How To Finish Your Engineering Internship On The Best Possible Terms

Are you nearing the end of an engineering internship? If so, let’s ensure you leave your internship on the best possible terms! 

First of all, I hope your internship was amazing! Internships help you lay a foundation… a launchpad that can set you up for more opportunities in the future. 

And if it wasn’t amazing, it’s okay. You can still use this internship as a launchpad for future opportunities… opportunities that better align with your life. 

Regardless of how your internship went, these actions and tips are all about ensuring you get the most out of your internship as it wraps up. 

These actions are based on my own engineering internship experiences, both as an intern and as a mentor. While I focused on engineering internships while writing this, these actions could easily apply to any internship. Implement the actions that make sense for your situation and ignore the ones that don’t (I promise I won’t be offended). 

Related articles: Everything You Need to Know about Engineering Internships, What You Need To Know Before You Start Your Engineering Internship, and Make Your Internship Amazing. 

1. Prepare any end-of-internship reports or presentations 

Does your employer or your college require you to write a paper or give a presentation that summarizes your internship experiences? 

Not sure? Just ask. 

In some cases, this isn’t a big deal, especially if it doesn’t affect future job opportunities. For example, your college may ask for a short report on your internship experiences. This is generally only necessary if you obtained your internship through your college or if your college is offering a certificate that will be added to your diploma later. 

On the other hand, if your employer is asking you to write a paper or give a presentation, make sure you’re putting in the effort. Depending on what they’re looking for, this can take a significant amount of time and it could impact a future full-time job offer. 

At Johnson Space Center, NASA pathways interns (aka co-ops) typically give an end-of-internship presentation. Depending on the team you interned with, this could range from a 15-minute high-level summary or an hour of in-depth technical information. Regardless of the content, managers consider these presentations (among other factors) when deciding on future internship or full-time positions. 

As you prepare your report or presentation, here are some questions to consider:

• What are the expectations or requirements for this report/presentation?
• Is there a specific format you need to use?
• Who’s the audience? 
• When is it due? 
• Are there any example papers/presentations you can look at? 
• Are there former interns or coworkers who can help guide you through this process?
• Is there someone who can review a draft and give you constructive feedback?
• If you need to give a presentation in person, how should you dress? How will the room be set up? Are there any unofficial customs (like bringing in food to share)?

2. Handover your tasks

Even if you don’t need to write an end-of-internship paper or give a presentation, you’ll still need to spend time handing over your tasks before you leave. 

This means you’ll need to communicate what you’ve completed, and how someone can pick up where you left off. To accomplish this, consider these three basic activities: (1) write it down, (2) save your work in the right location, and (3) discuss it with your team.

1. Write it down: Create a document or email that outlines everything you completed, where to find that work and any recommended forward work. Make sure to be as specific as possible so someone can easily reference your work in the future when you’re not around to answer their questions about it. 

2. Save it: Store all electronic files in an approved location that’s easy for your team to find in the future. Make sure file names are obvious and easy to search for later. Make sure physical items are stored in a safe location. It can also be a good idea to print out some helpful documents that stay with any physical hardware (like a point of contact, instructions, safety information, and a URL link/QR code on where you electronically stored additional information). 

3. Discuss it: Spend time reviewing your work with your mentor, managers, and/or coworkers. Update your files based on their questions or feedback. 

3. Ask for feedback 

As your internship nears its end, this is a great time to ask your manager, mentor, and trusted co-workers for feedback. 

Chances are you’ve already received some feedback along the way, especially as you learned new technical skills. Internships are all about learning on the job after all! 

But, have you received any constructive feedback on your personal skills, like communication, leadership, adaptability, critical thinking, etc.? To truly grow into a rockstar engineer, you’ve got to constantly develop both your technical engineering skills and your “soft” skills. 

Being receptive to feedback is a skill on its own, so this is a perfect time to practice! Receiving feedback can be tough. It’s hard to hear about your weaknesses or where you can improve. It’s natural to want to justify your actions. And it’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling like a failure. 

However, it’s super important that you LISTEN. Don’t interrupt. Don’t complain. Don’t panic. Why? Because you don’t need to! You are not a failure. You don’t need to justify your actions to anyone. And you don’t need to find someone or something else to blame. 

I know, easier said than done! So, as you practice receiving constructive feedback, consider the following:

• Only ask for feedback from people you respect and that can give you meaningful feedback. 
• Write down notes. This can help you focus on what they’re saying and also allows you to reflect on the feedback later when you’re ready to internalize it.
• When you do respond, be polite and respectful. Thank them for their honest feedback, even if you didn’t like what they had to say. 
• If you feel comfortable doing so, ask some follow-up questions, such as specific examples to help you understand their point of view. 
• Consider asking for written feedback so you can read it whenever you’re mentally and emotionally ready for it. 

Remember: you are NOT a failure. Your past self did the best she could with the knowledge and awareness she had at that time. This is simply another opportunity to learn and grow. 

4. Give feedback 

Now for the reverse! This is also your chance to give feedback. 

On one hand, it’s easy to give positive feedback if you had amazing experiences to share during your internship. Everyone loves to hear the good stuff. And you should definitely share it! Tell your manager examples of how your mentor went out of their way to make your internship awesome. Tell your coworkers how much you appreciated the time they took to teach you new skills.

On the other hand, giving recommendations for improvement (constructive feedback) can be more difficult. This is especially true if you’re nervous about messing up your chances for a future job offer. Though, I’d actually argue that this can help your future job aspects if conducted in the right way. 

Here are some quick tips for giving constructive feedback:

• Show that you can give constructive feedback in a respectful way. Be polite. Don’t whine or complain. 
• Show that you’re thinking ahead by giving recommendations. What improvements do you recommend? 
• Show that you’re proactive by offering to help. For example, if you think an internship onboarding handbook would be beneficial, can you kickstart that effort before you leave?
• Practice giving this feedback to a trusted mentor/friend first.  

You may also want to report a serious issue you saw or experienced yourself, such as a safety concern, an ethics problem, or harassment. I hope you didn’t encounter this during your internship. But unfortunately, bad things can happen anywhere. If this happened during your internship, you have some options. I’m working on compiling these options into a new page – I’ll add a link here once I’m done.

And remember, at the end of the day, it’s completely up to you to decide if you want to give feedback or report any issues.  

5. Say thank you  

Showing your appreciation can go a long way. It makes people feel valued. And it may help you be remembered in a positive way. 

This could be as simple as saying thank you, but here are some other ideas to show your appreciation:

Even if your internship didn’t go as planned, there’s probably still someone you can thank before you leave! 

6. Don’t forget the paperwork

Time to get some of the boring stuff out of the way. Talk with your manager, internship lead, or human resources rep to ensure you complete all the necessary exit activities. Do you need to turn in a badge? Do you need to do anything for your taxes or benefits?  

Taxes: Gather any forms you’ll need for next year’s tax season, like your W2 (for US internships). Your W2 is likely not ready yet, so how will it be delivered to you later? Did you leave a good forwarding address and/or email to ensure you get those forms? Is there a website, login, and password you need to save to access your W2 when its ready? 

Benefits: Did you receive any benefits during your internship that you need to modify? For example, if you signed up for health care, when will that end? If you extend it past the end of your internship, do you need to forward fund that account? 

7. Jot down names and memories 

Unless you happen to have perfect memory recall, you’re going to forget the details of your internship later. 

So, help out your future self. Write down names, contact information, and highlights from your internship. If you’re allowed to, take pictures (of coworkers, things you worked on, etc.) and add those pictures to your notes. 

Where you put these notes is completely up to you. You can add some info directly to contacts in your phone. You can create a folder on your laptop with pictures, notes, saved contacts, etc. Maybe you have a physical folder with printed-out documents. Or you can simply add additional info to your planner or notebook.

8. Prep for future opportunities

As you jot down memories (tip #6), consider taking it one step further.  Write down what you accomplished and what skills you developed. In particular, think about your resume, future job interviews, and letters of recommendation. 

Your resume. Don’t wait to update your resume. Just do it now. Once you’re done, you can even ask a co-worker to review it and give you feedback. No matter where you are in your career, it’s always helpful to have an up-to-date resume. In college, you’ll want to be ready for any internship, scholarship, or full-time job that comes your way. 

Job interviews. The best interview responses tell a story that demonstrates your capabilities and skills. Your internship should be able to help with those responses. Google “engineering interview questions” (like these). While your internship is still fresh in your mind, write down some ideas – how could your internship help you answer these questions? 

Letters of recommendation. If you want to ask anyone from your internship to write a letter of recommendation for you in the future, it helps to have a bulleted list of things you accomplished and skills you demonstrated. As someone who’s written many letters of recommendation, that list goes a long way! I may not use everything from that list, but it definitely helps jog my memory and gives me some ideas so I can create the best letter for you.

9. Reflect 

Take some time to reflect. 

What did you learn about yourself during this internship? What type of tasks did you like to perform? Did you like the company culture you were in? What didn’t you like? What could you do better during your next internship (or full-time job)?

Does this change any of your future plans? Maybe you’re now interested in a new subject you want to explore next semester at college. Maybe you’ve learned that your dream job isn’t really what you expected. Maybe you learned how to increase your chances of scoring a full-time job offer later. 

Now, what actions you should take? There are no right or wrong actions here. Just be honest with yourself. Is there a class or mentorship program you want to sign up for? Another internship you want to apply for later? Would it be helpful to set up an appointment with your college advisor or mentor to talk through a few different options? 

10. Recharge 

With a new college semester about to start, don’t forget to take some time off to recharge to avoid burning yourself out. 

If you’re like me, then every semester and every internship feels like a sprint. There’s so much to do and so little time! But, you can’t sprint for an entire marathon. So take some time to recover. Visit family. Binge-watch that Netflix show you’ve been saving. Take a vacation with a friend. Do whatever you need to recharge before your next “sprint”. 

After you’ve had some time to recharge, you may also want to look at how to set yourself up for success before your next semester starts. 

Congratulations!

Seriously, congratulations! Completing an internship is a big deal! Give yourself a pat on the back. 

Before you leave, what’s the one action you want to take away from this page?

You don’t need to worry about doing everything I listed here. I get it, you probably don’t have time for that! So, don’t stress yourself out. Just focus on one action you can start working on now to wrap up your internship. You can always come back to this page and do more actions later if you find these tips helpful.

You’ve got this!