If you work in a great place, do a great job and still have time on your hand, you have a unique opportunity!

Seek our the people who can teach you the things you want to learn. As you are early on in your career, I’d probably focus on the functional areas (as opposed to e.g. leadership, etc.). In the telecom industry, I’d categorize the functional fields as:

• Sales
• Marketing
• Operations
• Technology
• Finance

You won’t succeed in the industry without a working understand of each of these areas. The best way to get such an understanding is by actually doing work in them! Let’s say you’re interning in sales, then I’d try to get exposure to, say, Marketing. Maybe there is a project you can help them out with in your spare time? Maybe there are some interesting meetings you can sit in on? Who’s the person to seek out to learn from? Be humble and realistic about your own contribution and seek out the opportunities.

Keep in mind that the key here is that you actually help them out as well. If you’re in a different team/division, chances are they don’t feel obliged to help you develop so you need to show a value-add for them so that their time is well invested.

Once you’ve learned more about the field, try to get exposure to the other fields.

Depending on the culture, watch out for corporate politics. Your current boss may not like that you approach other teams, so have a chat with her/him - your boss may even be able to facilitate this!