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Congratulations! You’ve completed your interviews and received an offer letter. Now you’re ready to start your internship … in six months. This is a significant amount of time, so instead of spending these months anxiously awaiting your start date, you can take action now to prepare beforehand. Here are three of the best ways you can prepare for your internship while still in school, according to the thousands of past interns who took our latest Internship Survey.
Research, Research, Research
Before interviewing with the company, you (hopefully) completed some research beforehand. Now that your internship is solidified, it’s time to dive deeper.
Before getting into the company’s information, start looking at the industry as a whole. An intern who took our 2025 survey told us, “It’s helpful if you know about the industry before coming into the internship. They do explain all the information you need to know during orientation, but it’s a lot. So, it’s better to have a foundation of information beforehand.” In other words, you don’t need to know everything about the industry, but having some general knowledge of the space and how your program fits into the larger industry will lower the learning curve when your internship begins. It’s also beneficial to repeat this research every few weeks in order to notice industry trends. Another past intern recommends future interns “keep up-to-date with what's happening in the world,” since current events could impact your program’s industry.
Next you should move on to studying the company you’re interning with. According to another intern, “Do as much research as possible on the company you’re working for. This will impress people working there.” While researching, gather some general information about the company’s history, mission, leadership, and current projects. Knowing some fun facts could also impress your future coworkers. In addition, find information that could be important to your specific role. If you’re a future marketing intern, look into the company’s recent advertisements and campaigns. Familiarizing yourself with their products and messaging will help you understand and implement the firm’s mission once the program begins.
Another area of research that may be beneficial is corporate etiquette. One past intern says, “Come in with a good feel about how the corporate world works. If this is your first internship, make sure to do research about common decency and respect.” The kind of topics you want to better understand will rely on your past experiences, but a good place to start is email etiquette, body language, business casual (or formal) dress codes, and meeting etiquette. This knowledge will help you to carry yourself appropriately and with more confidence.
Get In Touch
Now that you’ve researched the company online, it’s time to start having conversations to get an insider’s perspective. Start with your soon-to-be manager. If you have their contact information, reach out and introduce yourself a couple months before the program. Include any questions that may make your first day(s) easier, such as desk locations and what time to arrive. A past software engineering intern says, “I wish I’d known about what kind of work I’d be doing so I could've been better prepared. But at least I was able to ask my manager about what language I’d be using.” Even if you don’t know what your day-to-day will look like, understanding just a small portion of what will be needed of you will give you a head start.
You can also get in touch with past interns or current employees. One intern who took our survey suggests “reaching out to previous or current interns for an insider's perspective.” Previous interns can help you understand the program’s structure and kind of work to expect. Better yet, if you’re able to find a previous intern who held the same role that you will, you can learn more about daily duties and expectations. They could also give you tips on minor things that will improve your experience.
Refine Your Skills
The final step in your internship preparation journey is to refine your hard skills. This doesn’t mean you need to learn every technical skill you don’t have, but rather to identify the skills you’ll likely need during the program and become more proficient in them. This can look like practicing Excel formulas and understanding how the software is used in your industry or improving your PowerPoint skills if that’s commonly used in your specific industry.
According to a software development intern, “It pays to learn at least one language to an intermediate skill level before starting so you can finish that training early and budget more time for the harder languages.” Meanwhile, a data analytics intern told us, “Technical skills (particularly in Excel, R, or Stata/SAS) were important, so brushing up on those beforehand is helpful.” Improving skills and qualifications like these will allow you to spend more time learning the skills that only the internship experience can provide.
At the end of the day, you don’t need to stress about being perfect as an intern. You’ll learn everything you need to know during your program, but using these tips to prepare beforehand will allow you to start the internship with your best foot forward. As one past intern told us, “Don’t be nervous or feel the need to overprepare when coming into the program. They’re not looking for people with every technical skill known to man. What’s most important is that you come in ready to learn, work hard and help out in any way you can.”
To read more advice from past interns, you can check out our internship program profiles by going to the 2026 Internship Rankings.
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