How To Talk To Your Internship Supervisor About These 5 Problems

By Francine Fluetsch on April 21, 2016

This article is brought to you by Dream Careers, the largest global internship program for college students offering all-inclusive programs in 11 cities worldwide. To learn more about Dream Careers, please visit us at SummerInternships.com.

image via thoughtcatalog.com

As we all know, internships are wonderful resume boosters, so many students seek to accomplish one or two before they graduate so they will have something flashy to show for when they are applying to grad school or their first job.

Internships are a lot of work however, especially on top of schoolwork, so here are some ways to discuss grievances with your supervisor to make the internship experience one that you can still manage.

1. The balance with school

Your supervisor knows you are in school, but they don’t know your schedule, so you want to make sure you are able to have open communication about certain weeks where you can take on more work for the internship, and certain days that you would be grateful for a lighter load. Stressing about internship work on top of a midterm is going to give you bad results in both, and you definitely don’t want that, so you want to be upfront with what you can handle and when you might need some slack.

This isn’t to say you should be asking for more time on every assignment of your internship work, because that would look bad on your part. Long story short, don’t abuse the power of asking for extensions/lighter workload, and everything will work out.

2. Fellow interns who aren’t playing fair

As with any aspect of life, there are bound to be some fellow interns that you don’t particularly like working with. We all know how that goes for group projects. If you have really been trying your best to work with these certain individuals and it’s just not panning out, it might be time to tell your supervisor. No, this doesn’t make you a rat. You can phrase your grievance in a way that makes it clear that the person and yourself are better off working with others and will be more productive that way. Definitely don’t throw anyone under the bus unless the case is severe enough to the point where the other intern probably shouldn’t be working there anymore.

If you gave it a fair shot and know that you could be doing better work with different people, it is okay to say that. Your supervisor might move you or they might try and help fix the situation, but whatever the case, they will be able to see your side and be kept in the loop as to what is going on.

ej4.com

3. Unobtainable deadlines

Sometimes, a lot of work is going to be thrown your way, and there may be times where it is physically impossible to get it all done by the deadline. Supervisors haven’t had to be in your position for a while, so they may have forgotten just how long it actually takes to do a layout for the website you are working with, or make a detailed advertisement with Indesign. It is perfectly okay to go talk to them about it if you are having a hard time meeting their deadlines. Do not take this in a way that you can slack off and then ask for more time. They will be able to see how much work you are actually putting in and will be able to guess if you could actually meet the goal or not based on your performance.

Sometimes your work might not be completed right away because you have to rely on outside sources, like a killer interview from a person who won’t call you back, or a collab effort with a co-worker who has been sick. The sooner you let your supervisor know about the work and how it may not be completed by the deadline due to these factors, the sooner they will be able to work with you on creating a new deadline. Do not tell them something like this the night the project is due. My guess is they will have a lot less sympathy for you.

4. Not enough work

Huh, did you read that header correctly? Yes, it is a problem that actually happens a lot. Sometimes, interns are just there as the people who do the busy work, and not much else. You are there to learn, to gain experience, to put something valuable on your resume, and you won’t really be obtaining that if all you were doing was getting coffee and copying papers.

If this is the spot you are in, talk to your supervisor about it. You want to prove to them that you are more than happy to help out more, and that you really want to build up your skill set. If they see that you are proactive and your work reflects what you are saying, you’ll be working on some top-notch programs in no time!

5. Not enough direction

Sometimes, interns aren’t all that sure what exactly they should be doing, mainly because no one has taken the time to tell them. If you find yourself looking confused at the other interns, asking what you should all be doing, and everybody shrugs, it might be time to ask for direction. While it’s nice to have some free reign, you also want to make sure that you are doing things correctly and getting done what is expected of you, which you can’t really do if you don’t know what that is!

Talk to your supervisor about it or ask to set up weekly meetings so you’ll know exactly what needs to get done. It will make you look determined and focused, and it will ensure that you aren’t wasting your time.

These are just a few problems that can occur at your internship. Think of any others? Leave them in the comment section below!

Looking for a top internship in an exciting city? Enroll in Dream Careers and guarantee yourself an internship and a fun summer in your choice of 11 cities globally. To visit our website, please click here.

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format