There for 8 hours, only working for 2: These summer interns were neglected — or ghosted — by their bosses
Lots of college students get ghosted by their Tinder dates. Olivia Reiskin was ghosted by her boss.
The Boston University student worked remotely as a social media intern at a makeup company based in California. That was until her boss stopped all communication with her by blocking her on multiple platforms, she said. Reiskin interned at the company from the end of February until the end of June.
“I really was more frustrated because she thought that she could treat me like that just because I was an unpaid intern,” Reiskin said. “It honestly felt very dehumanizing because she was treating me as if I was a part of social media but not an actual person.”
Reiskin’s now-viral social videos explaining the situation amassed more than 20 million views, and many students commented on their shared similar experiences of summer internship nightmares. One major complaint comes up again and again as internship season draws to a close: There just wasn’t that much to do.
“This isn’t how I want to be treated. If I’m going to be hired, I want work. I don’t want to be sitting there all day long doing nothing,” said Liam Gillin, a freelance concert photographer and content creator based in New York City who had two negative internship experiences while he was in college.
Interns are often forgotten when their managers become busy doing other work, said Megan Mooney, a managing partner at Vetted, a Boston-based recruiting agency.
“When you look at the issue of interns being ignored,” Mooney said. “These issues point to a larger, more systemic problem in corporate America, where I think people are so insanely overworked, they’re stressed out, they’re just completely underwater with their workloads.”
However, despite managers being too busy to assign work, interns are still being compensated the same.
Tanisha Bhat, a journalist who recently graduated from Boston University, had her first internship at a local news station in 2022. She was supposed to be working on TV and digital projects, but halfway through her internship, the manager who was working with her on TV stopped sending her work or responding to her messages.
Bhat received the same paycheck because she was still working for the digital team. But the experience hurt, she said. She felt she didn’t get the opportunity she had expected in journalism and came to question whether it was the field for her.
“You’re the youngest there. You’re looking up to all these adults, and you’re hoping that they’ll guide you, that they’ll show you the ropes,” Bhat said. “It got to a point where I was like, I can’t keep begging for work, it’s just so awkward.”
Afsana Mim is an intern for a government agency in New York City and a rising sophomore at Hunter College. Everyday, she spends five to 10 minutes checking and responding to emails. Usually, she does this for about an hour.
She said when she finishes her tasks, she takes her phone out and makes her way through a list of TV shows. Around lunch, she’ll take an hour-long walk by the Hudson River.
“I’m basically here for eight hours, Monday to Friday, when it feels like I only work maybe one or two hours altogether,” Mim said. “There’s just really not much to do.”
She said she previously worked in the restaurant and retail industry and when it was slow, there was always something to do. But in her current position, she feels helpless sitting here.
Mim, like other interns, is eager to work.
“The younger generation is so energized and eager to learn and figure out what they want to do with their life,” said Beverly Hart, who shares advice to interns on TikTok where she has more than 20,000 followers. She was previously an intern manager for Congress, where over the course of three years, she hired and managed about 30 interns.
Hart works in government affairs in Washington, D.C., and said she never ignored her interns but she did see it happen, especially among supervisors who were more concerned about their own career trajectories.
“If we had four interns that day, especially on a Monday or Friday, we probably didn’t have enough work,” Hart said. “[During] a light week or light month, we certainly ran out of work, and they would get bored.”
But forgotten interns shouldn’t fret. Christine Cruzvergara, chief education strategy officer at Handshake, an organization that helps early-career professionals find jobs, said some students she advised felt like they weren’t contributing enough at their internships.
She said interns who feel like they’re not contributing enough should talk to their direct managers about ways they could help. These might include observing and taking notes during meetings or doing extra research for a team project.
Cruzvergara said it’s important for interns to sit down with their managers and set expectations at the beginning of the internship. Such as, does the intern sit at the table during meetings? Are interns expected to speak up or should they listen? Are weekly write-ups required?
As interns prepare to leave the office and head back to the classroom, Hart said it’s important for them to maintain relationships they’ve built with their team.
“What makes me bummed out is when interns leave my office and then I never hear from them again until three years later when they need a reference for a job,” Hart said. “As you exit your internship, make sure to get everyone’s contact information [and] give them yours.”
Cruzvergara said open communication can help interns with their experience in the long run.
“Everybody functions differently, and the more you have conversations about that, the more helpful it will be to you to hit the ground running,” Cruzvergara said. “An internship is a short amount of time, and you need to maximize and optimize that time as much as possible.”
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