Reaching out

Good morning world! I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend. Today is a day of transitions for me; my summer job ended this morning and my internship with the Intern Queen ended last Thursday. It feels very strange not rushing around doing work! During my last week interning, Lauren, the founder and CEO of Intern Queen Inc. encouraged the four interns to reach out to everyone we have been in contact with over the summer. This was definitely a push to clear out my e-mail Inbox, but I began the almost never-ending task. I sent e-mails to everyone I’ve worked with since June, whether I had helped the individual or company post an internship on the website, schedule a time to speak with Lauren or collaborate for an upcoming project, etc, etc.

In the e-mail, I explained that it was my last week working for Intern Queen Inc., that it was a pleasure helping them with whatever I did (obviously went into more detail), and asked to connect with them in the future. I included my personal e-mail account and my Twitter handle. In past internships, I hadn’t really reached out to people outside of the company after the internship was completed. I had always networked within the company and try to remain in touch with people I worked with, but never was encouraged to REACH OUT past the direct people I work with everyday. I didn’t have any response expectations from the people I sent e-mails to as my Intern Queen internship was finishing, but I trekked through my Inbox and sent them to everyone I’ve been in contact with.

I wasn’t really sure how my e-mail would be received, but never, ever expected the responses I did! Sonja from Katalyst Media, Virgilia from GenJuice, Sandy from Media Awaken completely blew me away with their positive responses. They asked what my future plans were and have interacted via Twitter and LinkedIn already. All three of these companies would be awesome internship opportunities for students this fall! I e-mailed different career services departments that I’ve worked with this summer and Christa from Cornell University and Syreeta from USC e-mailed me back promptly thanking me and offering to stay in touch. I’ve already been back-and-forth chatting with Simmy, a summer intern at Urbane Perspective Media + Lifestyle. I’ve corresponded with Emily before, who blogs here and she was so responsive to my e-mail and asked about my future plans and goals.

This was just a sample of responses I’ve had e-mailed back to me from my first e-mail reaching out to contacts through my internship with Intern Queen Inc. I was completely surprised how supportive and quick these individuals were to connect on different social media networks, ask about my future plans and offer job and internship advice. Thank you Lauren for pushing me to do this simple task and reach out to absolutely everyone I’ve been in touch with and thanks to all I’ve worked with and your positive feedback and responses.