Types of tasks and tips for interns

What can I get my intern to do?

Your intern should be given a range of work tasks and opportunities to understand your organisation and engineering practices. Variety is the spice of life and of work!

Some tasks can be completed as part of a team project or a task may be something the intern completes on their own. Any task you give the intern(s) should help you assess how well the intern understands:

• why the task is important/necessary for the project
• what the steps are in completing a task
• who else is involved in the task
• how to evaluate success in the task
• how to solve problems or overcome setbacks

They have to give a speech at our weekly team meeting. Each person in my team will tell me what they have done for the week, what challenges they encountered and what you are planning for next week. I also give interns an opportunity to hold a meeting or to do a presentation.

Jemma, intern supervisor

It’s informative for interns to see the entire lifespan of a project rather than being given fragmented tasks. If your intern is not provided with a range of tasks from easy to challenging, they will have a poor learning experience and may also become unmotivated, unproductive, and disappointed with their intern experience.

It may take a little time for you and the intern to get to know each other and to decide which tasks suit the intern’s interests and skill level.

There were definitely cases when I was given tasks that were above my ability, these were set to challenge and test me to think creatively. On more than one occasion I needed to remind my colleagues and supervisor that I was an intern and not an actual Engineer.

Intern

The tasks you give your intern should suit their knowledge, experience and ability and should also be a little bit challenging.  However, remember that a task with a high challenge for your intern will also require high support/guidance from the mentor/supervisor.

We often give interns work in research and development kind of areas, so we look for interns with technical competencies that are up to date.

Perry, supervisor

Tips

The students sometimes ask more questions about what they are being asked to do than someone with a bit more experience might do but that’s the way it is. I think you have to accept that otherwise there is no point having students at all. It’s just part of the deal so I think it’s all the reason why we get good value in that sense.

Perry, supervisor

The advice from Perry is to be patient and make interns feel comfortable to ask questions. The intern quote below also highlights the value for interns of talking with supervisors.

On the very first day I was clueless as to the task, however, through research, talking with employees and asking questions I soon wrapped my head about the task and was able to produce numerous proposals that provided an efficient, cost effective and functional result.

Intern

Allowing time with interns especially at the beginning of the internship and a new task will avoid misunderstandings and encourage dialogue. Some interns have reported that they were given a task with no supervision, instructions or preparation. This is risky because if the intern does not already have the skills or experience for the task (or a similar task), they can become frustrated, have a poor learning experience, and not be a productive member of the team. Take a little time to ensure your intern understands what they will be doing and are motivated to try!

Mostly what I can do for an intern is to see what knowledge the intern doesn’t have and fill it for the specific role. When we get a new design in or a new board in, we go over it, point out what all the bits do, why they are there and what they are doing, why they are the shape they are. You have got to have some sort of background. We try to come to a consensus of what the intern would enjoy doing and what is useful for the team. The intern may not even be aware of some things that he/she could be doing so we try to illustrate those and let the intern make a choice.

Isaac, supervisor