Week 8: Goodbye/Maybe See You Later DelRicht
I just finished my last week of work at DelRicht Research. I can’t believe it’s been eight weeks already. It flew by in the first half because my training was so intense, and then in the second half because I was so comfortable. It is only a small group of coordinators, and once I had completed my training, I was truly a part of the team. I thought there would be an exit interview for my manager to ask me about my experience, but I think since I had my 30-day review meeting recently, she did not think it was necessary. Without an interview the last day was somewhat anticlimactic except, they surprised me with goodbye lunch at work. When it was time to say goodbye, all my coworkers said how much they would miss me and joked that I should stay instead of going back to school for senior year. When my boss hugged me goodbye, she said call me if you need a job and I laughed a little, but she reassured me she was serious.
I am happy going back to New Orleans is an option, but I intend to apply to other jobs in the DC, Richmond, Raleigh, or Philly areas. I will use this internship as a great experience to help me narrow down the type of jobs I want. Since they always spoke so highly of me, I would think I could get great recommendations from them. After working at DelRicht I am unsure if I would want to try a big company or stick to a small company like them. The small company seemed like a great fit for the internship, but a bigger company might allow for more growth for a more sustainable career.
I’m glad to hear that returning to DelRicht is an option; always good to have options. The more you process the experience, the more you’ll get clarity about the size/type of organization you want to pursue after graduation. There are larger organizations that are able to cultivate collegial, collaborative environments. Despite being finished, I encourage you to think about specific work you did during your internships as it will aid you both in terms of your academic assignments for internship this fall and when you go to start interviewing. Having concrete examples you can provide about the types of work/tasks you completed, software and/or protocols you used, specific ways in which your work contributed to larger organizational goals – those will be good things to draw from when interviewing with other organizations.