Summer internship checklist for business students

Before you start, do a little preparation. Read about the company: what it sells, to whom, and how it makes money. Look at the function you will sit in, and think about two or three questions for your manager. Find out what paperwork your college and the company need, such as a joining letter, a daily log or a supervisor's report, and who signs each. Ask what you may and may not say publicly about the work.

In the first week, agree the scope. This is the single most useful thing you can do. Ask your manager what a successful internship looks like, and then write a half-page note: the question you are working on, what you will deliver, by when, and who you will ask for data and approvals. Send it to your manager and ask them to correct it. Many internships are vague, sometimes by accident. A written scope turns a vague internship into a project, and it gives you something to point to if you are given errands instead of work. Also find out who the people around you are, how the team communicates, which tools it uses, and what hours it keeps.

Set up a weekly rhythm. Each week, send a short update with three headings: what you finished, what you will do next, and what is stopping you. Keep it to a few lines. This helps your manager to see your progress, and it makes it easy to ask for help. When you are stuck, try first, then ask a specific question and say what you have tried. If something is going to be late, say so early. Bad news is much easier to handle on Monday than on the day of the deadline.

Keep a log from the first day. Each day, write two or three lines: what you did, what you used, what you learned and who helped. It will take five minutes. Without it, two months later you will not remember the details, and you will end up describing the work in vague terms. With it, you can describe a project accurately, including the problem, your part and the outcome. Keep it in a form you are allowed to keep, and leave out anything confidential.

In the middle of the internship, check your work carefully. Check numbers against their sources, make sure your formulas do what you think they do, and ask someone to look at a draft before you send it to a senior. If you use an AI tool, use it only if the company permits it, never put confidential or personal information into a tool the company has not approved, and check everything it produces, because it can be wrong with confidence. Ask your manager for feedback now, not at the end, while you still have time to act on it. Ask what one thing would most improve your work.

Try also to see beyond your task. If it is allowed, ask to sit in on a meeting or a customer call. Speak to two or three people in other roles and ask how their work connects to yours. Try to understand where your project fits into revenue, cost or service. This is where students learn how a business actually works, and it gives you better answers in interviews.

Prepare your final presentation or report with care. Start by answering the question you were asked, in the first slide. Give three findings and a recommendation, with numbers and their sources. Practise with a colleague and ask what a senior would ask. Keep the report factual, and do not inflate the result. If your analysis was limited by the data you could get, say so. A clear statement of limits makes your work more credible.

In the last week, do the things that matter after you leave. Ask your manager for feedback, and for honest advice on what would make you employable in this function. Ask whether they would be willing to act as a reference, and agree what they would say. If you would like a full-time role, ask honestly whether there is one and what it would take, and accept the answer. Thank the people who helped you, in writing.

After the internship, write up the work while you remember it. Turn your log into three or four lines for your resume: the problem or question, what you did, which tools you used and what came of it. Add a result only if you can explain how you reached it. Practise a two-minute spoken version, since you will be asked about it. Check with the company before you put its name, data or documents on LinkedIn or in a portfolio. Keep in touch with your manager every few months, with a short, useful message.

And if the internship was poor, say honestly what you learned from it. Making tea for six weeks is not evidence of a project, and nobody should invent one. You can still describe what you saw about how the company ran, what you learned about what you do not want, and what you did with the time. That is a truthful answer, and it is a better one than an exaggeration that falls apart at the second question.