Internship challenges can occur for a number of reasons, but developing and maintaining clear, positive, communications will help to overcome many of the problems that can occur. By developing clear goals and expectations between yourself and the employer, you can avoid many of the problems before they exist.
You may feel that you are not doing what you expected to do in your internship and find yourself feeling bored and unappreciated; or you may find that you have little meaningful work to do and no one has taken the time to instruct you. There may be gossip flying around the office and you may have co-workers trying to get you hooked into the drama.
Communicating clearly and maintaining a professional stance will help to make your experience more positive. No matter what occurs over the course of your internship, you can still make it into a positive learning experience. Learning how to turn “lemons into lemonade” will be your best course of action, especially when you find yourself in a challenging situation.
Two quick tips:
(1) Be the most positive and enthusiastic person you know. This matters in business and it matters in life.
(2) Managers are busy doing stuff – so, don’t wait for them to tell you what to do. Create a project and do it.
Ted,
Thank you. This is very good advice from the business side of internships. Taking the initiative to create and complete projects is something that is really recognized and appreciated by employers.