Episode 111: How To Intern Successfully with Robert J. Khoury, Author of How To Intern Successfully: Insights & Actions to Optimize Your Experience
Robert J. Khoury is the co-author of How To Intern Successfully: Insights & Actions to Optimize Your Experience. He is the CEO of Agile Rainmakers, a high-impact business development consulting and advisory firm based in Chicago’s Gold Coast. His 20+year career in the financial industry has seen him in many roles: an equity derivatives trader, portfolio manager, corporate strategist, chief operating officer, recruiter, hedge fund executive, and private equity investor. Rob earned a BSE in Electrical Engineering at Princeton University and his MBA in Finance and International Business from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Rob led personal and professional development seminars for Landmark Worldwide for several years. He is thrilled about bringing dignity to the internship discourse.
What are some things that interns should be prepared for when they start working?
One of the key things is to make sure that you’re optimistic. Outreaching to the current employees to learn more about the company and doing the research are all excellent things to do in advance. One recommendation for interns to do is that they get an internship offer, every 6 to 8 weeks they should ask their manager if they can, learn about what they are going to be doing, and start building that relationship before the intern shows up. In our world today, fresh interns out of college deal with a lot of anxiety, and they have a fear of failure. They do not want to make a mistake and there is just a lot of tension around things. The feedback is very important and it has to be regular. It had got to be delivered in a way that the intern will be excited to get it. That is key as an employer when dealing with an intern. Having the employer put themselves in the intern’s shoes and think about their perspective will go a long way. Being proactive is key. Since the intern is new, they have the freedom to ask and learn and grow, ask for feedback and it will set them to grow.
How to develop the future workforce?
In terms of developing that future workforce, it is actually broken down into 9 principles. They consist of transparency, harmony, empathy, buoyancy, respect, and intentionality. discovery, generosity, and empowerment. Those all spell out “THE BRIDGE”. Thinking from these principles is the best way to design an internship that's exceptional where you are thinking, not only from the intern’s perspective, but you're thinking from these principles as you design it and you keep in your mind that you want to build a relationship with the intern from the interview period so when they come on board, you want to have very good onboarding, have the space ready for them, and make sure they have access to everything they need. Make sure they know who to contact for resources and to have some training too because what is obvious to the employer may not be obvious to the interns. If you start talking acronyms, or you start talking about things that you just assume everyone knows in front of them, they won't know what you're talking about. They might even be a little bit embarrassed to ask. In order to care about them you have to discuss the obvious and be transparent with them about why things look the way they do, and why the work they're doing is important. Another key piece is having projects ready for them.
How interns can start off positively?
When an intern first joins, they are going to be anxious and nervous because they are starting their professional career and want to start it off in the best way possible. Roberts’s books has exercises where the intern can do some self-reflection and review and can take deep breaths and get a presence for themselves. They need to ask what gets them anxious and discover for themselves what they like and what they do not like and where they want to go. Everyone deals with anxiety and everyone has to come up with their own mechanisms to deal with it. This goes for both the interns and anyone in the company regardless of their position. You do not want to have a cure for anxiety but you want to manage it because if you have too little anxiety, you end up complacent and if you have too much then you end up ineffective. You want to have just enough to where you are in action managing it and being productive.
Contact Robert J. Khoury
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertkhoury/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rkhoury_author/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rkhoury_author
Get your copy of How To Intern Successfully: Insights & Actions to Optimize Your Experience: https://www.amazon.com/How-Intern-Successfully-Insights-Experience/dp/1956503005/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3BJYUV5OI7BNY&keywords=How+To+Intern+Successfully%3A+Insights+%26+Actions+to+Optimize+Your+Experience&qid=1681404119&sprefix=how+to+intern+successfully+insights+%26+actions+to+optimize+your+experience%2Caps%2C201&sr=8-1
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