by Lea Alilovic, posted 19 October 2015
Welcome to your first day at your history internship! After tirelessly applying to multiple historical organizations, one has finally picked you and now it’s your time to shine and get some real life experience. As a someone that knows the struggle all too well, I have compiled a list of necessary things to keep in mind in order to dress, look, and play the part of a history intern.
1. Befriend Coffee as if You Were a Gilmore Girl
This is probably your first 9-5 experience, and waking up at 6 a.m. to get to your workplace after staying up until 2 am the night before to finish a paper is, probably no walk in the park. Coffee will be essential in transforming you into a normal, friendly, and hardworking person despite the 4 hours of sleep you had the night before. Plus, buying coffee for your new supervisor and colleagues in the office can be a great opportunity to get to know others and allow others to get to know you.
2. Mastering the Art of the Trouser
University has required very little of you when it comes to what you wear and how you present yourself in lectures. On your first day of your internship you will have to face the fact that those Adidas sweatpants you have worn to every single HIS101 tutorial are no longer appropriate. Let me introduce you to trousers, they range in styles, fit, and cuts. Owning a pair will take you from looking like a stressed student to a young professional. Moreover, having a pair of clean, fitted trousers will give the impression that you actually care about your appearance, which in turn might give you a little bit of respect in the process.
3. Say “Yes”… to Helping
One piece of advice I have received during my intern experience thus far has been to stay open to doing new things, in the real world it may be more beneficial to know how to do a little bit of everything than being an expert at only one thing. So, when that one person in the office who always asks if you’re doing anything important stops by, always stay open to helping them. Experience like learning how to mail merge, taking notes during meetings, or creating slideshows for an awards night might not seem extremely beneficial to becoming a historian, but these tidbits of experience will make you more confident and knowledgeable in the future. Next time someone asks you if you know how to send individual letters to hundreds of people, you will be able to say, “Why yes, yes I can!”, and internally think: “Thank you ______, for making me do it that one time”.
4. Keep Ya Head Up
As the poet Tupac Amaru Shakur once said, “girl, keep your head up”. While Tupac was referencing a much different context, at times in your internship it too will be difficult to stay motivated and continue. You will have long days of researching and going through archives in order to find some sort of information that is relevant or at all useful to your project. At these points, short breaks for more coffee and online shopping for new trousers might help. Nonetheless maintaining interest during these long droughts could even test the effectiveness of these great tips. Staying motivated will require you to take a short break or two, but more importantly you will need to remind yourself of your end goal and why your work as a historian is important. Sometimes it is difficult to conceptualize that your work is important and could potentially mean something to someone out there, so putting your goals down on paper and reminding yourself of the significance they carry may help you work through it.
History internships aren’t very different from other internships or work experiences (or so I think). All jobs require a lot of learning, patience, and determination to turn the opportunity into a worthwhile experience. Hopefully this list of tips can help orient or reorient yourself into your new role and help you have a fulfilling placement.