Transition Tips: How being an intern helped me in my transition to full-time

Written by ls2group

When I first came to LS2group in August, I had a plan to learn and experience as much as I could as a fall semester intern. Fast-forward five months, and I was accepting a full-time position as an account coordinator. I’d like to think that so far, I am successfully transitioning from a part-time intern to a full-time team member. As LS2group has recently hired a number of new staff members, I have been reflecting on my journey from intern to full-time.

Here are some things I’ve done throughout my entire time at LS2group that I feel contributed to my upward progress in the company, and eased my transition process from a part-time to a full-time member of the LS2group team.

Before

I got to know the names of everyone in the office. I sat in a convenient spot for social interaction. I chose my desk because it was in an area staff consistently walked by, which gave me many opportunities to get to know the rest of the team, whether I was working directly with them or not. I continually browsed the company website’s “meet the team” page to put names to the faces I saw each day I was in the office from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

I purposely tried to attend any work parties or social events that my schedule would allow. Through these efforts, I started fostering relationships with my coworkers and fellow interns. I learned about their personal lives and their interests, and they learned about mine. I knew this was an integral part of settling in and melding into my newfound community. This proved important when one of my colleagues came up to me after I returned from a holiday vacation and told me that they had recommended me for a position on the full-time team, if I was interested. Spoiler: I was.

During

The night after I was told about the open position, I went home and assembled an updated resume and cover letter, writing samples, and a letter of recommendation. I had the advantage of knowing who my interviewers were, and I prepared two of everything, personalizing things when needed and sealing them in two separate envelopes. While working alongside team leaders on projects at LS2group, I learned a necessary skill in public relations and public affairs: prepare for everything. This understanding allowed me to walk confidently into the interview and deliver the two envelopes when they asked me for an interview the next day.

After

Many changes have accompanied my transition from part-time intern into full-time account coordinator, both internal and external. Externally, there are more visual and tangible representations of my role in the company. I have a designated workspace, company business cards, and my very own bio on that “meet the team” page I had scrolled through not so long before. I have a more demanding workload and a more detailed to-do list to effectively manage it all. I am not called on to make grocery runs anymore, even though I initially felt the urge to offer my help out of habit. An inevitable, yet unfortunate element of being an intern was that I couldn’t always take as much ownership of projects I was assigned. Now in this new role, I am given more responsibility and more autonomy to take on those responsibilities.

I am now two weeks into my new role and on track to continue realizing the goals I started out with. Even with all the changes, some things remain constant. Fostering relationships with my coworkers is just as important now as it was then and I am still surrounded by purposeful, talented, and connected individuals who are willing to help me when I need it.