Setting Internship Expectations

The importance of setting clear expectations

The first day of internship is all about getting to know each other. As one does at the beginning of any healthy relationship, we talk to each other, to each of the interns to find out what their expectations are and, of course, communicate ours. Because a healthy foundation in building any partnership requires an alignment of expectations on both sides.

Discussing expectations establishes from the very beginning a partnership based on the equality of the parties and encourages communication in both ways: we collaborate, communicate and listen. Once the expectations are clarified, everyone has a reference system to which they can relate on a daily basis and when the time for two-way performance evaluation comes.

How does a discussion like that play out? We start by asking interns what they like, what their expectations are, what made them choose us and what their primary motivation is. Then we give them a presentation on AMIQ: history, architecture, culture, values, expectations. Discussing all these aspects, expectations on both sides are adapted to the context of the internship and AMIQ culture, focusing on how they can be met.

The end goal of this initial session is to ensure expectations will be met by making them clear and minimizing confusion. You can’t just lay it all out on a piece of paper and give them a list of boxes they’ll have to check, you need to meet with them, talk with each one of them, and listen to their wants and needs. Because if we don’t do this, how else are we going to adapt the internship experience to the people who chose AMIQ?

The questions we ask are designed to uncover interns’ expectations toward the internship program and toward all those involved. It’s also an opportunity to discover how the internship program is presented in relation to the expectations of the next generation of engineers. Below we summarized the most common ones.

Most common expectations from the internship

• Expand knowledge and gain technical know-how.

• • The AMIQ Internship is designed as a functional verification laboratory that helps you learn through practical projects. This laboratory builds specific expertise in the field of functional verification over existing knowledge of digital circuits and object-oriented programming.

• Acquire relevant work experience.

• • The projects in the AMIQ Internship have the same structure and planning as a real project. In addition, the Agile & Scrum methodology is used for their management. In these projects, interns use the latest programming languages, technologies and methodologies developed for and by the industry.

• The possibility to work in this new field, if I want to.

• • Because each of us, the AMIQ engineers, has been a junior at the beginning of our career, we understand very well the need to experiment, to try a little bit of everything before choosing one or another. This is why internship projects are designed to offer all the challenges of an actual verification project, so you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into.

Most common expectations from the internship colleagues

• To complete a project by collaborating, without feeling in competition.

• • In our culture, competition is not encouraged among colleagues. Each of the interns has only one competitor: the project they have to solve. If you have difficulty solving the problem, you can ask for help at any time.

• A cool work atmosphere.

• • AMIQ provides the framework for the internship and a positive atmosphere where the focus is on problem-solving and lifelong learning. From there, we let the interns create their own chemistry. Each team has its own balance, and every time it turned out to be the right approach. We can’t force “good vibes” on anyone, but you are more than welcome to bring it on!

Most common expectations from AMIQ permanent employees

• Patience from senior employees.

• • AMIQ engineers never forget that they were once students, interns, or juniors. In AMIQ culture we want to pass forward what we have learned, regardless of experience or role. To us, experience is an enabler of communication, not an obstacle. For our seniors, interacting with interns is a good way to come back to concepts they haven’t thought about for a long time.

• Be included in other activities organized by the company.

• • For us, the interns are just like any other colleagues and we treat them as such. We involve them in discussions, we ask for their opinion, we eat together, we go to team buildings, etc.
    In a nutshell: we treat them the way we would like to be treated if we were newly employed.

The most common expectations from AMIQ as a company

• The flexibility to work remotely.

• • The hybrid model of work (WFH + office) is extremely popular right now. All interns have access to the same services and IT infrastructure as any other AMIQ employee and can work both from home and office.

• Help to integrate into the labor market.

• • Many of our interns are at their first experience in the labor market and do not know very much about the specific bureaucracy, or the various opportunities. AMIQ devotes time and resources to answer these questions and, further, to provide career advice. Whether or not interns remain in the AMIQ team, it’s our responsibility to provide them with all the tools necessary to become the next generation of skilled engineers.

AMIQ expectations from the interns

As interns have expectations, AMIQ has some expectations too. Here are the core ones.

• Be responsible.

• • This expectation translates into taking accountability for the results of your own work. Whether it’s good or it needs improvement. It means taking responsibility not only when you’re ahead of time, but also in case of any delay. You will learn to accept that sometimes the end result may be different from what you set out to do. When this happens, we expect communication from you. No one is perfect, but being held accountable for your work and results is essential to overcoming obstacles. Last but not least, being responsible means focusing on finding the solution to a problem, not the culprit.

• Communicate.

• • We expect you to tell us about your difficulties as soon as you have identified them so that we can provide help in a timely manner. We also expect you to share your success with team members so we can celebrate together.

• Be better from day to day.

• • AMIQ culture provides a framework for continuous learning and improvement. If you don’t succeed today, we expect you to try again tomorrow. Ask for help. Maybe read a book or watch a tutorial. Therefore, our expectation from you as an intern is to share your expertise with other team members. That way you learn from each other and end up getting better every day. It will require communication skills and active listening.

• Ask & Offer help.

• • AMIQ is a community, a culture in which we support each other. We share knowledge and experience, we discuss various stuff, and we keep up to date with what happens in the industry. However, we don’t expect others to do our job, we first try to find the solution by ourselves. And if we don’t find the solution ourselves, then we ask for help. It’s perfectly ok to ask for help, just to avoid “let me google that for you” situations.

• Get involved to improve things.

• • The success of AMIQ, the relaxed working atmosphere, is the result of the contribution of each employee. Each of us is involved in one form or another to make things better.