Internships, a word that entices possibility, panic, and an overwhelming sense of being left behind in most college students, are still portrayed as golden tickets to a prosperous future. “Get an internship,” we’re told, and you’ll get ahead of your peers in the oversaturated job market we hear about daily, and subsequently walk into a job after graduating. However, perhaps behind the perfectly worded LinkedIn posts and shiny new corporate wardrobe lies a shock back to reality. Working as a summer intern can be both exciting and exhausting.
Before beginning their 3-month journey, most interns like to envision themselves delivering articulate presentations to senior management, impressing their managers, and returning to college with an offer secured. The glossy recruitment adverts feed into this fantasy by promising mentorship opportunities and first-hand exposure to the real corporate world. We expect to contribute, to be noticed, and most importantly, to be valued.
However, the reality is often far more multifaceted. Internships can provide invaluable opportunities, networking with like-minded people, dipping your toe into office culture and politics ( a task mastered by few), and the satisfaction of earning money in your chosen field. At the same time, interns often hit the harsh reality that their job and responsibilities resemble an outsider rather than a junior employee.
Sometimes, you’re assigned tasks of significance that can leave you feeling underqualified and as out of place as you did when you arrived on your first day at junior infants. Other times, you’re delegated to often mundane administrative jobs, wondering if you should send that team’s message requesting more work. While some firms invest in their interns and offer fulfilling experiences, others unfortunately see them as disposable labour, a number that will be replaced with the next eager college student in a years time. In conclusion, the reality of being a summer intern can be shortened in one sentence: it depends on where you end up.
The first week is usually exhausting, being whirled into a completely different world and bombarded with new faces and information to remember can be overwhelming for the best of us. There are acronyms to learn and unspoken rules to decode, as well as remembering where the bathroom is. Do people take their lunch break in the canteen or elsewhere? Can you leave at five, or will you be silently judged? Should you try to start up coffee chats with senior management or keep your head down?
However, it’s in navigating these unfamiliar situations and challenges that interns grow in themselves and their confidence. You learn to word your emails to hit that sweet spot between professional and warm. You realise you’re actually allowed to ask questions and you don’t have to feel stupid. By August, most students feel they’ve aged about five years in professionalism.
Despite this, there is a dark side to internships that is rarely spoken about or acknowledged by professionals. Firstly, unpaid or underpaid internships are still very common in areas such as media, fashion, and politics. As a result, such opportunities are reserved for students who are in the financial position to work for free, which is not realistic for everyone. Even in paid internships, minimum wages often fail to reflect the long hours or the value interns can bring.
As well as this, interns can be subject to company exploitation because of their eagerness to please. Most want to avoid being the person who says no or sets boundaries, resulting in them often working late, taking on extra tasks, and tolerating treatment that full-time, more experienced employees might push back against. By the time college starts back in September, many interns are running purely on caffeine and the motivation for a return offer, leading to the psychological toll of perfectionism. The prospect of a graduate role often induces anxiety about every mistake in a role designed for learning.
Scrolling through LinkedIn in May or June can be torture for those who didn’t land an internship. The FOMO is enhanced with a fear that your peers are outperforming you and will leave you disadvantaged after college ends. While these posts are normalized and even viewed as essential, they rarely capture the full story. Behind the polished updates and team photos lie tears in the bathroom, lonely long commutes, or the dreaded feeling of being invisible to your manager.
Social media creates the illusion that everyone else is living the perfect life, and LinkedIn is no different from Instagram in this regard. Admitting our realities publicly feels socially unacceptable, so the illusion continues, while others feel inadequate by comparison.
Although internships are not perfect, like most jobs, they are not without joy. The active learning, laughter at lunch with your team, and being proud when you contribute something that matters are beyond rewarding. Many interns develop friendships that last beyond the summer, and others find mentors or connections who inspire their careers.
We must remember that the overall purpose of an internship is to provide college students some sort of clarity, by confirming a career path or ruling one out. Realising that you don’t want to work in a certain industry at 20 rather than 40 is incredibly valuable for redirection. The experience, whether good or bad, provides you with stories of achievements to recall in future interviews and resilience to face the next challenge in the job market or beyond.
The reality of being a summer intern is that it’s complex and imperfect. It’s rewarding and exhausting, empowering and defeating. The secret is to approach any and all internships with an open mind. Shed any expectations for them to solidify your career for the next 50 years, but don’t dismiss them as unnecessary stress either. View them as what they are, a learning opportunity and a talking point on your CV to level up your career, no matter where it takes you. The 12 weeks will, without a doubt, be an opportunity to grow and discover more about yourself and ultimately what you want.
