BUS 89a Journal Guidelines
The object of the BUS 89a journal is to focus your attention on opportunities and choices that surface in the course of your internship and to help you integrate the ideas discussed in the readings with your internship experience.
Essentially you will be constructing a simple diary with entries each week. Do not spend more than 30 minutes a week writing to the diary. Your journal should address the following questions on an ongoing basis, although you need not write about all of them in a given week. The length should be about 1 page per week for a total of 10 pages.
- Summarize the work you did this/each week.
- Did you undertake new work? Continue older initiatives? How was your agenda set?
- How did your agenda interface with that of others inside and outside the firm? Any coordination problems?
- Were you supervised closely? Did you fulfill your supervisor's expectations? Your own expectations?
- What did you learn about the firm where you intern(ed)?
- What is this firm's domain of specialization?
- Who are its suppliers, users, competitors?
- Is the competitive environment changing? How?
- What are you learning about yourself?
- What skills did you acquire or enhance?
- How well are you working with others?
- What are you learning about your own aptitudes, strengths and weaknesses?
- What are you learning about your likes, dislikes, interests in a work environment?
- Contacts. Be sure to list individuals (keep track of names and addresses) who might help you in a future job search, provide mentoring or advise about further training.
Hand in a copy of your journal entry when requested depending on how/when you completed your internship. Your journal should be stored on your computer. Each week, before you write your new journal entry, review what you wrote in earlier weeks.
Thank you,
Detlev Suderow
Senior Lecturer
International Business School
Brandeis University