Intern Hunting Advice

[SCass2010]

Hi everyone,

Not sure if this is the right place to post this so sorry in advance if I'm lost!!

I have recently secured a placement / intern at a IT company as part of my university course. I also have a profile on LinkedIn, and I've noticed since I accepted the offer some of the development managers/engineers have been viewing my profile.

Now I know that they said once I accepted the offer, they would sort out what department or team I would be working on and get back to me, so I'm guessing that the people viewing my profile are either looking at it too see if I would fit or not, but would anyone else think it's a good idea to try and contact the people viewing my profile through LinkedIn (not to ask am I going to their team, just a simple "Hi"), or should I wait until I hear back?

Many thanks in advance for any advice :)

[abelLazm]

:) most probably you are getting wrong about your profile visitors and in my opinion if you think they are from hiring organization than simply ignore them unless they want to talk to you themselves and this must be your own decision whom to talk to no one can suggest you anything :)

[SCass2010]

Yeah I know, I was just wondering since the LinkedIn/Facebook thing is sort of new lol... well the people who have been on mine are showing as being development managers, and it was only a week or so after I accepted so I guessed maybe these are the guys I'll be working with and they wanted to find out a bit :P

[BitBlt]

I have found that the best place/time for Intern hunting is near the coffee machine, early in the morning. With the fog rising off the keyboard and the sun just coming through the window, you can sneak right up on them before they wake. They look so cute with their heads tucked under their little wings, you almost hate to shoot them.

:D

Oh, and congratulations on getting your internship!

[SCass2010]

Well I did get a chuckle out of that last comment :P

Reason I was asking is unfortunately I will be missing most of the induction and training as I have holidays booked over this period, so I was wondering if it was a good idea to get in touch with someone and see if there was anything I could do to catch up/read up on before I start so I won't be completely lost lol

[BitBlt]

Well, since nobody seems to be stepping up to the plate, I'll have a whack at this. Seriously, not flippantly, like my previous post.

As an intern, the whole point of you being there is to get some real-life experience in working as a professional with a group of other professionals. If you are missing the basics at the beginning, you will be starting off at a huge disadvantage. Therefore, it is very advisable that you contact someone ASAP and ask them what you should do. Responses could be anywhere from "Oh, don't worry about it...we'll catch you up when you get here." to "Well if you knew you weren't going to be able to satisfy the terms of the internship, why did you take it in the first place?".

The single most important thing you can do is COMMUNICATE with these people and let THEM decide what you should do. If nothing else, it will impress them that you cared enough to find out in advance.

[SCass2010]

Yeah I had mentioned in the interview about when I had needed the time off - it was a pre-booked thing that was arranged ages ago, and they seemed to be ok about it - said that I'd need to do some catching up when I start but there would be chances to do that during the first few months, and I'd be able to get help from co-workers and what not

Gonna give them a call soon and see if there's anything but (like if they can give me the training material to look over in my own time)