16 Big Blunder
The Unprofessional Intern

If you can dream it, you can do it.

—Walt Disney

Internships can be a wonderful opportunity to gain experience, learn about specific companies and job functions, and give you an edge over other job applicants. Take time to research fields and companies that interest you. Once you have landed your internship, remember to avoid actions that would prevent the employer from offering you a job in the future or giving you a positive recommendation.

In this chapter, our goal is to share practical advice and real sticky situations from former interns with suggestions on how to navigate them.

Internship Don’ts

Arriving late to work in the morning.

Wearing clothes that are not appropriate (too tight, wrinkled, or casual).

Doing the least amount of work as possible.

Spending time on personal phone calls, email, and social media sites.

Failing to create ideas and deliver more than expected.

Not taking initiative to help others.

Neglecting to learn about other roles and departments within the company.

Failing to build relationships and a network of contacts.

Assuming your work was noticed as opposed to scheduling time to spotlight your work.

Real Sticky Situation 1

Dealing With an Emotionally Charged and Stubborn Intern

One of the projects my supervisor assigned was to work in a group of three with the two other interns in the office to create computer templates. This group project entailed the three of us to work separately at first to come up with a list of financial metrics we thought would be important to include in monitoring the company’s financial soundness, and then meet as a group to merge our three versions of the template into a cohesive whole. During the group-meeting portion of the project, one of the interns in the group was very difficult to work with because he became very defensive and argumentative about his template and refused to listen to what the other members suggested. It reached the point where he was raising his voice and causing the other members of team to feel uncomfortable and frustrated as well.

Solution

I took a step back from the tense situation and reassessed why this fellow intern was feeling and acting this way. The group decided to take a short break from the meeting to calm down. When we reconvened, I changed my communication style to focus on the big-picture task at hand and allowed room for everyone in the group to have an equal chance to voice their opinion about each section of the template. I positively affirmed my group mates’ ideas to make sure they knew that I valued their ideas, and tried to help broker compromise among the three of us to ensure that parts of each person’s individual work was somehow included into the final template that we presented to our supervisor.

Real Sticky Situation 2

Staying Connected after a Completed Internship

When leaving an internship, many times the goal is to get an offer from the company. Managing communications to be remembered is in itself a sticky situation. I think it would be very useful for interns to have some guidance on how to maintain the network they are building through their internships after leaving.

Solution

Before leaving, I wrote all of my direct supervisors handwritten thank-you cards that I delivered to them in person or left on their desks. During the last few days of my internship, I also scheduled brief one-on-one meetings with my supervisors to ask them for feedback and constructive criticism of my work for them. I also sent the other interns and the communications department I was a part of separate emails thanking them and explaining how much I had valued working with them. Then, I connected with the people I had worked with on LinkedIn and asked the supervisor I had worked with most to write a recommendation. As I was working primarily in a digital media department, I felt it was appropriate to also connect with them and interact with them through Twitter; I would post new digital analytic tools I had found directed at their account or re-post industry news. I also followed their pages closely on Facebook, liking and engaging as I saw fit. I attended a product launch hosted by the company in New York City and live tweeted for them throughout. Finally, I applied for a full-time position and succeeded.

Real Sticky Situation 3

Bored, With Nothing to Do

Your employer just launched a new marketing campaign in May. You start your internship in mid-June, and your first two weeks are very busy with various assignments related to this campaign. You really enjoy the experience of being thrown into projects right away. However, halfway through your internship, things slow down, and your supervisor doesn’t have a lot for you to do. She is also very busy with work that you cannot assist with and has not had a lot of time to think of new projects you can work on, so you are starting to get bored at work. On some days, you just surf the Internet and wait for the day to end. You are worried that the rest of your internship will be like this.

Solution

It is important for you to know what to do in this situation. Remember, there is always more than one right answer, so take time to think about your options before leaping into action. Go to your boss or manager and be clear and direct that you would like more to do. Without complaining or whining, remind them that you are there to learn as much as you can and are open to doing anything they need. Take your time before the discussion to look around and see what possible opportunities there are within your workspace so that you can suggest specific projects, such as conducting Internet research on specific topic recommendations.

Real Sticky Situation 4

Bait and Switch

Your internship is at a large nonprofit organization. In the interview and selection process, you met and largely interacted with the energetic and enthusiastic executive director. She seems as excited as you are about your working at the nonprofit. For the internship, however, the executive director explains that she will be very busy and therefore will assign one of her assistant directors to be your immediate supervisor. You are initially excited about the opportunity, but almost right away tension develops between you and your supervisor. She seems annoyed that she has to supervise and work with you. You have tried repeatedly to find polite but indirect ways to address the issue, but she seems totally resistant to your efforts. In addition, your work is not challenging or what you thought you were going to be doing.

Solution

There are multiple ways to proceed. Regarding the executive director: get on her schedule to meet. Before you do that, be aware of her schedule and the timing of when she works. For instance, if she gets in early, schedule the appointment for early in the day, if you see that that’s the best time to get her attention. Sit down with the director and, with no animosity or resentment in your voice, say something like this: “I’m very grateful for the position and I know you set the expectation that you were going to be extremely busy while I was here. I would really appreciate if you could take an hour a week to mentor me during my internship. I know that I have a lot to learn from you and I do not want to miss out on the opportunity.” If the opportunity is given to you to meet with her, make sure you are well-prepared at every meeting with specific questions that will help your overall growth, not the specifics of the job you are doing during the internship.

The best way to handle this situation with your supervisor is to work hard at eliminating any tension between the two of you. It is important that you are respectful and accept the work, even though it is not challenging. If possible, push the work to a new level to create a challenge for yourself. It is important to get agreement from you supervisor about how you can meet her expectations. Ask how she will measure your efforts as a success. See solution to Real Sticky Situation 3 for more insight.

Real Sticky Situation 5

Bad Assumptions

You are working for a consulting company, and you have been asked to organize and analyze a large set of financial data on a client company. Your supervisor will be using the data in an important team meeting in a couple of days. It is your first project, and you want to show your employer that you are very capable and up to the challenge, but when you receive the data, you are unsure about exactly what you are supposed to do. You see that your supervisor is really busy and do not want to bother him, so you decide to just try to figure it out as best you can. When you present it to him, he tells you that the data was not organized or analyzed in the way he needed.

Solution

When in doubt, it is important to ask you supervisor for a few minutes of his or her time. Assumptions can only get you in trouble, especially when you have a short amount of time to make the best impression. The best solution is to go to your boss and ask for clarification. If you are not sure what to say or you are worried that he will feel that you were not paying attention when he assigned the project, say something like this: “I want to make sure that I do this exactly the way you would like it done. There are a few places where I may be making assumptions, and I want to make sure that I meet your expectations. Could we go through these areas in the data?” If after that conversation you present the data and the feedback is not to his liking, then ask him politely to give you specific feedback and details. Thank him for his feedback and redo the work. You will actually be training him how to present data to get the results he wants in the future.

Real Sticky Situation 6

Unclear Expectations

Before your internship began, you were told that you should be at work every morning at around 8 a.m. For the first few weeks, you arrive at work every morning by 8 a.m., but you notice that your coworkers do not usually arrive until 9 a.m. at the earliest. Furthermore, your supervisor does not generally get in until around 9 a.m. You generally have nothing to do for the first hour you’re there because the supervisor tends to give you specific daily work.

Solution

It is important for you to go to your supervisor and clarify the hours and expectations. Ask what work should be done first thing in the morning. Let them know that you are open to coming in at 8 a.m., but you’re just not sure of the expectation until he or she gets there and gives you your daily assignment. Keep in mind that people get extremely busy, and it may be a complete oversight. Just be careful in that situation to be open and receptive, not annoyed or frustrated. We cannot read minds, so asking clarifying questions aids in the communication process.