One of the greatest challenges of the GET program is researching and identifying an opportunity at your respective company and ultimately identifying a solution that will save the company money. The challenge that GET interns face is that you need to do this while also maintaining your actual job responsibilities. So how do you manage this? How do you switch your focus from your internship team responsibilities to your job responsibilities while maintaining a low stress level?
The answer is in time management. I make a list weekly or even daily to identify the tasks I need to complete. From there, I can identify the activities that will be necessary to complete those tasks in a timely manner. I always allot three times as much time as I think it will actually take me to complete the task. For instance, if I think a task will take me 1 hour to complete then I will allot 3 hours to complete it. There are too many unforeseen challenges that appear once I start a task so allotting ample time allows me to complete the task without feeling the pressure and stress of not having enough time. The other advantage of time management, for me, is that it frees my mind of worrying about other tasks I need to complete. I have already penciled in a time to complete them so I don't need to worry about when they will get done. Time management is a valuable skill that helps me take a realistic snapshot of what I can accomplish in a day or week. Managing my time effectively helps me to stay focused and keep a low stress level as a GET intern.
As a GET IE Intern, how do you plan to stay focused on the big project? If you’re not a GET IE Intern, what is some advice you would like to provide to those who are?
Josh Burnside is a student at The Ohio State University studying software development in the computer science department. He enjoys building software that takes previously manual tasks and automates them while providing the end user an enjoyable experience. He plans to graduate in a year and find a job building large scale applications.