If there’s one thing I’m confident in, it’s my ability to feel like I’m inconveniencing every person I encounter. Or, as I like to call it, one of the great woes of being born into Generation Z.
Okay, I’m kidding.
But also, not really.
This might just be a me thing — though, my “For You Page” on TikTok seems to tell me otherwise — but I’ve always had this part of me that never wants to be the one to cause a ripple in the water. When I say this, I mean I’d do anything to avoid making someone go out of their way to accommodate me, especially when working as an intern. I say “yes” when I should say “no,” nod along instead of speaking up, and apologize for literally doing my job — all because I’m worried my thoughts won’t be well-received or for the sake of making things easier on the people around me.
Tip-toeing around the people you intern for isn’t exactly what I would call an ideal way to learn and gain experience, but hey, to each their own, right?
No, not right.
So far from right, I can’t believe I let myself live like that for so long. No one should have to feel scared or worried that their role as an intern is inconveniencing or bothering other people at the workplace. Not you, not me, not anyone. It wasn’t until this past summer that I finally realized this, and it was all thanks to the help of an old boss.
They didn’t sit me down and give a profound speech or anything like that. It was just a simple response during our weekly team meeting. I, along with the other interns I was working with, told our team that we would gladly move our final project presentation to another day since the office was so stacked with other work. I thought they’d be thrilled. I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought, “Luckily, I’m just an intern, so it’s easy to move my schedule around!”
And all my boss said to us was: “No, we’re not moving the presentation date. You guys are a priority.”
It’s a bit anticlimactic, isn’t it? But, trust me, that’s the point. It seems simple and trivial and meaningless, because the whole reason I’m so worried is such a ridiculous thing to begin with.
Being told I was a priority, when I had never considered myself one in the first place, was like a slap in the face. Not to mention, I had never worked with people who thought so either.
So this is me telling you that you need to start recognizing that the work you do as an intern is important. Maybe you already know this, which I hope you do, but this is a friendly reminder that it’s okay to ask questions, to mess up, and to simply not know how to do something. You’re an intern! That’s normal! The whole reason you’re there is to learn and experience things for the first time. It would be weird if you could already do everything perfectly, you know?
You have to understand that there’s a legitimate difference between inconveniencing an employer with a careless mistake and expecting an employer to look at you for the intern — the student that’s still figuring it all out — you are. And unfortunately, it took me a long time to realize that.
I’ve watched so many friends desperately count the days until they could leave their internship, all because the people they worked for wouldn’t give them the time of day. Now, don’t expect a red carpet to roll out when you arrive or for people to fret over every little thing you do, but give yourself some credit. You deserve to intern at a place where your time and work are appreciated, not somewhere where they make you the coffee runner.
Believe me, it’s a concept that I still struggle to follow. There’s no easy 5-step regime to get away from the part of me that shrinks up at the thought of troubling someone. But I’m getting better at valuing my own hard work and expecting the same of the people around me, and I hope you can too. I know not all of us can be picky about where we intern. It’s not easy to land experiences like these, and sometimes there’s no way to know how things will go until you’re already there, but I hope my trials and tribulations can speak, if only just a little, to some of your own struggles.
Putting yourself out there to intern and gain experience is an accomplishment in and of itself. Start appreciating and celebrating the badass, hard-working person you are.