In my relatively short working life, I have had the privilege of working in both a small service company with tight team and steep learning curve, as well as in a large multinational company where working groups are large and you have to paddle your own canoe. In both places, I had the opportunity to work with interns, including a few from UTAR while recalling my own internship which was not too distant away in my memory. Now, let me tell you a few truths about the whole internship business, from my point of view.

First, the truth about companies is: some get interns in just to do the menial, brainless job since they are "free labour" while others always create great training programmes for the interns because they believe in investing for the future

Second, the truth about interns: some are excellent while some should just be culled. Frankly, I am glad that some of the UTAR interns that I have had the pleasure of working with belong to the excellent group.

Third, the last truth: what you would get from your internship is not determined by the companies you are in, but your determination of what kind of intern you would like to be.

While I cannot give you the formula to be an Excellent Intern over night, here are a few suggestions on how to work towards it. Bear in mind that this does not apply solely to your internship, but also to your career development as you move along, from division to division, company to company, and even from industry to industry.

In other words, Do Your Homework. When you get to know which company you are going to be attached with for your internship, read up about it. Devour the company website, read all newspaper articles about the company, surf the internet and search for the industry. Find out who are the competitors and /or clients and read up all about them too.

Once you have started your internship, get your hands on the corporate collaterals like the annual report, customer service charter, and the company's brochures. Just read everything - this is what you go to school for, to learn how to read so that you will be "well informed". The more you know about the company, the management and their operation, the less you will feel like being an idiot during the company's discussions and meetings.

Besides, in order to boost up your confidence level, you have to read more. Reading and learning on your own beforehand will pave the way for you to notch a few steps ahead in any given task, because your manager does not have to spend so much time to explain things from scratch to you - and this will be appreciated, because time is such a rare commodity in a corporation.

For the few UTAR interns whom I knew, I must say this is something I found lacking in them. While they were generally very hard working students but I did not see sufficient initiative from them to do research or read up on their own before they even started their internship. Please remember that it does not matter what you are majoring in your study. Whatever role you are going to play later on in a company; be it Public Relations, Human Resource or Finance Personnel, you need to know about the company's core business and operations in order to do your job well.

Under Malaysia's education system, I am afraid we have not done enough thinking work. We have been spoon-fed for too long a time. I was only made to think when I enrolled myself in a college. Please, do this - think. With some practise, you can get your neurons snapping again.

Think of how you might complete a task, instead of waiting for instructions. Think of the reasons you have been asked to do something, so that you can counter your jobs in better ways. Think of how others will benefit from the results, so that you can focus on the outcome. Think of possible things that might disrupt a task, so that you can be more prepared. Think of alternatives when you hit a wall, instead of yelling that you have hit a wall.

When you think and present your thoughts, you can build and strengthen yourself with the feedback you get. Do not worry about negative feedback; some people are just party poopers and prefer interns who would follow their instructions without much thinking. Do not let yourself fall into that kind of situation, by simply doing what you are told to do; you are not doing yourself any favour.

In terms of thinking, I give UTAR interns 8 out of 10 marks. They were able to think and share their thoughts, even though they were unsure of themselves sometimes. That is what I call courage, and that is how you will learn.

Do not do this before you have done the above. Think, and then ask. One sure-fire way of peeving off your manager is to ask without much thinking. For example:

Manager: Can you please call these teachers and inform them of the changes in our school programme?

Intern: OK. What?re their numbers?

Manager: I don't have them all. Call the schools and ask to speak to the teachers. The names of schools are on this list.

Intern: OK, what are the schools? numbers?

Manager: I don?t know. Look it up from the Ministry of Education.

Intern: OK. What's the Ministry's number?

Manager: I-Don't- Know! Can you look it up? Try the website.

Intern: OK. What's the website address?

Believe me, the situation above really happened! The point I would like to stress here is, do not do this! Not everyone can hold themselves back from hurtling a hole puncher towards your head when you ask this kind of questions. Again, t-h-i-n-k, then ask.

You must learn to ask appropriate questions. You can ask if you really do not understand an instruction. This will help you sort matters better and it will also prevent mistakes happening on your part. For instance, you can ask if you want to know about things that you will not be able to research and find on your own. Or, you can also ask to be included in projects especially if you feel you have been underutilised. I had a couple of UTAR students who would come to me and ask if they could help out with some research work since they have not much work to do. That is an example of great initiative which I strongly advise you to do.

When you ask, ask intelligently. By asking, not only you will be able to stand out from the rest, more often than not, you will get what you have asked for too.

Make everyday of your internship an experience. To quote from a phrase that I like, no one internship is bad - it is not better or worse, just different.

On good days, feel the sense of accomplishment and remember what got you there. On bad days, look for the lessons to be learnt. What you decide to take out of each day will add up to your entire internship experience.

Another crucial point is, do not compare your internship with those of your friends. If you always think the others are better than you, then, you will only feel more miserable. On the other hand, if you make others feel inferior, they might despise you and you will graduate with no friends.

Sometimes there is a tendency among interns to vie for the "Nightmare Internship" award, but remember, even if you win this award in all fairness, learn from it. You may roll your eyes and say you have learnt nothing from photocopying documents for months and being treated like dirt, but, at least you have learnt not to join certain company when you start working, right?