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Reflecting about your experience

Internship central  >  Reflecting about your experience

Reflections and learning from an internship experience

In experiential learning and internships, the real learning comes

after the work term when you have an opportunity to think about
what you saw and experienced.  Reflecting back about the
experience is a key to learning and it is definitely not a new idea.  In fact, a famous lesson from
Confucius around 450 B.C. illuminates the importance of active engagement and real time
experiences in learning:

“TELL ME, AND I WILL FORGET.

SHOW ME, AND I MAY REMEMBER.
INVOLVE ME, AND I WILL UNDERSTAND.”

It is through reflecting about the actions at work and the concrete experiences that will lead you
to recognizing that the experience has forged a new way of thinking about the classroom theory. 
An abstract concept worked through in a real situation, as an immediate need, will change the
participants.

Below is a diagram of how one contemporary experiential learning theorist, David Kolb, explains
how interns learn from experience. Kolb's experiential learning style theory is typically
represented by a four stage learning cycle in which the learner 'touches all the bases':
[Source: Simply Psychology.org]

Concrete Experience 
A new experience or situation, or a reinterpretation of
existing experience,
is encountered.
Reflective Observation of the new experience. Of
particular importance are any inconsistencies between
experience and understanding.
 Abstract Conceptualization 
Reflection gives rise to a new idea, or to a modification of an existing abstract concept.
Active Experimentation 
The learner applies new ideas to the world around them to see what results.

Importance of a mentor or faculty guide to the reflection

Your reflection process is best led by a workplace guide such as a supervisor, mentor, or a faculty
member after the experience.  This post-experience reflection with a guide gives you another
voice that can ask questions and draw comparisons to abstract ideas that are now more
completely understood.  Lessons learned can become internalized and put to use in future work
opportunities.

In addition, almost everyone has experienced a less than 100% positive work experience at one
time or another in their work lives.  As an intern, at the beginning of your career experiences and
career path, you will almost always learn something that will inform you at any future work
setting.  A guide to your reflection activities will point out both the positives of what you learned
as well as the learning that you can take from the absence of an obvious achievement.  Both sides
can be extremely powerful and transformational as you approach next steps in career
development.

Below are just a few reflection questions to stimulate your thinking and learning about the
internship work experience.

What do you think was your



most significant
Be able to talk about your experience
accomplishment while you
were working? Communication is one of the most important professional skills you
Are there any new skills that can develop. The process of seeking an internship, the work


you developed while you
were at the worksite and
what are they?

Describe what you believe
the ideal supervisor will be
like at work now that you
have work experience in
your field of study?
experience itself, and reflecting afterward, will all contribute to the
growth of your communication skills.  As you reflect on your
internship, practice speakiing succinctly and precisely about your
experience. Use key words. Most listeners will pay attention to
shorter answers. You should be able to describe an internship
experience in two minutes.  Use action-oriented and positive
words. 

Guide to talking about your internship in two minutes:

Use the following as a guide to practice describing your internship:

Be able to write about your experience

 30 Seconds – Tell your first Internships are first professional experiences in the field and each


and last name, year in will become a stepping stone to the next work assignment. In order
school, institution, and to leverage internship experience to move forward in your career, it
major.  Give the name of the is important to be able to write about your experience in a
employer (organization) and professional way.
site location.  Share one
You know the importance of the resume in the job search process.
point of interest about the
Resumes are also used in applying to graduate school, for
organization.  For example,
scholarships, and in nominations to civic boards and other
XYZ is “a major producer of
leadership opportunities. Your ability to write about your internship
carpet and other types of
experience on your resume is incredibly important. Accuracy and
flooring in the United
representing yourself and your work in a positive manner are
States.”
critical.
60 Seconds – Give your title


and role at the organization; Practice, in writing, describing what you did during the internship,
describe your main
responsibilities. Talk about
technical and
professionalism skills you
learned and/or developed.  you developed, and equipment and software that you used. Future
Highlight one main
accomplishment you had
during the internship.
30 Seconds – Focus on your

main learning from the
experience and how this
might impact you
professionally and as you
make future career
decisions.
work?
including skills and equipment used to manage your work tasks.
Look back at your job offer and your job description to find
keywords that describe your experience.  Learning objectives that
you established for your internship might also highlight skills that
prospective employers also read your resume to see what
accomplishments you achieved during the internship, and if your
work had an impact on your employer’s efficiency and/or bottom
line. The following is one way to brainstorm about your internship
experience to develop an accomplishment statement to use on your
resume.
The PROBLEM, ACTION, RESULT formula to capture accomplishment statements
Problem:  What was a problem or task that you were assigned at

Action:  What action did you take to solve the problem and complete the task?

Result: After your action, what was the end result for your employer organization? Can you
quantify this in some way by using a percentage, a number, or other measure? For example, did it
increase efficiencies or production? And if so, by how much?

On the resume under your internship description, try to list at least one accomplishment
statement for every professional experience.

Leave off the problem, and begin writing using a past tense action verb, followed by a quantified
result.

Below are a few examples of accomplishment statements. They usually appear as bulleted items
under the internship description.
 Developed a software
application that increased
company production by 10%
each month. Internship central
Managed a project team


> Internship basics

that completed five
successful special events > Finding internships
during spring 2016.

Researched and submitted > Applying

a grant proposal that

> Maintaining student status
brought in 10K to the
organization. > Preparing

> Maximizing

> Reflecting

> Telling your story