4 Significantly Sloppy Statements Never To Say In An Internship

By Julia Dunn on November 16, 2015

Congratulations–you’ve gotten yourself an internship!

Internships provide valuable, foundational job skills and experience for any field you’re pursuing, and the majority of them are a lot of fun as well as fulfilling.

You should probably know by now that you will have some sort of supervisor “over” you in your internship, as it is a professional opportunity. You are now in a position to demonstrate what you know and to put this knowledge into practice, while showing your supervisor you are worth promoting to even greater positions.

Unfortunately, some interns may jeopardize their position by what they say in their internship, especially if they say certain things to people of higher authority. Here are the four things you should never say in an internship (if you’re interested in keeping your position, that is).

Image Via Pixabay.com

1. “Hey, sorry I’m late, I’m still kind of high from this afternoon’s kickback.”

Certain details should be left out of your internship interactions entirely. Referencing your involvement in illegal activity when talking to your supervisor will not cast you in a positive light (especially if said behavior is the reason for your tardiness or absence).

No matter how drunk or high you were last night or earlier today, your internship supervisor is not the one to whom you should spill the details. Internships require a level of professionalism that you must carry out in your work, and thinking about which parts of your weekend you should or should not share with your internship staff is a must before you blurt out something that could harm your professionalism.

Image Via Pixabay.com

2. “I’m so bored.”

If you’re bored, why did you accept this internship position?

Never (ever) say “I’m bored” in your internship. Sure, there may be aspects of your job you enjoy less than others, but you need to communicate interest and commitment to your supervisor in order to be taken seriously. Furthermore, there is a difference between courteously asking to take on more complex tasks and complaining about simple projects that you think are beneath your abilities.

With any position, there will be elements of it that you dislike. You may need to complete certain tasks before having access to more interesting or challenging ones. If you’re truly bored, you should reconsider why you’re interning at your organization and reassess your priorities. There are plenty of students out there dying to gain job experience through an internship like yours, so recognize your privilege and learn as much as you can from your position.

3. “It looks like a really good resume builder.” (In response to an interview question to the effect of “Why do you want this internship?”)

If you’re saying this, you might as well waltz out of that interview room right this instant.

No company wants an intern whose only motivation for working there is to fluff up their resume. You may indeed be in search of positions to fill up your empty space under “Experience” but you should be interning for a company/organization because you’re interested in the related field.

Companies love passionate interns willing to do anything they can to learn about an industry and how to jump into it — they don’t love apathetic students who don’t give a flying yahoo about the work they’re doing.

Image Via Pixabay.com

If you’re looking to boost your resume, find an internship that matches both your skills and interests. This way, you will actually like what you’re doing, you’ll care about the organization’s progress, and along the way you will pick up opportunities that can boost your resume — but then again if you’re in the right internship, you won’t be motivated by a resume alone.

4.) “Sorry I missed your message — I don’t really check email that much.”

You should know how the people at your internship communicate, and you should get used to the methods by which they disseminate instructions or other information. Laziness will not keep you working at your internship, and your supervisor will likely not always go out of their way to accommodate your communicative needs to any extremes. If your organization uses email as a primary means of communication, you should make the sincere effort to do the same; otherwise, I guarantee you will miss timely announcements critical to carrying out your position.

The act of meeting your internship supervisor on their level and showing respect for their communicative methods will benefit you — it will teach you how to adapt and work with others on a more formal ground. Plus, young people can’t expect their supervisors all to use social media to get messages out to interns or employees (some do, some do not), so learn which media are the best for contacting your supervisor and other interns.

Ensure that these four things never slip out of your mouth when interacting with folks at the organization for which you are interning. Thinking before speaking sounds cliche, but it is vital to developing a professional attitude and for staying conscientious of others you work with/for.

After all, why wouldn’t you want professionals to take you seriously and grant you opportunities to advance in your career experience?

Image Via Pixabay.com

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