The Cincinnati CIO Roundtable in partnership with INTERalliance hosted our annual intern summit at NKU earlier this week, and once I again I got to spend lunch talking with groups of really impressive interns from organizations throughout the greater Cincinnati area.
As always, I was blown away by the energy, engagement, and thoughtful questions that the attendees asked.
Here are three takeaways:
1. A lot of young folks need to see us being human. Every year, I talk about being an introvert, challenging myself to get out of my shell, and about techniques I used to intentionally handle social situations better. Every year interns light up when they hear that and ask question after question based on their own experiences. If you get the chance, talk about how you've grown, how it felt, and where you struggled.
2. A lot of our careers look like a fixed path from outside. Attendees were often relieved to hear about lateral paths and how broad experiences tended to help the senior IT folks in the room progress in our careers.
3. We need to create more opportunities for teenagers and early career folks to gain access to people at every level of our organizations for conversations like these!
And most importantly - if there's not something like this in your area yet, it's worth doing: https://lnkd.in/eN_abKNE
Big thanks to Geoff Smith and Gregory Simpson for their role in making this happen!
I'll give a shout out to Max (my smart and talented nephew) on his relaxed, conversational manner in this video. He makes the high pressure of internship look easy and fun. Hmmmm... Maybe that's why he is so successful at everything he does.