. Then when you start talking look straight into the middle of the webcam lens. This way the interviewer will feel like you are giving them good eye contact. This is harder to do than you would expect, so practice with a friend first to get used to it.  

6- Make Sure There Won’t Be Any Distractions Or Interruptions

Everyone remembers that interview with Professor Robert Kelly on BBC News when his kids interrupted him! You don’t want there to be any distractions or interruptions so make sure anybody who lives in your house (whether that’s your housemates, spouse or your mother) knows that you’re going to be in a video conferencing interview and that they shouldn’t interrupt you. You’ll also want to turn your phone off if you are not using it for your interview and shut down all other programs on your computer! If you have a Mac turn off your notifications, all these little things can trip you up in the interview.

So there you go, these are our top tips to help you completely nail your Skype interview! Of course, there is much more to learn generally with interview techniques both face to face and online, so it is worth looking at all our resources that will help you in any interview situation.

Two great articles to start with are our comprehensive guides  How to Find a Job and our  Ultimate Guide to Getting Your Dream Job! These go into a lot more than just interview techniques, but go through them and pick the relevant sections that you feel will help you. Then we have some great shorter blogs on interview techniques below. Have a look at all these and you will be set! Remember, 'Luck favours the prepared! We wish you all the luck and success in the future!

Top 10 Interview Questions You Should Always Prepare For.

Research You Should Consider Before An Interview

Ultimate Guide to Preparing your CV

What makes a good and bad CV?

How To Completely Nail Your Zoom, Skype or any other Video Conferencing Interview!

What questions should you never ask in an interview?

How to Answer the Question: What are your Strengths?

How to Answer the Question: What motivates you at work?

Finding a New Job? - It's Time To Clean Up Your Social Media Presence

Nerves and how to deal with them for an interview

Can Changing Roles Within Your Company Be Better Than Looking For a New Job?

The Definitive Guide to Starting a New Job

Basic Interview Checklist

Also, remember if you are attending interviews you may get rejected, do not take this personally! A lot of things in life are a numbers game, meaning the more you get rejected the closer you will come to getting the job. It is simple maths, the more you do the better the chance of success. It is a healthy part of the process so read the article below and don't let rejection slow you down!

10 Top Tips for Coping With Those Soul-Destroying Job Rejections!

How to Dress for a Formal Job Interview

You’ve been invited to a job interview – great! You’ve read our other blog posts and have prepared fully by researching the company and practicing your answers but there’s still one thing worrying you. You don’t know what to wear.

The way you should dress is dependant on the industry you will be working in. For example, the clothes you would wear for a part-time retail job would be more casual than how you would dress for a full-time office based role. It’s really important that when you’re preparing your outfit, you research the company and their interview process. Some companies such as Nandos explicitly state that their office spaces are not like a ‘typical Head Office’ and that they ‘forget polished boots and pencil skirts.’ So with a company like this, you might not want to go in a full suit, but opt for something more smart casual.

So now you’ve done your research and you know whether you should be dressing in a formal way or smart-casual. This blog post focuses on just formal interviews so Prestige Recruitment Group have written some advice below on How to Dress for a FORMAL Job Interview.

Clothing

Dependent on the gender you identify with, there’s a few ways that you can dress. For formal interviews, the most common outfit choice is usually a suit because everybody and anyone can wear one. If you want to wear a suit, whether that’s a trouser suit or skirt suit – make sure it matches. There’s nothing worse than wearing a suit of different shades, so ensure that you wear the full matching set. A dark-coloured suit in navy, black or dark grey with a light, clean long sleeved shirt or blouse is probably your best bet.

Your outfit should be comfortable, and if you haven’t had to wear a suit for a few years, it might be worth investing in a new one. If you choose to wear a tie, wear something that’s not too bright, loud or flashy. Your tie needs to complement the rest of your outfit, so it should be matched to the rest of our outfit to ensure there are no colour clashes.

If you decide to wear a dress - avoid bright patterns and stick to a formal outfit. Avoid anything tight, bright or short. As a rule, try and keep the dress length to just above the knee or longer. If you are wearing a skirt or dress, wear tights too. Try and get some that perfectly match the tone of your skin, but if this is too difficult – it’s okay to wear black. Try and carry an extra pair of tights in your bag too – you never know when you’re going to snag or ladder the ones you are wearing.

Regardless of your gender, make sure your shoes are dark, well polished and clean. If you want to wear heels, don’t wear anything too high. Make sure your shoes aren’t scuffed or run-down.

Makeup

You don’t want to go into your interview with a full-face of makeup. Instead, try and tone it down. If you wear eyeshadow, don’t wear any extreme colours like purple, blue or red. Instead, keep to a natural shimmer or pinks/browns so that it isn’t too blatant. Stay away from contour, highlight and an excessive amount of foundation. Use a touch of concealer for under the eyes and perhaps just one layer of foundation, which should be blended well. Though it won't be outwardly noticeable, it will help counteract any redness if you’re prone to blushing when you get nervous. Don’t use any bright lipsticks - keep the shade within a reasonable range of your natural lip colour. You should always avoid lip-gloss because it’s more likely to get sticky and smeared.

Accessories

Don’t wear an excessive amount of jewellery either. Try and keep it to one pair of earrings, which are studs rather than large hoops. You may want to wear a bracelet or a ring but don’t overdo it! Keep it as minimalistic as you can. While you’re just interviewing, you should take out any facial piercings. This can be annoying but until you fully understand the company culture, you don’t want to wear anything that can come across as dramatic. Try and cover tattoos the best you can for this same reasoning.   

Hairstyles

The day of your interview is not the time to be experimenting with new hair dos. People with short hair can usually just wear their hair without any styling – but people with long hair might need to do something to it. If you can, just wear it down. If your hair is difficult to manage, you may just want to tie it up into a ponytail to get it out of your face.  Avoid gel and hairspray!

Most people have one outfit that they like to wear to interviews, so if you haven’t interviewed for a while – your clothes might not fit, or they might need washing. This is why you should always prepare everything a few days in advance. It gives you time to wash your clothes or buy new things if needed! Avoid wearing or eating anything too smelly just before you go, so avoid wearing too much perfume/aftershave and avoid smoking just before you interview. If you need any advice or help with your interview prep, be sure to check out our other articles here.

How to Get a Job That You Love

Job Boards like Monster and Indeed are full of job vacancies and once you know what you want to do – it can be quite easy to find a job in that industry. Deciding on that job however, can be difficult. Whether you’re just starting the search for your career path or are someone who is after a complete career change, finding a job that you love is important. When you think about the fact that most of your week is spent at work, starting or changing your career can be daunting, but it’s not as difficult as you think. Prestige Recruitment Group have compiled some great advice to help you secure that perfect job.

1)    What subjects did you enjoy at school? What hobbies do you have?

The best way to start looking for a job that you love is to think about what it is that you enjoy. As you grow older, it’s easy to forget about the topics that you enjoyed at school or when you were studying, and this can lead into doing a job that you don’t enjoy. So try and remember what you loved. For example, did you enjoy media at school? Do you appreciate photography? If you can pinpoint exactly what you like doing outside of work, it can make it easier to decide on a career path you enjoy.

2)    What jobs are related to the field you enjoy?

If you’ve decided on the field you enjoy, you should research the types of jobs you can do within that area. For example, if you enjoyed media at school, there are tonnes of jobs out there. You could become a journalist, a content creator, have a role in radio or television or work in illustration and animation. Another really useful way of deciding on a job is to go and see a career adviser who would be able to show you jobs within specific industries.

3)    Research the jobs

Once you’ve found a few potential career routes, you should research job descriptions to see if it’s something you could imagine doing. A great way to research specific jobs is to look at vacancies for that position, which will list the duties and responsibilities of that job role. You can then break down the day-to-day responsibilities of that career and see if it sounds like something you’d want to do.

4)    Get some experience in that field

After you’ve researched specific jobs and their responsibilities, try and get some experience within that field. Lots of companies across the United Kingdom allow people to come and shadow their employees in order to get a deeper insight into that type of career. For example, if you think you might want to become a radio producer, look at local radio stations and see if you can go and experience the company first-hand. The best way to decide what career you want to do is to get experience within different job roles so that you know what you enjoy doing and what you actually can’t stand.

5)    Check what qualifications and skills you need and get them

Remember those job descriptions you were looking at earlier? You can research them again to find out what skills or experience you need for that position. Tailoring your skills to the career you want couldn’t be easier after this.

Now you have all your skills and qualifications and you know what you want to do! Perfect. All you have left to do is sort out your CV (We can help with that – check out our other article ‘Top Tips for Improving Your CV!’) and its time to start applying and land yourself your dream job!

How to be the Best Candidate for a Job

When you’re applying for a job, the chances are that you’re not going to be the only person applying for that role. Your potential employer is probably going to be interviewing a bunch of people who all want the exact same job that you do. The way to be the best of that bunch is to plan an interview strategy. Luckily for you, we’ve written some advice on things you should think about before you even get into that interview room and what you should do while there.

Before You Get There

Learn about the Company

Whatever role you are applying for, you should research the company before you get to interview. A very common interview question is to ask what you know about the company already – so make sure you know something. It shows your potential employer that you are passionate and serious about the job because you’ve done your homework! A good place to start when looking up the company is their history and what they do. Who set up the company? How long has the company been around? What do they specialise in? If you can, try and look at their future development plans too. This gives you something to bring up when they ask if you have any questions – it ensures the interview is a two-way street and you’ll come across as a really strong candidate.

Prepare Answers in Advance

By thinking about the type of questions that the potential employer is going to ask – you can prepare answers in advance. If you haven’t already, read our article ‘The Top 10 Interview Questions You Should ALWAYS Prepare For!’ and prepare answers for every single one. Don’t memorise your answers word for word– you don’t want to sound too rehearsed – but prepare answers so that you have an idea of what to say for each question. This means that there won’t be any awkward silences when you don’t know what to answer. If a question comes up that you haven’t prepared for – don’t worry. The preparation you’ve done might inspire some answers!

Think About Your Experience & Be Prepared To Give Examples

Everyone knows that in an interview, you’re going to be asked about your past working experiences. So before you go, think about your main skills and what evidence you have to show them. This shows to the potential employer that you’re not just saying you have the skills – you can provide strong evidence of how and when you’ve demonstrated them.

While You’re There

Keep it Concise

When you’re answering questions, keep it straight to the point - you don’t want to waffle too much. By being concise and showing evidence and examples, you’ll come across as professional, organised and experienced. It shows that you’re not lying about your skills and are confident in answering their questions.

Showcase Your Ambition

In your interview, you should illustrate your passion and ambition for the job. Show to the employer that by hiring you, they’re investing in their future. Asking questions about career growth and development opportunities shows them that you’re in it for the long haul and want to start your future there. By doing this, it shows the potential employer that you are genuinely passionate about your career and that you won’t just be a short-term member of staff, which makes you look like a great candidate.

Focus On Your Uniqueness

The interviewer wants to know how you stand out among the other applicants. Therefore, you should focus on qualities that you have that are different to what other people may offer. For example, if you’ve taken a course and are very experienced in Microsoft – explain this to the employer while talking about your skills. This is your chance to show your potential employer why you’re different to everyone else. 

Good luck with your job interview! If you need anymore advice, keep an eye on our blog for more information to help you secure your dream job.