Internship is useless
Hi all, I’m interning at a BB in front office and the project I’ve been given is hideous. It’s basically a menial googling assignment that a 10 year old could do and isn’t even related to the markets one bit. I’m one of say 20 interns and they’re all working on technical and interesting projects but I’ve been unlucky and put on this useless team.
What can I do?! Can I go to the other intern teams and ask for projects from them (but at the end my manager is the one that decides on my offer)? Should I tell my manager I want something more technical and markets oriented?
Someone please help.
You're an intern. Yes you got unlucky with your task, yes your current task might be boring. Doesn't mean the internship is useless. You're there to get a return offer, not really to significantly contribute to the team - though this does happen sometimes. You're not really there to be entertained either. Some people are just less trusting with interns than others.
Just do the work you've been given, and do it so fucking well they'll question why they didn't trust you before.
Agree with this comment above, sorry to hear that it's not as stimulating as other interns are making it out to be, whether they are exaggerating or not. Think the key here is to make a good impression on your manager who has the most weight on the return offer. I would recommend smashing the work out of the park, maybe asking your team for more if you're no overwhelmed. Networking would also help a lot, try meet people outside of your team and learn more about the company, different roles etc. People will take notice of a proactive approach and attitude which is key.
Stick with it, trust takes time to build.
At my firm, we staff interns based on their capabilities.
If you don't have any prior experience or do not know the fundamentals of Excel / PPT then you are going to be doing "useful" work to make you look busy.
What you should do is to do your best on your current projects, go above and beyond, show eagerness and then when your mini project is done ask for feedback and kindly ask if you could try something else so you learn more stuff.
I agree with the above sentiment. I would under no circumstance push back on a project as an intern. Seniors want to know that you are also comfortable performing tasks that are not glamorous. You can't just pick and choose. Once you finish the project, mention that you'd be more than happy to help with technical, market oriented, or any other tasks. At the end of the day your objective is getting a return offer, and nothing else.
In addition to what Beyond Gravity said, try to become friends and shoot the shit with higher-ups who are receptive to it. At my first internship at a big semiconductor company, I didn't have a whole lot to do beyond about 6 hours of work per day. The norm on my team was 10am-8pm, so I just started chatting up the people who sat near me/sort of near me in the office hellscape...did a few favors for people on other teams (which I had no obligation to do whatsoever).
I became reasonably good friends with a few of these guys (all 20+ years older and on different teams, who I never would have met otherwise)...and wouldn't you know it, a bunch of them moved to better companies (FAANG)...and I'm starting full-time soon thanks to their referrals and pulling for me after my technical interviews at FAANG.
Maybe I'm completely wrong, but in my experience, if you're easy to get along with and pass the minimum bar in terms of technical competence, you'll almost always beat out the guy who's a stiff and a technical god.
Ask your manager for more/harder work, if you're retarded in excel, spend a few hours each evening for like a week and you have like 80% of the full-timers' knowledge - it's really not that hard.
Just make sure to deliver on whatever you're given, voice your eagerness to your manager, and don't be a cunt to be around.
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