10/28/13, 2:45PM
When I finally made it to the office to start the first day of my internship, only one thought filled my mind: my career was officially over. I was half an hour late on day 1; way to make a first impression, Bob! After I regained my breath, I decided to calmly explain the circumstances to my supervisor and own up to the responsibility. He was surprisingly calm and seemed impressed when I offered to stay overtime that day to make up for my lateness. One thing is for sure: I am going to give myself extra time on my commute from now on to avoid this issue.
It has been a week and a half since then, and thankfully, I haven’t been late again. Now I can just focus on getting used to the job and my new environment. The office is built like a maze, and I feel embarrassed when I have to ask full time staff for directions. Everyone seems so busy, tucked away in their cubicles. I always worry that the clueless intern will only interrupt their workflow. Instead, the staff is generally warm and welcoming.
The workload is finally picking up. I’ve been working on a few projects from my team’s senior staff. I know I can handle this – after all, I’ve been juggling classes and activities at Baruch.
This is starting to be a little overwhelming. I have been stuck on a problem for hours and I can’t figure it out for the life of me. It’s hard to balance between work and meetings – I was almost late for a meeting today. Sometimes I wonder if I can really handle all the expectations they have for the interns. Will I ever get comfortable in this new place?
Feeling overwhelmed at a new internship or job is definitely a common feeling. Does anyone have suggestions for what might help Bob The Intern manage his new environment and responsibilities? What has worked for others?
I think Bob’s situation is definitely not the worst. When I started my summer internship, my managers were expecting me to know everything. In the morning they were giving me the task that had to be completed by the end of the day, and they didn’t provide any detailed instructions on how to do it. Moreover, when I was asking for help, all I heard from my senior colleagues were sighs of impatience and annoyance. I decided to go to HR person, and after that it became a bit better.