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Everyone has high expectations at the start of their internship experience. You may expect to gain a lot of new knowledge and skills, make a lot of new connections, and work on significant projects. Reality, on the other hand, is not always as lovely as a fantasy. This isn’t to suggest that fantastic internships don’t exist; it’s simply that you should be prepared for a not-so-great or outright bad one. What should you do if you land a less-than-ideal internship? Let’s begin with a story from Thomas Lim and his internship experience.
Hello everyone,
My internship ended approximately two weeks ago, but I can’t get rid of the unpleasant thoughts I left with, therefore I need to rant. I’m also concerned about using recommendations from this internship and would appreciate some guidance.
Some context – I recently finished a business internship at a relatively large company regarded for offering one of the “best” internship experiences. Interns in my region were given their own projects and each had their own manager and director to oversee their work. This storey is about the performance review I received on my last day, where I was utterly taken aback by the extremely harsh criticism.
About three weeks into the internship, I realised that my intern experience was substantially different from that of my peers. I made friends with other interns, and their managers were scheduling many one-on-one meetings with them each week and incorporating them in frequent meetings about their projects. Throughout the summer, I only met with my manager seven times, and two of those meetings were initiated by me. An HR representative would occasionally check in with us to see if we were having frequent one-on-one meetings with our supervisors. I never spoke up, which I now regret, because I didn’t want to upset my manager. Now I see that I was overprotective of a manager who was uninterested in my achievement.
In comparison to other interns, I had a significant lack of guidance for my project, and I was frequently flying by the seat of my pants to predict when/how my work would be completed. Furthermore, my manager decided to modify the topic of my project three to four weeks into the internship (this topic had been set since January). Despite my concerns about losing several weeks of work, I agreed to this. Well, it turns out that the new topic didn’t go as intended, so my manager changed things back approximately two and a half weeks later. I missed roughly three weeks’ worth of work as a result of this, and I feel it was seen in our final presentations when mine appeared less developed than the other intern projects.
Now, let’s talk about the performance evaluation. Among the things said to me were:
My Excel abilities, according to my management, were a weakness. When I heard this, I was surprised because I had taken a whole Excel course and had used it without trouble all summer. I asked if she could give me an example of where she observed this flaw. Her comment was that she once witnessed me use my finger to point to cells while working on a spreadsheet, which “showed her that I didn’t know how to arrange data.” What are you talking about? I should have defended myself here, because the response was completely wrong and speculative.
My manager mentioned that one of my weaknesses was that I had trouble with time zones while organising two phone meetings over the summer. Again, I was taken aback when she said it, because she was aware that one of the inaccuracies was caused by the person on the other end (they assumed we were in the same state when we weren’t, and planned the meeting accordingly). The second issue was my fault; I called in an hour early, realised my error, and simply called them back an hour later at the correct time. I apologised to my manager and director at the time, and they stated, “It’s okay” and “time zones may be confusing.” That appears that it was not acceptable.
My manager stated that I lacked an entrepreneurial approach and lacked the ability to create value. She claimed this was due to my lack of action in escalating problems involving resources from third parties. I DID, however, escalate the situations as far as I could, which often meant sending 5+ emails to the same individual before they responded. My boss made it abundantly apparent to me from the start that she was extremely busy and overworked, so I assumed I was doing her a favour by not updating her on every single correspondence and detail of my day and instead carrying out my duties on my own.
My boss stated that I was not involved with the team. I am an introvert by nature, and I prefer to observe rather than engage in endless small-talk talks. Furthermore, my workstation was far away from my team’s cubicles, so I couldn’t just walk over and contribute whenever I heard someone talking. I’ll confess that it was difficult for me to engage with my manager, but she also seemed completely uninterested in me. However, I believe I formed relationships with approximately 5/11 of my team members, and I honestly loved my time with them. Hearing my manager suggest that I wasn’t engaged made me question and devalue the friendships I thought I had formed. My boss even stated flatly, “There were undoubtedly moments during the summer when you had queries, but I was occupied.” Perhaps if you had developed ties with other members of the team, they would have been able to assist you instead.” This was not just a sneaky statement, but it was not the role of other associates to steer my project, and they had no idea what my project was about beyond the surface level.
My boss merely noted that I had good penmanship (really? this was ridiculous in my perspective…), that I was thorough, and that I had a decent moral compass.
There are a few things about this circumstance that really upset me. The first is that NONE of these concerns were raised to me throughout the summer; based on the times I met with my manager and director about my project, they looked satisfied at the time. If my manager and director had concerns about my performance, I would have like to have received feedback along the way rather than being given every complaint on my last day. Second, I regret not defending myself against some of this plainly incorrect remarks. Performance appraisals are difficult since higher-ups arrive prepared with what they’re going to say, but you have to just roll with the punches. When my boss asked if I had any criticism for them, all I could say was that I had loved my experience and learnt a lot (which wasn’t totally accurate, and I should’ve instead taken this time to address the poor management that I had experienced).
I’m starting to apply for full-time jobs, and I’m hesitant to use my boss or director as references because I don’t want these pieces of feedback (which I believe do not accurately represent me or my work AT ALL) to come back to haunt me.
What is the story’s moral? Although my experience was unpleasant and I would never do it again, I do not regret taking part in it. I learnt several important things, including the value of tenacity in the profession. It was also an excellent opportunity to understand more about why that company was such a bad place to work. If I come into a similar circumstance or culture in the future, I will be able to recognise it and respond appropriately.
Thank you so much for sharing your storey with us, Thomas, and I hope that other students will use it as a reference when it’s their turn. Now we can all learn a few things here!
Rather than being unhappy and pessimistic about your internship, attempt to modify your mindset. You can change how you react to the circumstance if you keep a good mindset. Take it as an opportunity to learn and grow, for starters. Learn how to function in a high-pressure atmosphere and work more autonomously as a result of the stress and uncertainty you’re experiencing. Learn how to communicate and work as a team more successfully when dealing with tough coworkers. Furthermore, this internship may provide you with the necessary experience to determine if you are not in the proper field. Early recognition of this fact, such as during an internship rather than full-time employment, will save you time and money from pursuing the wrong career path.
When you are dissatisfied with your internship, you may be tempted to take the easy way out and quit. However, because internships are typically only for a brief period, it may be more beneficial to deal with them and learn as much as you can from them. The only exception is if you are being treated unfairly or exploited, in which case quitting may be your only option.
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