I was never an intern myself but we have had a few interns on the team recently, and this advice even applies to contract roles and entry level employees trying to advance in their careers. If the project you get is relevant and high impact for the team, make sure you do as good of a job on the project as you can, especially focussing on highly visible aspects of the project (like user experience if it’s a tool for instance). If the project you get is one of those “I’m just coming up with a project to give you because someone told me to give you work” projects, then I’m sorry that is very unfortunate, but the non-project aspects of the job become even more important in making sure you get a return offer. Make sure you collaborate with your team effectively to show your potential and do some “market research” with your team to figure out how to MAKE IT INTO a relevant project. At the end of the day, your peers are going to judge you on three things: 1) how did your project turn out and is it something that people will WANT to use 2) how well do you mesh with the team 3) how your team judges your potential to be a leader within the team in the future. Gaining the opinions and advices of others and actually showing an effort to incorporate those advices into your project will make people appreciate you more as well as show that you are proactive and have the potential to drive very successful projects that people actually care about. Make sure that your mentor knows the legwork you’re doing to collect opinions from other people on the team, as this person and the manager themself will have the largest vote as to whether or not to write you a return offer.

I will definitely keep this advice in my mind and thank you so much 🙏.