Stories of horror internships have been scaring prospective applicants by perpetuating negative stereotypes and myths — long working hours, low pay, all you do is buy sandwiches and make coffee. For example, American author and comedian Jake Johnson said: “I had a lot of bad jobs but the one big internship I had was with ‘SNL’ when I was 21 years old and that was the joke. You intern there and you think man, I’m going to be with the writers and the great comedians. Then you’re getting everybody sandwiches and then the doors close.”

A study by College Recruiter showed that 75% of post-secondary students completed at least one internship. A Bloomberg study also showed that business students who completed business-related internships were more likely to receive job offers, and this is likely true in most industries, given that internships equip interns with the pre-requisite skills. Furthermore, an intern who wants to continue working in the same field is demonstrating keen interest in the field.

As the job market becomes increasingly competitive, internship experience on your resume has become increasingly sought-after. Students feel pressured to take up internships — to increase their employability, to make their resume more appealing, to learn new skills, to gain experience in an industry, or just because their peers are doing it.

Every internship is structured differently, and every intern will have a different experience, even if they are interning in the same firm. Some internships unfortunately do still involve grunt work. But as interns are becoming increasingly skilled, especially if they are graduates or penultimate year college students earning their final college credits, firms are starting to give greater responsibilities to their interns.

In order to learn more about internships, we talked to 4 interns from 4 different organisations about their internship experiences. Whilst their views provide interesting perspectives, they are definitely not representative of all internships.

Here are the profiles of the four interns we interviewed:

Bryan: “My internship experience was very fruitful as I had the chance to take on challenging tasks that I otherwise would not be able to experience if I took up a full-time admin job. I learnt a lot by working alongside experienced consultants. We were also provided free training in different consulting skills.”

Jane: “Although I had to do things that were out of my expected job scope, it exposed me to fields that I later took an interest in. I am grateful for that. Also, I learnt a lot of practical skills during my internship that I could not have gotten from books. My bosses were very understanding and nurturing towards me, teaching me what the industry was truly like.”

Tim: “What I envisioned to learn and what I actually ended up doing were mostly different. I probably had way too high expectations, as well as flawed notions with regards to the job scope. I feel that there could have been more opportunities for me to be more actively involved in the work, despite not having the required certification to officially take on the same duties as those who I worked under. I felt that the team could’ve been more inclusive despite my lack of knowledge; after all, I was there as an intern to learn.”

Mavis: “My internship was a great experience and I learnt a lot from it. I got to understand a bit more about the life of a teacher. The experience was authentic and they did not try to paint a rosy picture or cover up ugly truths just to attract us to join the industry.”

Interns ought to be provided with a clearly defined role. Internships should not be about carrying out boring and menial tasks in the photocopy room, which is the reason why some interns complain about having nothing to do. When interns have no defined role, they are left feeling unimportant and that they are just “cheap” labour. This fear is why some are hesitant to take up internships.

A study by Indeed found that interns enjoyed always having work to do. In addition, Penny Loretto, internship advisement Associate Director at Skidmore College, claims that one of the top complaints from interns is that there is not enough work to do, or that their work is menial. It seems that it is a recurring trend that firms are unwilling to have too much responsibilities conferred to their interns. What are some probable reasons for this?

According to Terry Lam and Larry Ching, authors of “An exploratory study of an internship program: The case of Hong Kong students”, one of the reasons why some interns only do menial work is because “managers are reluctant to empower decision-making authority to students as they are afraid of complaints from customers”. Another possibility would be because these interns, if they are still students, may not have the required professional certifications required to carry out certain tasks. This is what happened to Tim.

Lisa Curtis, Founder & CEO of Kuli Kuli, feels that “internships aren’t just about grunt work anymore”, but should be about how we “develop young talent and lay a foundation for recruiting brilliant young minds to work for your company”.

When interns are not provided with a clear direction, it is hard for them to have any motivation. It would be good if the entire outline of an internship can be thoroughly discussed and agreed upon before its commencement. It is of paramount importance that interns have a clear objective, and fully understands their role within the company. When interns have goals or targets that they need to achieve by the end of their internship, it would make them feel like they are contributing to the organisation or brand.

In order to get your interns to be more productive, they should be kept busy and engaged at work. Engaged interns would also be more motivated to learn and work. This is beneficial to both the intern and employer. A way to ensure that interns are not bored would be to assign interns with weekly tasks to accomplish. Additionally, they could also be included in certain short and long term projects, which would also allow them to feel more included in the organisation.

Bryan: “There were periods when the workload is very heavy and I have to work extra hours in order to finish my tasks.”

Jane: “Definitely the low salary. The salary was barely enough to cover my transport fees and lunch, but it was a start-up so it’s understandable. Anyway, my main consideration when accepting the internship wasn’t about the pay but rather the exposure.”

Tim: “For the most part, I dislike the repetitive nature of my daily work, given that I was not given the chance to help in most tasks due to my lack of official certifications. Overall, my internship experience has undoubtedly been insightful, although not nearly as engaging or challenging as I’d hoped.”

Mavis: “I disliked how some of the teachers had a bad attitude, both towards their jobs or towards those around them”

It seems that most interns are unsatisfied with their pay. But the thing is, most interns don’t intern for the pay – in fact, some even do unpaid internships. Students choose to intern for the learning value and the experience. If one’s immediate goal is money, he or she would be better off taking up a full-time admin job rather than an internship.

There are both paid and unpaid internships. However, taking up an unpaid internship is a privilege that not everyone can afford. Only those with sufficient financial resources will be able to work for several months unpaid. Paid internships will tend to attract a larger pool of applicants.

Other than attracting more applicants, paid internships can also bring about other benefits for the firm. Paying your interns make them feel valued. Nicole Smartt, Vice President of Star Staffing (one of the fastest-growing companies in America), feels that “compensation matters”. Paying an intern would make him or her feel more like an employee, rather than a trainee or just “an extra pair of hands”. Mark Babbitt, founder and CEO of YouTern, also claims that “paid interns are happy interns”. Interns who feel valued and are happy would likely have a better work attitude, be more eager to learn and be overall more productive, which would be valuable for the firm or department.

But if a firm can only offer unpaid or very low-paying internships due to financial constraints, it is important to ensure that the internship is mutually beneficial — that the intern is able to learn new skills while working for your firm and benefit from the internship experience.

Other than the low pay, interns also seem to dislike boring and menial work. Internships that revolve around doing grunt work and countless coffee runs (internships with MNCs or in the fashion industry are notorious for this) would only frustrate the intern, as they would feel like they are wasting their time, and that they do not achieve their primary goal of gaining work experience or learning new skills. Interns do understand that due to their lack of experience or qualifications, it is inevitable that they would have to carry out a certain amount of grant work. But at the same time, it cannot be the main bulk of their work. Employers should ensure that they are giving work that is intellectually stimulating and allows them to learn something new.