Professional Identity Development of Interns

Abstract

Through a qualitative study of 23 interns (students during or after their first internship made abroad), we examine how interns construct their professional image in the workplace, how they discover and respond to various types of conflicts using new strategies for image management and how it relates to different forms of outcomes and their professional identity development. We found that interns’ image discrepancies (identity devaluation and positive discrepancy), resulting from interns’ expectations about their professional image, drive interns to engage in new impression management strategies (in-group differentiation, assimilation and positive image maintenance) to meet expectations related to their desired professional image. We discovered a number of outcomes in terms of self- discovery, self-confidence, interpersonal and career management. Building on these findings, we present a process model of professional identity discovery that manifests how interns’ image management leads to possible identity development. Implications of our findings for both theory and practice are discussed.