Putting my goals and objectives down on my paper for my internship have been harder than I thought it would be. For objectives, I should be identifying tasks that are specific and measurable but I haven’t been able to quite narrow that down, as my goals are very much overarching for the internship and I’m not familiar enough with the process to pick particular tasks I want to complete.

My three main aim are:

1. Gain Experience and Develop Skill as a Proofreader/Copyeditor
2. Establish a Professional Profile/Direction
3. Develop my Professional Communication Skills

They feel a bit boxed in and not diverse and so I’m thinking of changing them but I’m not sure how to. It’s in it’s draft stages and so it needs work, but trying to think of three specific objectives for each has been challenging.

Why these goals?

1. Gain Experience and Develop Skill as a Proofreader/Copyeditor

This is my primary reason for my internship, to develop skills as a proofreader/copyeditor to help me further in the industry and with my own work. I want to see how the publishing process works, how they pick works, how they choose to edit, what they might take out or what they might put in and what happens after that, marketing, distribution etc.

This specificially involves seeking feedback and the quality and punctuality of my work.

2. Establish a Professional Profile/Direction

I want to establish myself as a professional in my field, or at the very least understand what kind of professional I want to be in my field and what kind of direction I will have. The idea is that I’ll focus on my values, strengths and weaknesses in a professional setting and work on/improve them.

3. Develop my Professional Communication Skills

I want to be better at networking and communication but I feel weird writing that in as an objective as I’m not sure how I would be able to actively network in my internship because I’m not one-hundred about what I will be doing/who I will be engaging with.

This might be too close to establishing a professional self, though, and so I might have to merge them and think of a different goal and a new set of objectives.

I want to finish it all and send it in by the end of today but I’m just worried it’s not decisive enough. I’m going into something hoping to gain a lot of experience and so I don’t exactly know what is to be expected of me meaning that I don’t know how to set up objectives for that. I know I’ll be proofreading and copywriting but I don’t know if I’ll be working with anyone other than my industry superviser, for example. Although, perhaps this might have all been different if it was all traditionally undertaken, interviews etc. There might have been a better opportunity for further discussion of what I might want to put in my proposed role document. I also didn’t think I would secure an internship and so hadn’t yet thought about the proposed role document, that might have also been an issue.

I can also use what I learn about myself by doing this assessment for the good of my professional future. And so, I shall continue working on it until I’m happy enough to submit it!