Coffee with the Interns

A chance to reflect on career lessons I’ve learned from others

Image by funsworks from Pixabay

In a normal, non-pandemic time, it’s customary in one’s company to meet with the summer interns for a discussion on their experience, your experiences, and how we might learn from one another. Instead of face-to-face, I enjoyed a Zoom call with around a dozen of my employers’ interns last week.

I enjoyed my coffee. They did not appear to be imbibing. Maybe Gen Z doesn’t drink coffee? I should have asked.

I wasn’t nervous and had done this sort of thing previously but I wanted it to be a good use of their time. These situations always spark my imagination in revealing some enlightening concept or some epiphany of knowledge that lights up everyone. It never happens, but I still script out the movie in my head that way.

The coordinator scheduled an hour. An hour? What am I going to talk about for an hour?

We talked for over an hour. Get me on a roll and I will go non-stop.

Regretfully, I did too much of the talking. I could have learned a lot more from the interns. I think a lot of that though was due to the format. It’s awkward to both meet someone for the first time and try to connect in a large group of your peers.