Journaling Pen and Paper

Making the Most of Your Summer Work Experience

Put Pen to Paper

Written by Colleen Coleman

As fall approaches and your summer internship/job wraps up, you start to feel the satisfaction of a job well done. Your internship/job was challenging and rewarding, you learned new skills and contributed to your employer’s success, and you now feel more confident about the career path you have chosen. Or perhaps you are at the other end of the spectrum, struggling to find value in your summer work experience. You feel ambivalent about your job/internship and haven’t made any more decisions about your career trajectory from your experience; the future still looks fuzzy. Satisfied, unsatisfied, or ambivalent, you haven’t made the most of your summer job/internship until you’ve reflected on your experience and put your thoughts on paper.

Reflective writing gives you an opportunity to clarify your thoughts, gain further insight into your experience, and ultimately define the value of your summer work. Whatever job/internship you held over the summer, you did learn new things and you did gain valuable skills. When you reflect, your goal is to specify and explain. Listing what you did during your summer job/internship is a good place to start. To move your writing from the level of description—simply describing the responsibilities and activities which make up your summer work experience —to the level of reflection—analyzing and responding to your experience—answer the questions below. You do not have to answer in complete sentences (bullet points are just fine), but it is important that you write your thoughts on paper while your memories are still fresh; you can use these notes when preparing to describe what you gained from your summer job/internship in a resume, cover letter, job interview, or even a graduate school application essay. You can also use your notes to help you discern what careers, or summer work experiences, you would find most worthwhile and fulfilling.

  1. Why did you originally apply for the job/internship? To what extent did it meet your expectations? If it fell short of your expectations, what would have improved your experience?
  2. What “hard skills” did you gain or enhance during your job/internship? (Hard skills are teachable and measurable. Proficiency in a foreign language, typing speed, machine operation, computer software, certifications are examples). What were the specific activities/responsibilities which allowed you to gain/enhance each of these skills?
  3. What “soft skills” did you gain/enhance during your job/internship? (Soft skills are often related to your personality, and your approach to relationships, life, and work. Unlike hard skills, they are difficult to measure. Examples include communication skills, leadership skills, teamwork, decision-making skills, and creativity). Next to each “soft skill,” describe at least two specific activities you carried out to gain/enhance that skill.
  4. What did you find most rewarding or satisfying about your experience? If you could share only one story from your experience, what story would that be?
  5. In no more than two sentences, define what you consider to be your greatest work-related accomplishment this summer.
  6. What was the greatest challenge you encountered? How did you respond to the challenge?
  7. What aspects of the job/internship did you find most enjoyable? What aspects did you least enjoy?
  8. What did you learn about yourself—your skills, personality, values, strengths, weaknesses, and preferences—during your job/internship?
  9. What were some of the things you noticed about the people you worked with? How did they approach their work? How did they communicate with each other?
  10. In one sentence, summarize the value of your summer work experience.
  11. If you were to repeat this experience, or an aspect of it, what would you do differently? What skills do you still need to improve?
  12. What questions—about the organization, your academic interests, future course choices, and future career goals—did the job/internship raise for you?

If you experience writer’s block, here are a few tips, tried and true, which I have received from English professors and writing tutors on campus. First, try writing from a different perspective. As college students we become accustomed to reading and producing formal, academic writing. After you have spent so much time writing without using “I” or “me,” writing about yourself can prove difficult. For a work-experience reflection, put yourself in your supervisor’s shoes; write about yourself in third person. Another thing you might try to help you put your thoughts on paper is imagining yourself carrying out a conversation with, or writing a letter to, a good friend. Act as though you are sharing your thoughts about your summer work experience with them. You can always go back over your reflection later and formalize the language to make your statements more suitable for a cover letter, resume, or other application document.