Many university students are eager to gain real-life work experience through doing an internship. The CLASS Student Chapter organised its debut event, “Internship 101”, which consisted of two workshops held on 9 and 24 June 2021. CityU alumni Josh LI and Julianne Nicole DIONISIO were invited as guest speakers to share their professional and personal experiences, and provide practical advice and suggestions to help students prepare for and benefit from internships. 

Li stressed the importance for students to understand their working styles, skill sets, motivations and values in career planning. Mentioning that new ways of working had emerged after the COVID-19 pandemic, he advised students to develop new digital skills and improve their adaptability, flexibility and resilience at work. He encouraged students to build their portfolios by developing essential soft skills for workplace success, including collaboration, problem-solving and attention to detail. It would also be useful for students to equip themselves to be generalists with divergent skills and the capability of taking up multiple roles in the workplace.     

Dionisio encouraged students to start internships early to seize more opportunities to try out different possibilities and see what suits them most. Students should take internships seriously and strive to outperform the expectations of their employers. As interns, they should not pretend that they know everything but be honest and seek to clarify and communicate with others, even the supervisors, when needed. Looking for a mentor who can offer guidance and support in the workplace and learn to network and build a good relationship with others would be helpful. In addition, Dionisio strongly advised students to keep a journal or log to record their experiences during internships. The journal could become a valuable tool for career planning. 

Participating students found the workshops insightful and inspiring. “I learnt a lot from the workshops,” said Agatha LEE, Year 3 student majoring in Linguistics and Language Applications. “The speakers offered valuable resources which help me understand my passion, purpose in career and working style more clearly. These have boosted my confidence in seeking internships.”  

“I realised that building good work relationships and developing people skills are important. As interns, we should not be afraid to ask questions or seek explanations on things we don’t know. We should also be open-minded to accept others’ opinions or even criticisms, and do our best to accomplish the tasks at hand,” said Timothy NG, Year 2 student at the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences. He was thankful to the speakers who had shared practical and specific suggestions to help students make the most out of internships.

The CLASS Student Chapter will continue to organise different activities for students to connect and learn together.  

Cover photo: Vice-President for Student Affairs Professor Raymond CHAN (5th from the left), Dean of CLASS Professor Richard M WALKER(4th from the left), and Associate Dean (Undergraduate Education and Quality Assurance) Professor Hon S CHAN (3rd from the left) took a picture with “Internship 101” workshop guest speaker Josh LI (5th from the right) and the participating students.