How to deal with challenges and lack of learning opportunities during your internship

Melissa (not her real name), a Year 3 business student at Singapore Management University (SMU), sought and secured a spot as an organisational development intern at a utilities company in December 2024. 

The 23-year-old SMU student, who asked for anonymity, said she could not remember much of what she was told during the pre-internship interview.

But she did recall being given a “vague” outline of her expected tasks, with the aim of improving company culture. 

Since the organisational development department was newly formed, Melissa could only assist in researching and planning programmes to improve the workplace environment.

This planning phase lasted the entire six months of her internship, which made her feel unproductive.

“I felt useless not doing anything and staring at the (computer) screen,” said Melissa.

“It made me dread coming to work, because as someone who likes to work and feel preoccupied, I felt like I wasn’t doing anything with my time.”

Mr Gerald Tan, a career counsellor and projects director at Avodah People Solutions, said that when universities engage his company to conduct career workshops for students, he hears many stories similar to Melissa’s from student interns.

“Around 40 to 50 per cent of the interns we speak to face the issue of being bored at work, or getting tired of doing the same work for three or four months, and they want to try something new,” he said. 

Sam (not his real name), a 22-year-old currently set to start university studies soon, did a six-month internship as a polytechnic student in the quality assurance department of a pharmaceutical company from September 2022 to February 2023.

He initially believed that his job involved joining his bosses on factory audits, as he had been told by his employer at a pre-internship briefing that he would “help to establish better control measures for their factory processes”. 

However, since he did not have clearance as an intern, he was only allowed to read past audit findings before keying them into the company’s electronic management system.

“It got to the point where there was simply nothing left for me to do, and I was just rereading some documents I’d already read,” said Sam, who also requested anonymity out of worry about his future work prospects.

Mr Jeremiah Wong, lead career developer in career counselling and coaching at Avodah People Solutions, said: “Although some companies may be big names in the industry, and the job scope might look fairly interesting, reality often differs from expectations.”

Ms Clarice Chan, director of Aureus Consulting, a firm providing education, career and life coaching services, said that some companies “might genuinely have limited resources or time to train interns for complex, high-clearance tasks”.

But she added that simply saying “I have nothing to do” is not the solution.

Ms Chan emphasised how important it is for interns to ask for check-ins with their employers, so they can discuss the way the internship is going. 

“Communicate with your supervisors respectfully and persistently,” she said.

“In the check-ins, proactively (review your) progress and ask managers how to best contribute, highlighting work you’re eager to do for hands-on learning.”

If interns hope to contribute more to the firm, experts suggest networking internally with other departments in the company.

Added Ms Chan: “Reach out to other departments or other teams within your department, let them know you’re interested in their operations and would like to meet them for a quick chat. This can lead to insights and small tasks.”

Mr Wong said: “If you put yourself out there and let other departments know what skills you have, other departments will know that you are an available ‘talent to utilise’ and may invite you to offer your expertise.”

In Melissa’s case, after asking her superior if she could try working in other departments, her boss informed the other department heads to contact her if they needed help.

She was then able to complete tasks for the learning and development, talent management and talent acquisition teams. 

“In these departments, I helped to plan and host a workshop on improving work process efficiency, do administrative work for the scholarship application process, and plan and host intern engagement initiatives,” she said.

Yet fundamentally, Ms Chan believes it is important for interns to recognise that there are still skills and knowledge to take away from every internship.

Using Sam’s example, she explained: “Reading past audit findings gives you exposure to what kinds of issues occur, how they’re documented, and the standards expected in pharmaceutical manufacturing. This knowledge is crucial for quality assurance.”

She added: “By shifting your perspective and finding value in your work, something boring could become something foundational.”