1. Commuter Life
Whether it’s a matter of minutes or hours, commutes will always be miserable. Your only two options of either taking the train or driving are equally annoying. It would really be much easier if this whole "internship" thing could be done from home, in your pajamas, maybe with a little Netflix break?
2. Taking Phone Calls
Have fun talking to all of the random people that decide to call your office while simultaneously trying to stay professional. Good luck keeping it all together when a former exotic dancer inquires about potential jobs the office is offering. At the very least, you’ll develop quite the poker face.
3. Making Coffee Runs
No matter how hard you try, you WILL mess up someone’s Starbucks order. Good luck remembering seven different people’s orders with three different cards and the exact amount of change you have to give back. You know it’s bad when the barista throws in an extra double shot of espresso for you.
4. Working Through Lunch
Paid staff get lunch breaks, not the measly intern. You might want to invest in a nice lunch box and beg your mom to buy some lunch meat so you can at least throw something together. That, or you can pray that Chipotle will lower their delivery cost so you can eat some real food.
5. Accounting Is Terrifying
If you get asked to input the most recent requisitions to the accounting system, you might have to start off Googling what a requisition even is. Between juggling three different excel spreadsheets, the online accounting system, and paper copies of the accounting, you’ll really test your organization skills.
6. Technology Struggles
Industrial grade printers are NOT easy machines to use. So when they ask you to make copies for the first time, you might want to ask for a demo so you don’t accidentally print 172 copies of a paper instead of the three you were asked to print in the first place.
7. You're Over Qualified
Chances are, you’re more than qualified for the work you’re doing, like when they ask you to vacuum the carpet before people show up to interview. Try not to question why you’re interning rather than spending time at the beach like all of your other friends.
8. Office Lingo
When you hear in the morning meeting that two FM’s are coming in for an "indy" at noon and that they’re also having LTE training with FMIT’s, you should probably ask them to decode it for you. Plus, once you start using the cool lingo you’ll sound more like staff than an intern.
9. You're Not Alone
The mail man and door man are arguably more underrated than you are, so they genuinely understand the struggle of being at the bottom of the totem pole. These people will at least smile when they see you and sometimes just one smile is all it takes.
10. The Real World Isn't So Scary
The hours are long and the pay is nothing. However, working as an intern gives college students a glimpse into the real world that they will be inevitably thrown into after graduation, making the time spent, literally and metaphorically, invaluable.
