We have been told from a young age that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It reduces one’s chances of becoming obese, developing diabetes, and suffering from a heart attack. In addition, eating breakfast can help one perform better at school or work, enhance one’s attention span, and keep one energized throughout the day. Breakfast’s importance in terms of one’s health has been proven; however, to an intern, breakfast’s significance drops down a notch in the mealtime hierarchy.
To an intern, the most beneficial meal is lunch. If you are interning in a large company or corporation, it is going to be hard to stand out and be recognized. A great way to establish your presence amongst the masses of other interns is to take advantage of the lunch hour. Instead of wasting the hour by checking Facebook and Twitter on your smartphone, talking with your boyfriend/girlfriend, checking in with your parents, going on personal errands, or making plans with friends for later, use your lunch hour to get to know the company you work for and fellow employees from the other interns to the company’s SVP.
Here’s a schedule to help you plan your lunch hour, stand out amongst the other interns, and get the most value out of your internship experience:
Monday: Have a working lunch. Come back from the weekend and hit the ground running. Use the time to catch up on e-mails and other tasks, and to get a jump start on your tasks for that week. During the lunch hour make sure to take 15 minutes to stop working and make some short term goals for the week, and assess your progress on some of your longer termed goals.
Tuesday: Schedule a lunch with the other interns from your department. Either in a group or one on one, it is important to get to know your fellow interns. Go out to eat or agree to pack lunches and meet in a nearby park or empty conference room. Use the time to share stories, grievances, knowledge, and future aspirations. Make friends with them and keep in touch, they can be valuable assets both now and in the future when you enter the corporate world.
Wednesday: Alternate each Wednesday by eating lunch with your boss/direct supervisor and with someone from the company’s upper management. These people are going to be very busy, and convincing them to take thirty minutes out of their day to eat with a lowly intern will be a challenge in itself. However, the benefits you will receive by scheduling these lunches will help you become a better intern while proving your professionalism and boosting your confidence. While out to lunch with your direct supervisor/boss, take the time to get to know them informally and find out what important projects they are working on currently. If you are bold enough, offer your help on the project in addition to your other tasks. If nothing comes of it, you at least have a conversation starter for the next time you go out to lunch, where you can follow-up and ask how the project turned out.
Scheduling lunch with a member of upper management likely will be extremely difficult. If he/she says no, use their secretaries to your benefit. Start by taking the secretary out for lunch and get to know them and learn more about what they do for the company. If you get in their good graces then they can help find the time in the VP/CEO/partner/other upper management level title’s schedule. When you finally get to lunch, use their time most effectively. Do your research ahead of time and try to understand their position in the company as best you can. Ask them how they got to where they are now. Be sincere and engage in the conversation, ask intelligent questions relating to their personal stance on a particular trend within the industry or if they could go more in depth on his or her role on something the company is currently working on, etc.
Thursday: Have lunch with people from outside of your department. Try to go through each/as many departments as you can in a set of three weeks. The first Thursday eat lunch with an intern or two from one department. The next Thursday eat lunch with a regular employee in the same department. The third Thursday eat lunch with the manager/supervisor of that department. Repeat for each department. Use the people you already know (i.e. your boss, and other employees and interns in your department) to recommend who you should meet with in other departments.
Friday: Schedule lunch with an employee in your department. Start with the person who has been there the shortest amount of time to the person who has been in the department or with the company for the longest amount of time. From the newer people find out how they adjusted, what they were doing before this job and what they are working on currently. From the employees that have been there for a longer time find out how they got there, how things have changed over the years what they are working on, etc.
How do you spend your lunch hour?
