Why I Had to Slow Down to Succeed at My Internship

From Classroom Theory to Real-World Practice

As I get deeper into my internship, I’m seeing a familiar pattern, one I first noticed during my time at Runestone Academy. There's a significant gap between learning in a classroom and performing in a professional role. My experience for the past two years was indispensable, giving me the foundational theories and skills I rely on daily. However, putting that knowledge into practice within a corporate structure requires a completely different mindset. The key differences I’ve observed fall into three distinct areas: the pace of work, the dynamics of teamwork, and the nature of projects.

A Deliberate Pace

At Berea College, the entire culture felt built around speed. Juggling multiple classes with tight deadlines meant that efficiency was key. I saw it in everything my classmates did, and I adopted the same approach. I brought that "go fast" attitude into my internship, assuming that quickly completing tasks would demonstrate my competence. I soon learned that the professional world operates on a different principle. Here, it is far more valuable to move slowly and deliberately. My manager encouraged me to take my time to ensure I understood every instruction and that my work was accurate. A small bug introduced by rushing can create major problems down the line. The focus is on building reliable, high-quality systems, which is a stark contrast to the academic goal of simply getting the assignment done on time.

A New Form of Teamwork

Another major adjustment has been in collaboration. In school, if you get stuck, asking a classmate for a hint is standard practice since everyone is working on the same assignment. You are all navigating the same challenges together. Here, that kind of direct support isn't really an option. Every intern is assigned a unique project with its own specific goals and codebase. While I can't ask my peers for help with the specifics of my work, collaboration takes a new form. We can discuss broader concepts, recommend useful tools, or act as a sounding board for each other's ideas. This reflects how professional teams are structured around specialized roles, where the goal is to leverage each person's unique expertise for the benefit of the larger project.

Navigating a Shifting Landscape

Perhaps the most challenging difference is the nature of the work itself. School assignments are well-defined and static. You are given clear instructions and a stable set of requirements. My internship project, however, is dynamic and constantly evolving. An early part of my project involved creating tickets from Slack messages. My initial plan was to use a Slack dashboard, but after some investigation, I realized it lacked the necessary APIs to make it work. This discovery forced me to quickly pivot my entire approach. I had to research alternatives and ultimately switched to using Jira boards, which offered robust and functional APIs. This kind of on-the-fly problem-solving is essential in the workplace, where technical hurdles and changing business needs are a normal part of the process. You learn not to get too attached to your initial plan.

Conclusion

In the end, the classroom and the workplace are simply two different environments designed for different kinds of growth. College provides the critical building blocks of knowledge in a controlled and structured setting. An internship then teaches you how to use those blocks to build something real in a world that is far more dynamic and less predictable. Learning to bridge this gap, to be patient, independent, and adaptable, is one of the most lasting and valuable lessons this experience has to offer.

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