Internship Tips: 12 Ways to Stand Out

We've each completed three internships during our 4 year computer science degree, including two as Software Engineer interns together at big tech where we now work full-time today.

If you're reading this, you're probably looking for ways to make the most of an internship. Some resources suggest that there are formulas which must be followed for success, but we tend to disagree. Everyone's path is unique, and success looks different for each person.

There's also no shortage of "technical" advice that could be given. All of it has its own time and place. This blog isn't one of them. Instead, we'll discuss flexible ways to help you stand out, no matter what kind of internship you’re in. These aren't facts, they're only opinions which we observed as having a positive impact. Feel free to disagree!

Success in an internship (or even at many junior levels) isn't judged heavily on technical ability alone. It's frequently more of an exploration into you, your ability to solve problems, react to challenges and work effectively with others.

Many of these tips may seem like common sense to you, and if they do, that's fantastic (and don't worry if not). Doing these basics consistently and well brings big benefits.

Combined, we've seen many interns and people early in their careers joining, thriving, and sometimes struggling, ourselves included. The advice and lessons here are from both sides of that experience.

Here are 12 tips that helped us on our own internship journeys and just might help you on yours.

1. Set Internship Goals with Managers

Early on in your internship, go out of your way to set clear goals and expectations with your manager, intern manager, or onboarding buddy. If this isn't already mentioned or provided for you, take the initiative, book a meeting, and set an action plan together for either a part of or your entire internship.

Drafting a plan with goals, stretch goals, key metrics, and deliverables early on will reduce your stress, make your work more clear, and help you to demonstrate your impact and success.

We don't believe these should be set in stone and in fact, we recommend revisiting them with your managers at different checkpoints during the internship, or if you're ever feeling unclear or without a solid direction.

Some internships may have this built in; others require you to proactively approach your manager and organize time to have these discussions. It may seem difficult in the moment, but the return on investment is worth it.

To illustrate, let's take two situations: person A and B, who we'll refer to as Alice and Bob.

Alice:

• Never set clear goals, expectations, or deliverables.
• Did solid technical work but consistently struggled to find the right direction and know if they were on the right path.
• Had poor visibility with leadership on what they were doing.

Bob:

• Reached out to their manager and set clear goals, expectations, and deliverables, and revisited them regularly.
• Always knew what "on track" looked like at every checkpoint.
• Kept their manager in the loop with progress updates and course corrections when needed.
• Measured their impact against agreed-upon metrics (e.g. features shipped, test coverage, bugs resolved).

Can you see the difference? Let's say both did great from a technical perspective – but who do you think had a harder time? Alice's lack of a plan led to stress, confusion, and wasted time. Their success wasn’t as visible and therefore was more difficult to reward. Bob consistently had a clear path, focusing on the most impactful work for their team, measurable wins, and lots of great visibility.

2. Be a Detective

Success will often (maybe even always) require investigation, research, and communication – not going straight into completing a task.

To give you an example, we once had to solve a problem for which a solution did not yet exist anywhere at Microsoft. We figured this out after several days of experiments and lots of reading. It wasn't something any one person could solve alone.

At the time, this felt scary. But this can actually be a very normal experience in any job or internship, so if you're ever in the same boat, don't worry!

We put on a detective hat. From our list of research and experiments, we started collecting a list of people we might talk to based on blogs, articles, Stack Overflow questions, and other repositories of interest.

From that list of "leads", we contacted each person politely, explaining the situation and the question.

Eventually, we reached the perfect person who kindly pointed us toward a beta version of a library that had only been released 3 days prior – solving the exact issue we were facing.

That goes to show, absolutely nothing is impossible… if you face your tasks like a detective: researching, experimenting, communicating, asking questions, and pursuing leads.

3. Communication is Key

You're not expected to know everything. That's why communication matters so much and you'll clearly see communication as a key underlying element through all of our tips.

Questions are very important, but you might also try to improve how you ask them. It's easy to just say things like "How do I do this?", but you could also try to share your current ideas, what you've already tried, and be more precise with your questions (which will typically only come after some research). Sometimes those more basic questions are necessary too.

You may also be tempted to send questions very frequently, and in many cases that can be completely fine, but in others, it may be more appropriate and effective to build up a list of questions and send or discuss them all at once.

Share your progress and blockers regularly and clearly with your manager, mentor, and teammates. Visibility matters more than you think. If you're aware of the work of your teammates, and they're aware of yours, that's not only more productive in terms of collaboration but it makes it easier for everyone to support each other.

Ask for feedback and constructive criticism as often as you can. Take time to reflect on it and work on areas where you can improve. Even communication itself is something great to actively discuss and get feedback on.

Communication isn't just speaking and that's something all of us need to remember at times. It's listening well, paying attention in meetings, taking note of others preferred communication styles.

4. Make the Most of Your Time

3 / 6 / 9 months fly by. If you're reading this during or after an internship, you know what we mean. We strongly believe that for all internships, you get out of them what you put into them, that's why we recommend you try to be intentional with how you use your time from day one in your internship.

Try to hit the ground running and ramp up quickly. Actively going out of your way to speak and listen to others and absorbing their advice, knowledge, and feedback can make a big difference. Focusing on learning, especially early, will make you much more effective as you face larger challenges.

Be deliberate about your priorities and how you approach your work. For example, one way could be to prioritize your tasks, and tackle the most unclear/unknown and then difficult parts first (of course consult your team to check alignment on your plan and categorization of work).

Another strategy could be, when working on a task, you'll likely hit a point where you're blocked by some external factor: slow PR reviews, long pipelines, timezone differences, etc. (If this never happens – great, keep going.)

• Once you've taken a task as far as you can, kick off whatever process leads to it eventually being unblocked (send that email, ask for that review), and then, start a lower-priority task in the meantime.
• Be careful not to juggle too many things. The goal is to work efficiently, not frantically. Protect your time, your teammates, and your wellbeing.

None of this is about over committing yourself or pushing yourself too much. It's about intentionally trying to stay productive and balanced with your time at the internship. Your time is an investment, so consider where you bank it.

5. Be Proactive

Proactive interns stand out. Communicate early and often (but be polite and reasonable). It's better to overcommunicate than undercommunicate – and this is a big part of being proactive.

Never sit around waiting to be told what you can (and even can’t) do! Remember: make the most of your time!

Take notice of any problems around you, and demonstrate initiative by proposing solutions. These can be technical, process-related, communication-related, anything.

• Speak up! and early!
• Don't wait for the perfect project or tasks, ask / look around, and propose your own.
• If you see things which can be fixed or improved, suggest / show!
• Offer out your help when you have additional time or see an area you could contribute to.

Even small things you do to be proactive make a difference and get noticed.

6. Try to Come to the Office

Have you ever played an RPG? Some RPGs have a "Luck" modifier that increases your chances of good things happening or of finding the best loot. This tip and the next are both about maximizing that modifier in your favour.

This isn’t a statement about whether remote, hybrid, or in-person work is best. We just believe there's a lot of value and return on investment from showing up to the office as an intern, where and when you can.

In the office, you’ll have more chances to meet people and learn new things, often completely at random. And that’s not even mentioning the obvious benefits around faster communication and collaboration.

If this isn't possible for you (or if everyone else is fully remote), create or investigate a system for doing this remotely. Some random ideas would be to just send purely social messages at lunch time or some funny pictures of your cat. Remember: everyone you're working with is a person too.

7. Be Curious About Others

Try to learn about other teams and the work going on. Passing someone in the office? Say hello. At the coffee machine? You get the point.

If your colleagues are remote or hybrid, don’t be shy! Send them a polite ping at an appropriate hour – “Hey, I’d love to chat and get to know more about you and your work.”

Internships are short and anyone you meet could provide you with a useful piece of advice, become a great mentor or even a friend. You may end up not returning to your current immediate team, so it's important to widen your circle.

If you walk away from an internship having not made any meaningful connections, that's not a good sign. Internships aren't just about doing tasks effectively, try to grow a network which lasts.

8. Be Hungry (for Knowledge)

Learn as much as you can. Use every company resource available to you. Sometimes the best learning happens through chatting with colleagues, and other times it's through courses, books, or online platforms like O’Reilly, Udemy and similar (which your workplace may provide access to), YouTube, and Google.

You don’t have to limit learning to what's immediately required for your tasks. Again, being a proactive learner has awesome benefits. Nobody knows the unknown unknowns or what problems will come later on down the line. Don't make learning an afterthought, take the time to pursue it actively.

A major goal of your internship should be to absorb as much knowledge as possible. This benefits both your employer and yourself. If done well, it means you can return as a full-time employee already onboarded and ready to provide value. That’s a huge advantage. More so than that, at a personal level, knowledge empowers us beyond any particular job and helps us to be effective across a wider range.

9. Take Notes and Make Documents

Actively keep a detailed log of all your meetings, tasks, and work.

Think of it like this; you're a detective, and your internship (or project) is the case. A good detective doesn't rely on memory alone, they keep organized notes, build case files, track leads, and document their outcomes. It might sound silly or dramatic, but it tends to hold true. Clear records are a real strength.

Okay, we may have watched too many detective TV shows… but you get the point!

Note taking helps reduce your mental load, keeps you focused, and enables you to advocate for yourself by clearly demonstrating your impact and growth during the internship. It also makes you more effective during 1:1s, check-ins and even helps you collaborate effectively.

Use whatever system or tools work best for you. You don't need to write essays, just enough so that future you (or your managers/teammates) can glance through and understand what you were working on, what problems you had, and why they mattered.

10. Ask the Why’s – and Why Nots

As an intern, you bring fresh perspective. Use it. However, this advice tends to hold true at all levels.

• Ask why things are done a certain way.
• Ask why not try something different.
• Share your perspective respectfully, especially when something doesn’t make sense to you.

Sometimes, the most useful questions are the "why's" nobody had the courage to ask. Many times when you do ask that question, even if you thought it terribly silly in the moment, you'll be surprised at how many others were thinking the same thing and were grateful you spoke up.

Asking these questions help you develop context and understand the greater vision to a team or a project, which in turn allows you to become a more effective contributor. Better yet, sometimes they even uncover when that vision starts to blur at a larger level.

11. Embrace Challenges and Be Ambitious

It should be normal for your goals during an internship to be challenging and (at least somewhat) ambitious.

Your projects should be at least slightly beyond your current ability, and it should be normal to have to seek help (in some form or another) along the way. Your main goal during this time is to learn. If there's no risk of failing, there's a much lower chance of learning too.

If you find that there are no challenges being provided to you, speak up. If they don't exist, be a proactive detective and try to find them. This is why check-ins are important and why plans can change. And if a plan just isn't physically feasible given your time, say that too.

We'll leave you with a recent quote getting some attention, attributed to Alex Hormozi: "The worse the monsters, the more epic the story. You either get an epic outcome or an epic story. Both mean you win."

12. Don’t Be Afraid

It's normal to feel nervous at times. Everyone does. This is the best and most accepted time for you to be wrong and make mistakes. In fact, at a good company with a strong growth culture, this can be true at many levels.

It’s easy to get bogged down by fear and thoughts like: “Oh no, what if this happens?” or “What if I seem silly?” But the worst way to look is disengaged, uninterested or low on confidence, which is how you might seem if you stay quiet too often. It's also very easy to let fear and over-analysis slow you down and stop you from getting momentum in your day to day.

Of course assess risks, but eventually, you have to become comfortable with making mistakes and failing in order to grow and learn. Adversity and challenge can hurt in the moment, but the growth you experience is great.

Reach out and ask questions when you need to. Don’t feel like a nuisance, nobody expects you to know everything. In any even decent work environment, your teammates and colleagues are there to help you. Remember, you're not trying to look smart. To use a quote attributed to Satya Nadella: "Don't be a know-it-all, be a learn it all".

Everyone at any level has these fears. But it’s your job as an intern to make mistakes, grow, test the waters and try out new things. That’s the fastest way to learn and become a great contributor.

BONUS: Have Fun

Take part in any morale events, team gatherings, or intern events happening. If your company doesn’t organize any, who’s to say you can’t?

Some of the best connections we've made were just from having fun playing games with colleagues during our internships. People matter most and they are more than just employees for an office or members of a team. It's important to remember that.

In Summary

Internships aren't about being perfect, they're about being curious, proactive and open to growth. These tips aren't a checklist, but habits we recommend trying out. In fact, some of these are reminders to ourselves and things we're trying to improve.

Try to think beyond your internship or job. Put your experience into a bigger picture and reflect honestly. It's completely okay if things don't go perfectly or you hit major challenges. If you honestly learn and grow, that's the best.

If you set clear goals, ask thoughtful questions, or boldly embrace the unknown like a detective, any of these things you consciously do will serve you long beyond any job.

This is your time to get out of your comfort zone and put yourself out there. We really believe that you'll get so much out of this time in your life and that you'll look back on it being really grateful, even if it sometimes feels tough in the moment.

We sincerely hope you enjoy your internship. It’s a great opportunity to gain valuable knowledge, experience, and make lasting connections.

So learn boldly, communicate often, don't be afraid to fail, and enjoy every part of the ride.

We hope this helped, good luck and try to have some fun out there.

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