[Tourism] 6 Challenges You Will Probably Encounter As an Intern

Any job will have challenges, but after a considerable period of my own internship experience and hearing friends share over drinks about their internships, One realizes as an intern there are common challenges one is bound to encounter.
Below are some of the challenges you will encounter
1.Inter- Intern Competition Some office environments may not be quite so friendly, as interns might be competing for a future job opening, or a good letter of recommendation. Some environment encourage collaborative efforts which are good but at some individual initiative is necessary. Which s where the problem comes in when on wants to out shine everyone else. Its healthy but too much of something?
2.Exploitation Because interns are just glad to get a foot in the door, some work places may take advantage of young workers by giving them very long hours of dull repetitive work. However, from my observations this seems to be less of an intern problem, and more the experience of entry level assistants in the legal, corporate and banking world.
3.Afraid to ask questions All of a sudden there’s an influx of work, and you finally have the chance to prove yourself! But you’re not sure about x, y, z….You may feel the pressure to be an independent and self-sufficient worker, but it’s so much better to clarify uncertainties!
4.Underutilization There’s not enough work assigned to you. You’re bored, underutilized, strumming your fingers at your desk and tempted to peruse Facebook. Asking your senior employees if you can help with their projects is fine, but it also can be embarrassing or disheartening repeatedly admitting that you have nothing to do. The best tactic I saw one of my fellow interns use was to ask employees if they have a moment to chat and give you an overview on their role in the office. As an intern you are there to learn about the profession, and if they have a conscience they will comply. Once you’ve got them talking about their work try to see where you could fit in. Maybe merely by voicing things aloud they will be inspired to get you onboard one of their longer term projects
5.Forgetful Supervisors Your supervisor gives you a project, but the directions don’t quite make sense to you, or you’re having trouble seeing the bigger picture. This goes along with don’t assume. Ask ask ask! It’s your right as an intern and it’s their duty as a supervisor! They will be impressed that you care about doing it right the first time or learning more about the overall field.
6.Un-utilised work Your boss gives you a project that you finally feel will make use of your college education. But it ends up never being published, getting lost on their desk, or, whoops – there was a miscommunication between the senior staff and your project is now unnecessary. Not only is this frustrating because of your seemingly wasted time and effort, but it makes you less motivated for projects in the future.
But you never know, your experience might be different.
Props courtesy of hub pages

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