Starting Work
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Summer Check-in
July 09, 2007
For most summer associates and interns, this week marks the mid-point of your summer adventure. It’s an ideal time for you to stop and take stock of what you have learned, who you have met and what professional goals you have yet to accomplish. It’s also a great time to seek out feedback from the professionals with whom you have worked.
Summer associates and interns should start preparing for your eventual departure, which will occur in just about a month. Make sure you have set aside sufficient time to complete all assignments in a timely manner. Be prepared to hand-off files and other work to more senior members of the organization in a manner that ensures they can run with the material upon receipt.
For the businesses and firms employing these associates and interns, it is absolutely critical that you spend some time this week encouraging your senior professionals to focus on feedback. A large number of studies indicate that the generation entering today’s workplace wants feedback, and they want lots of it. While providing feedback requires your professionals to invest time and energy, the return on that investment can be huge, both in terms of productivity and retention.
When providing feedback, encourage your professionals to be as specific as possible. To the extent your senior professionals are able to address specific goals the summer associate or intern set, the extent to which that goal was or was not met, why or why not, and the next goal that should follow, your professionals may well significantly help improve long-term performance.
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