There's a great article in the most recent Sports Business Journal about how to turn an internship into a full-time offer after the internship is over. The article relates to careers in sports, but the principles apply to ANY internship. [Side note: For anyone interested in a career in sports, reading the Sports Business Journal is as necessary as reading the Wall Street Journal is for a career in finance. It must be done.]
The author outlines several variables that impact if you will get an offer or not, including organizational need, luck, and availability of opportunities. However, the most important point was about your perceived value with the organization and a phrase he attributed to the Navy SEAL's which, in my experience hiring and managing interns, has always been the differentiator between interns who were "OK" and the ones in line for a full-time offer: "How you do anything is how you do everything".
In other words, there is no task too small to be done perfectly and with your full attention to detail. There is no task that is beneath you, no matter what your level of education. There is no task that is "not your job" (fair warning: don't ever utter that phrase in any workplace where you want a bigger and better position).
If you carry that "can and will do whatever it takes" attitude with you on the job each day, you will get noticed and, if opportunities exist, you will be the one considered for them. In some cases, if you perform exceptionally well, they will CREATE opportunities for you rather than lose you.
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