Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

What To Do When You Don’t Like Your Internship

You walk into your internship having no idea what it will be like. Half way through the summer you probably have a good idea what to expect each day. Some people love their internship but others aren’t as lucky. So what do you do when you don’t like your internship?
1. Take a bit and really figure out why you don’t like it. Is it what you are working on? Do you have too much work or not enough? If you can pinpoint the exact reasons why it may help you improve your experience.
2.Can you do anything to change your situation within your internship? Can you talk to your supervisor about changing the workload? Reach out to other people in the company? Also try to focus on what you personally can do – maybe volunteer to do a different kind of task or switch up the order of your tasks. Even little changes can help improve your internship.
3. If there is nothing you can do then focus on what you can get out of this internship and situation. What can you learn? Can you network and talk to other people to gain from their experiences? If nothing else, you can learn about what you do not like so you can avoid a job with similar characteristics and expectations in the future.
Even in unfortunate situations and when your internship isn’t what you thought it would be, still try to stay positive because this internship could be what helps you get better opportunities in the future.