Introduction:
Did you recently enroll into an internship that left a bad taste in your mouth? Have you not been able to deal with this experience properly?
Internships offer the first hands-on experience of a professional environment to a student starting her career. They are a great way to gain practical skills, make professional connections and taste the real working world. But, there is always a possibility of things not turning out well in an internship.
In this blog, we will be talking about these bad internship experiences, and the possible reasons behind them. We will primarily focus on tips that can help you to deal with a bad internship experience.
Common Reasons behind a Bad Internship Experience:
Limited Learning Opportunities:
There are internships where you don’t feel like you are challenged enough and can see no prospects for growth. This can contribute to your negative assessment of the internship.
Unsupportive Work Environment:
One of the main reasons that could lead to a bad internship experience is a lack of support provided by your office colleagues and supervisor. A toxic work environment, encountered at the start of your career, can be detrimental to the way you view work life for all the years to come.
Overworked and Exploited:
In certain internships, you might find yourself working beyond your capacity at tasks that were not part of your expected work. When this happens, without any compensation or recognition on the part of your employers, it can be really hard to put up with. There is no justification for such physical and mental drainage of your resources.
Poor Communication and Feedback:
Bad internship experiences can result from lack of communication between an intern and their supervisor. If a new intern doesn’t get proper feedback on the work that she is doing nor is she able to talk about her problems while working, then there can be no hope of satisfaction from the internship.
Mismatch of Expectations:
There are times when a mismatch occurs between your expectations of a particular internship and those of your employer. Suppose you enroll into an internship thinking that now you will get a chance to do some hands-on work on high stake projects, but it turns out that your manager only needs you to do marginal tasks related to a project. This can also lead to a bad internship experience.
Also Read: CV or Resume – Choose the right one for you
Tips to Help You Deal with a Bad Internship Experience:
Identify the Problem:
When you feel like you are having a bad internship experience, take a step back and try to assess the situation in an objective manner. Figure out exactly what’s bothering you, and once you have the problem singled out, you can look for ways to solve it. It could be the tasks you’re assigned, a cold shoulder from your colleagues, lack of communication from your supervisor and so on. Identifying it would help you to take the next step.
Communicate with Your Supervisor:
If there is a solvable problem, it could be solved by communication. Try to register your grievances to your supervisor in a cordial manner, and see if any of the suggestions provided by him works for you.
Connect with Your Fellow Interns:
Try to connect with other interns and see if they are facing similar problems. If you are going through a bad internship experience, it’s unlikely that they are having the time of their lives. Connecting with them would give you the much-needed emotional support, and might also help you to figure a way out of this nightmare.
Remember the Time Frame:
An internship has a finite period and it ends as all things end. Try to keep this in perspective as you struggle through your bad internship experience. Every negative experience prepares you to appreciate the positive ones when they come. You can always learn from this experience and make sure that you don’t end up in a similar spot again.
Despite your bad internship experience, you can still look forward to deepening your professional relationship with people you respect. You can also connect with professionals in your field through networking events. This will open doors for you after your internship is over.
Reflect on Your Career Goals:
A bad internship experience can help you to reconsider your career choices and make you aware of your own values. Reflect deeply on the situation that you find yourself in. It will prepare you better for all the choices that you make in your future career and thus end up being a really significant turning point in your professional life.
Also Read: Professional Networking – The Art of Building Meaningful Connections
Learn with DT Evolve:
You can have a bad internship experience if you find yourself mired in conflict with your colleagues or your supervisor. This helps no one and can only make the situation worse. If you are looking for something that would help you manage conflicts in a more graceful and constructive manner, DT Evolve has a course for you. It would take you through a step-by-step approach to help you resolve conflicts in your personal and professional life. Here’s the link to the course, Conflict Management.
Conclusion:
In this blog, you learned about the common reasons behind a bad internship experience, which were all discussed in brief. These reasons can range from a mismatch of expectations to overworking and exploitation. Then we looked at some of the best tips that can help you to deal with a bad internship experience. These included communicating with your supervisor, connecting with other interns, putting the internship in perspective and so on. If you follow these tips, you will be able to tend to those wounds that resulted from your bad internship experience, and come out on the other side a robust professional.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
It’s okay to make mistakes, in internships as in life, but it’s not okay to ignore the consequences of them and be unaccountable for them. If you are committing mistakes, work on them so they don’t happen again, and communicate to your supervisor regarding the issue.
Interns could be struggling with a variety of things like lack of learning opportunities, toxic work environment, poor communication and feedback on their work and a general mismatch of expectations between them and their employer.
Use your time away from work to talk to your colleagues, as it would help you ease into the work environment. Try to talk with your supervisor regarding whatever is troubling you. Use mindfulness techniques to reduce stress and anxiety in general.
To properly deal with a bad internship experience, identify the problem first. Communicate with your supervisor about your problem, and bear in mind that this internship has a finite period and it will end. Connecting with your fellow interns while also networking beyond your internship would help too.
If you are having a troubled time in your internship, it’s likely that they are going through something similar. Reaching out to them will give you the much needed emotional support, and might also give you hints to get out of this mess.
Internships can sometimes feel overwhelming to people just entering into the working world. They might not feel compensated enough for the work they put in, and there is always a risk of not easing into the working culture of the company.
