In your day to day work, you will have your supervisor and teammates to help you learn how to do your work. It’s important that you advocate for what you need and want out of this experience, and tell them when something isn’t working for you or when you feel ready to grow and take on new responsibilities. The goals assignment you’ll complete at the beginning of your internship is the first of many conversations you can have to ensure your wants and needs are met.

You should also download and ask for help completing the intern startup worksheet. This contains important information to ask at any new job.

Asking for help and opportunities

We recommend you use the training and resources available as you try a task for the first time. If you’ve done that and tried to figure out the answer for yourself, then you should ask someone at your site for help. Be prepared to tell them what you tried and why it didn’t work. Have questions or examples ready. Do not wait until the deadline to ask for help. Give yourself time to try, get help, and complete the task on time.

Are you ready for more work or increased responsibility? Ask!

• If you’ve run out of tasks for the day but still have time left, ask what else you can do. They may have other things for you to start or smaller tasks to do for your remaining time that day. Don’t just sit and do personal things on the clock, they expect you to let them know when you’re done and need more to do.
• If you think you’re ready for different tasks or want more responsibility, ask what other projects you can do. Be curious about what the rest of the team is doing, pay attention to upcoming projects and offer to get involved, or remind them of your goals to see if they have ideas for other responsibilities.
• Sometimes they may need you to complete additional trainings and learning or they want you to prove that you have skills like attention to detail or strong professional communication before they allow more responsibility or new projects. Ask what else you would need to do to be able to take on this work and then show you’re working on those skills or trainings.
• You may also need to prove that you’re working consistent hours and can be relied on to complete the work and meet deadlines. If they give you feedback about that, work on it before asking again.

Reach out with problems

Check in with your day to day supervisor on a regular basis. This allows you to alert them to challenges you’re facing in the work or in life. If you’re unhappy with the work or want to do something else, bring it up in a meeting. They are often unaware that you’re unhappy or struggling with a task or time management until you say something. They want you to succeed and learn, you won’t be in trouble for asking for help or bringing up challenges.

It’s also ok to ask for more structure or clarity on expectations. They want to give you independence and freedom to solve some problems on your own but if you’re stuck you can ask for guidance. This also applies to scheduling. If you need more structure on your work schedule or deadlines, ask for help in how to learn to break up work or set deadlines and structure to your day. This is an important skill to learn for future jobs.

Scheduling

Is your schedule not working? Do you need time off for a lot of upcoming exams or an appointment? Let them know as soon as possible.

• Make a master calendar of all of your exams, big projects, and appointments. Notify your team early in the semester if you can see that certain times will be busy. This allows them to schedule around you weeks or months in advance. Supervisors can be frustrated if you frequently cancel your shift at the last minute for reasons that should’ve been on your calendar and aren’t an emergency.
• The first few weeks are a trial run of your work schedule. If you realize that it takes longer than you thought to go from class to the internship or you always seem to be running late, adjust your schedule and let them know. They can be flexible if you communicate your needs.