The Intern–Mentor Experience: A Sample of the Real World

The summer internship - for professionals and mentees, expectations and hopes are similar.  Each person will experience curiosities about: the personal and professional background of the unknown individual, the difficulty and complexity of the required work, and the fit of new colleagues in an established work environment. Overcoming and experiencing these curiosities is an annual ritual in many fisheries laboratories.  A successful opportunity incorporates the future professional’s interests, experience, and skill sets into tasks essential to the organization. A core of the experience should be a taste of the working world. Shortly after arrival, interns roll up their sleeves for fieldwork, fishing, and fun (the 3 F’s) but find that interrupted by data entry, analysis, scientific writing, and presentation preparation.  We describe both sides of the summer internship from the winter search to the last day of work, and beyond. Outcomes range from “wow, I never want to work there” to “I never knew exploring data could be so fun.” Either outcome should be considered an enriching experience because it has tested both your personal limits and your interests.