Final Internship Presentation, Valdrin Riyot: 30 July 2024

 

Today was the student intern project presentation our UTP Intern, Valdrin Riyot.

I love attending our interns' final presentations. Like a proud father, this Feels like a culmination of seeing the seeds that you've planted in these young engineers, as they share insights of what they've been enlightened with in the past few months being with your team, as their very first formal exposure to the industry. (UTP interns are particularly satisfying to supervise, as they have the longest internship period of 7 months 🔥)

I've always been passionate about developing interns. For us employees, this period of internship having them around might just seemed like “a brief period in which we had some helping hands” that comes and goes – but from their perspective, this is their first-ever exposure to the professional working world; and in the context of our organization, this was their firsthand exposure window to witnessing the inner workings of a Fortune 500-listed Oil and Gas Company.

As a supervisor, we play that role of ambassador. This experience might either (a) inspire them and motivate them, kindling the fire inside to pursue their professional career ambitions; or (b) give them such a negative impression that it will demotivate them, perhaps jaded and all the more relieved it was over, dreading the days of employment to come.

Here are some guiding principles I keep in mind when supervising interns:

1. Growth mindset: believe in them, and in their capacity to grow and improve

2. Assign challenging (but doable) tasks

While there is tendency to take the easier path and dispatch interns to carry out trivial fetch quests and photocopy tasks, we should put serious thought as to the best type of tasks I could assign. The tasks had to be
Challenging enough, but do-able for them.

3. Coach and guide – without holding their hand

With the challenges and targets in place, it’s time to establish the learning path to getting there. A lot of concepts and principles will be alien to them, and even theories which they are familiar with, require a paradigm shift and wisdom to understand how they are applied in the practical, real world. And part of the learning process is to go through that journey, without being completely abandoned or clueless.

As supervisors, we need to find that middle ground: give them just enough guidance to progress forward and discover the solutions, without spoonfeeding solutions.

4.  A great working experience. Be inclusive, and Let them experience the holistic experience of a great place to work

Wishing all the best for Riyot!