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planning your leave
1. General Advice 2. Before You Leave 3. Before and During Your Time Off 4. When You Return to Campus > before and during your time off
1. Set Goals For Your Experience 2. Getting Started At Your Place of Work 3. The Basics 4. Day In and Day Out 5. Wrapping Up 1. set goals for your experience Put Pen to Paper Whether your are doing an internship, traveling, living at home or volunteering, writing out your goals for your time off makes it easier to clearly articulate them, and you can refer to them later on as you assess and re-assess your leavetaking experience. Some questions you might want to try and answer: • Why have I decided to take time off and do what I am doing now? • What is it that I want to get out of this experience? • What are some potential barriers for meeting my goals? Is there anything that I can do to deal with these potential barriers? • What do I hope to accomplish during my time off before going back to school? Keep a Journal / Portfolio Keeping a journal (a place to record your written thoughts) and / or a portfolio (a place to visually document your experiences) can help you revisit and reassess your goals and highlight your achievements. Leavetaker Miyo Tubridy recommends "The Artist’s Way," by Julia Cameron, a great book for reflecting on your past, present and future to help with getting back in touch with your creativity. Check out the book’s web site: www.artistswayatwork.com/index.html Participate in pauseforum.org pauseforum.org is an online space for you to reflect on and share your experiences. This can be invaluable for synthesizing what you learn during your time away and connecting you to other student leavetakers. Plan Ahead • Have you thought about what support systems you need during your time off? In other words, if you do not have family / friends in the area you are moving to, what kinds of supports / services might you need? (For example, internet access, health care provider, etc.) • What are some ways that you can establish a sense of place and community wherever you go? (For example, if you are an avid cyclist, is there a cycling group that you can join? If you are committed to mentoring at-risk youth, is there an organization that you can volunteer with?) • Do you want to bring a journal? Portfolio? Camera? • Do you have the telephone numbers and email addresses of all the people you want to stay connected with? (back to top) Have a conversation with your supervisor about their expectations and your goals. You might want to draw up a "learning contract." A learning contract is not as restricting as it sounds – it can simply be a list of your goals and your supervisors goals at the outset of your internship experience. (back to top) Be Punctual Although you may not consider being five minutes late every day a serious problem, employers often view punctuality as a litmus test. Being late can be a sign to your supervisor or co-workers that you are not taking the job seriously. Be Focused Pay attention and quickly become familiar with your surroundings. Be aware of expectations within the scope of your job responsibilities. If you are ever left without assignments, you should take the initiative to find appropriate projects and tasks to undertake. It also helps to organize your to-do list daily in order of importance – "prioritizing" in office parlance. Don’t necessarily wait for your supervisor to do this for you, but check in with your supervisor regularly to make certain you are both on the same page. Be Positive Hey, everyone has bad days, but you should strive to stay focused and professional. Try your very best not to let office politics or your personal life inhibit and interfere with your work. It helps to set goals big and small for yourself to help you pace yourself at work, and be sure to recognize your accomplishments along the way. Be Responsible If something goes wrong and you’re responsible, take responsibility for it. Your employer will more often than not appreciate that you did so, and you and your supervisor can then discuss ways to ensure that a similar mistake isn’t made in the future. Be Respectful Reserve your judgment of others regardless of your skills and abilities – no one appreciates being undermined and feeling threatened. In fact, it’s likely that you may not fully understand a given situation if you are a temporary employee. Don’t be judgmental if your employer does not have the skills you have – you were probably hired because of them! (back to top) Be Flexible While you were hired to fulfill certain responsibilities and you had certain expectations on the outset, remember that staying flexible is very key to making your experience worthwhile. Often times you may be called away from your own work to help the office complete another project that is more of an immediate priority. Your ability and cooperation in adapting to changing situations will be appreciated. Communicate, communicate! After you and your supervisor have agreed on the work you will be doing, make sure that you have regular check-ins throughout the internship to get feedback and give your input about the work that you are doing. Try not to settle for only positive feedback. Some constructive criticism once in a while is likely to do you lots of good. Your openness and willingness to try new things will bode well for you. (back to top) Help your employer by making the transition to the new person easier. Organize your paper and computer files, train the new person if s/he has been hired, leave notes for your supervisor. Reflect on your experience. Some questions to ask yourself: • What knowledge areas and skills have you learned? • What new things have you learned about yourself and the workplace / living abroad, etc.? • What would you like to have done differently? • Has this experience met the goals you set at the beginning? • How has this experience fit into your overall goals (academic, personal, career, etc.) as you prepare for returning to school? Keep copies of your work For example – sample reports that you helped write, invitations or flyers of events you coordinated, pictures of places that you worked at, etc. Even if you did not create a portfolio of your experience, having these documents might help you with a future academic project, an interview of a future job, etc. Stay connected for the future When you leave, ask your new colleagues if you may contact them for a job reference, advice about the field, etc. >> Go on to: When You Return to Campus (back to top) |
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