The Do's and Don'ts Of Downtime At Your Internship

By Francine Fluetsch on March 26, 2015

This article is brought to you by Dream Careers, the largest global internship program for college students offering all-inclusive programs in 11 cities worldwide. To learn more about Dream Careers, please visit us at SummerInternships.com.

Picture this: you are at your internship, busting through all the work that was assigned to you for the day. In fact, you speed through it so quickly and efficiently (go you!) that you are left with nothing to do but still with some time on the clock.

image ia blog.shoplet.com

Does that mean it’s time to pull your phone out and update your Facebook status? Not quite. Here are a few ways you should and shouldn’t spend your downtime at your internship.

Don’t:

Go on your phone.

This is a very big no no, though we are all very tempted to do it. Even if you are done with all your work, having someone catch you on your phone makes you look very unprofessional. You are still on their time, so don’t be using it for things that should be done on your time.

The status can wait and the Twitter feed will still be there when you get off the clock. The only time it’s “okay” to pull it out is in the bathroom, but if you do this, don’t take forever. Other than that, you want to make sure your phone stays out of sight. It might even be a good idea to keep it off and in a bag so you aren’t tempted to check it.

Leave early.

If you decide to peace out because you think you are done for the day, your supervisor isn’t going to be very happy with you. If you ask to leave early, you could get on their nerves, and they might make you double check your work or simply give you busy work because you thought you could excuse yourself.

Sure, there are instances where it’s really slow at work and they might be okay with letting a few people go early, but especially if your internship is unpaid, the chances of that are slim, so I’d suggest not to ask. You made a commitment to be there for a certain amount of time, and you really want to make sure to honor that commitment.

This is great character building for the “real” job world, and will show your future employer that you aren’t one to flake out.

Distract others.

Just because you are done for the moment doesn’t mean that your colleagues are. As much fun as it is to talk, you wouldn’t want to be distracting others from doing their stuff, especially if a supervisor comes by and sees you chatting away with nothing in front of you.

They might not even bother to ask if you are finished with your wok, they will simply assume that you are slacking off, which is a label that you don’t want to be associated with.

Keep mentioning you are done.

If you keep going on and on that you are finished, people are going to get annoyed and fast, especially if they themselves aren’t done. This is another way that you will end up with more work that is more along the lines of grunt work than anything else.

And you definitely wouldn’t want your supervisor to decide to always assign you more, since apparently they didn’t give you enough the first time.

Do:

Use your noodle.

Have you ever heard that saying? Use your noodle basically means to think for yourself. If you know of other things that need to get done, start doing them. This will show that you take the initiative without having to be told what to do.

It will gain you some brownie points with your boss and will score you a great letter of recommendation. If you can do some stuff that you know you’ll have to do at some point in the week, you can save yourself some time for the future as well and stay busy while you are still supposed to be.

Ask what else needs to be done.

If you have done everything you can think of, ask your boss if they have anything that they would need you to do. If you are going to do this, make sure all your stuff is actually done and that you did it correctly, because I guarantee they will want to check that you did (especially if they believe that the task should have taken you longer).

You wouldn’t want to rush through something and ask for more work, only for them to make you go back and fix everything, forcing you to stay late or something; now that would be a real bummer.

Coffee run.

This one is going to depend on the place where you are interning, but everyone loves coffee, so if they are fine with you popping out for one, offer to get some for other people as well. You’ll gain some office points and will have an excuse for getting yourself a coffee.

These are just a few, but basically, if you have to hide what you are doing in your free time, you probably shouldn’t be doing it. Make sure to make the most out of the time that you have to be there, and it will all work out.

Looking for a top internship in an exciting city? Enroll in Dream Careers and guarantee yourself an internship and a fun summer in your choice of 11 cities globally. To visit our website, please click here.

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