Being in an intern means you get to test the waters of a potential career, meet new contacts and get experience.
But being an intern also means hard work with little pay. It’s that dance between hating and loving being at the bottom of the barrel. But if you fast-forward life 5 years, I can almost guarantee you’ll be ever thankful for the coffee-fetching, copy-making, note-taking tasks you did way back when, because it got you to where you are today.
Thanksgiving is always a good time to reflect on what you’re most grateful for but interns have gratitude for things others don’t appreciate. Here’s a list just for you, kid.
The 20 Things to be thankful for only interns understand
- An amazing opportunity to gain relevant job experience
- Free coffee
- Coffee breaks
- Company lunches and happy hours
- Having a job that’s commitment-free
- Getting real-world experience
- A new section on your resume
- Finding out if you really like that kind of career
- If you hate it, it will be over soon
- Having something else to talk about besides the Kardashians
- Making new friends
- Making a deposit in your business bank of connections
- Living in a different place
- Offices that allow dogs
- Student discounts you still get
- Thank you coffees, lunches and emails from colleagues
- The thank you gift at the end of your internship
- Netflix at the end of the day
- You still have time for endless Game of Thrones, House of Cards and Broad City marathons
- Naps when you can sneak them in
- Clean laundry when you can get to it
- Sleep when you can get it
- Financial Aid
- Technology
- Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart for telling us everything we need to know about politics
- Unlimited opportunities
- Something else your parents can talk to their friends about
- Care packages from mom
- Still being young
- Feeling that you contributed