With your line manager or supervisor you should set clear objectives at the start of your internship. This will allow you to maximise your learning experience and retain a focus on your long term career goals whilst making sure that you are meeting your hosts expectations of your output during your internship.
Clear objectives enable you to identify and plug skills gaps and fine tune the skills and experiences required to increase your graduate employability.
Keep a record of your progress and reflect on your ongoing experience - this will provide evidence to convince employers of your worth in applications and interviews.
Types of objective
Targets - KPIs, cost reduction, sales, customer satisfaction, H&S, in budget, research related, teaching related
Tasks - to be completed by specific dates
Personal development - including skills/ knowledge and behaviours
Progress - related to new areas of work, improvement and change
Stretch - to maximize potential
Goals vs Objectives?
Knowing where you want to end up is your goal
The steps that you take to get there are your objectives
Objective Setting to Foster Achievement
The purpose of setting an objective is to:
Provide – a clear plan of action to
Establish – the way in which it will be measured in order to
Achieve – strategic goals
Clarify – expectations to
Ensure – alignment between personal and work objectives
SMART Objectives
Specific - written in terms of a clear end result
Ask yourself: "do I understand what I’m supposed to do?"
Measurable - easy to assess when they have been achieved
Ask yourself: "how will I know and be able to show my manager that I have achieved it?"
Achievable - aligned, jointly agreed by the reviewer and reviewee
Ask yourself: "do I have the resources, training and time to achieve this?"
Realistic - attainable, sustainable, challenging
Ask yourself: "can it be done, and will I be able to do it?"
Time-bound - with a deadline
Ask yourself: "when will this need to be done by, and why?"
Examples of SMART Objectives
Task Objectives
By the end of week three, to have produced a benchmarking report of no more than 2000 words summarising the sector/market landscape as it pertains to the host organisation.
Behaviour Objectives
By the end of week two, to have three examples of when you resolved an issue by creating a solution yourself, then sense-checking it with a colleague.