internships

Internships: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

my intern thinks he’s great at things he’s terrible at

A reader writes: I have an intern who is book smart and a very hard worker. But there’s one big problem: he’s bad at things he thinks he’s a superstar with. A few examples: – He thinks he’s an amazing writer, but his writing is awful. He misspells words, leaves out words, has no organization, […]

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my intern asked if my pregnancy was planned

A reader writes: I’m pregnant with my first child. I’m just finishing my first trimester and have been sharing the news with colleagues. I’m wondering what, if anything, I should do in response to my intern’s reaction. Like everyone else I manage, I told her one-on-one behind closed doors. Her response was really odd — […]

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can I turn down business lunches as an intern?

A reader writes: I’m in the last semester of my junior year at college and just started an internship this month that I’m really enjoying. For context, I applied for a different internship that was not customer-facing, and after my Zoom call with HR was asked to interview for an internship on the team who […]

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I saw a private text about my intern having sex on her desk

A reader writes: I have a question about something that happened to me earlier in my career and what I should have done. I worked in a very small office: the executive director, myself, and an intern (who I managed). Often people would be in the office alone if others were out at meetings or […]

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my intern is way too passive

A reader writes: I am currently supervising an intern, Lauren, who is completing a postgrad professional degree in my field. The placement with my organization is a mandatory part of her course, and she is here to learn high-level skills with an emphasis on critical thinking and creativity. My field is one that most people […]

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can an intern refuse to do menial office tasks?

A reader writes: I work at a company with the general rule that any work you don’t want to do can be delegated to an intern. (Our interns are all paid and students.) Interns often find themselves assigned random menial tasks, like reformatting a PDF for a manager who can’t be bothered. On the reverse […]

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is our intern just clueless and inexperienced — or a con artist?

A reader writes: I am a mid-level engineer at a small (70-80 employees) tech company. We frequently host undergrad interns from a local university. Some were during the summer, and some were during the school year. These were all paid, full-time internships that lasted for 12 weeks. The past interns all had a great attitude […]

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you should be giving your interns mock interviews

A reader writes; My husband and I were having a water cooler chat in our kitchen today (we’re working remotely on different floors) and he mentioned something he’d been doing this week that I thought was brilliant. He’s a software engineering manager at a medium-sized division of a huge international corporation that does many things […]

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