Should I raise concerns about the quality of work an intern is producing?

Question

I am a developer in a small team of 3 developers and one intern. The intern is on a 12 week contract with us. He has been assigned a small project however he has very little development experience. I have encouraged him to raise any questions & concerns with myself however he has been rather quiet.

Recently I became concerned with the lack of communication so I sat down with him and went over his work. The quality of his work is of significant concern. Under normal circumstances I would avoid raising this concern with management as I don't see it as my place, however going forwards the application will manage a critical business process & I have my doubts about the maintainability & future development of the application.

In summary should I raise my concerns with management and if so in what manner?

Update: I had an informal chat with my manager and I raised it with him. Turns out he already had similar concerns and was planning on moving him onto his own project.

Answer 1

Yes, you should.

If this project is going to be touching anything critical, then it is your duty to protect that process. I'd raise the issue ASAP and suggest that the intern be reassigned to something less mission-critical.

If the intern is worth saving, phrase your concerns in a way to make it about having ANY intern on critical systems, which IMO is a valid thing to raise regardless.

Raise it in an email or in person. Either way, include specifics. Point out that he simply does not have the background for the task at hand and that his assignment to this project is a poor use of his skillset. Suggest another project for him if you know of one that is a better match for his skills.

IMO, this is not the fault of the intern, but of management who put him outside of his depth. You don't throw a weak swimmer into deep water one mile offshore.

The intern is on a mission critical situation. First: protect the company from that. Second, find a home for him, and then after that, train him up.

The immediate problem is that he has been placed in a bad situation. I wouldn't even put an untested Junior on mission critical projects, much less an intern.

Getting the intern out of a position where he can only fail is addressing a very serious concern about potential damage. That has to come first, take care of the intern after that, but ONLY after that

Answer 2

Is this intern in the right place, on the right project?

If not, try to help him out. You are in quite a small team so I believe you see the intern quite often. He is an intern for a reason, to learn. So help the intern out!

It IS in your right to raise concern, but make sure you or someone else have given the intern all the help you can give him, because again, he is there to learn.

A tip

Go sit down with the intern again, state your concern, and ask what he thinks about it. He might be an intern but he is not brainless. If the intern is motivated, try to teach him some of the basics about whatever language you are using at work.

Answer 3

It doesn't really matter whether an intern or a regular employee is involved. If you have concerns about a critical component not being implemented correctly, you'll be doing your manager a favor by expressing your concerns as soon as possible.

Just try not to sound like you're blaming someone. State the facts which make you believe the project is off track, and suggest solutions if you can think of any.

BTW, I don't see a problem with letting an intern work on a critical component, if done right. That's how you find bright heads you'll want to hire by the end of the internship, and keep them motivated by making them feel they are making a difference. We had one such intern recently, and he's one of the devs now. If you give your intern a toy project, you'll only get an option to hire a toy developer.

Answer 4

Yes

The law restricts what an intern can work on, among other things. The work performed is actually for the benefit of the intern; it should provide education or experience in his chosen field of study, should not be for the benefit of the company, and should not displace regular employees.

It sounds like all of these rules are being broken. He isn't primarily a programmer; he isn't learning about whatever his field is; and he is doing work alone, on mission-critical systems, potentially displacing an actual paid employee.

If the internship is an unpaid position in the United States, it sounds like this situation is AGAINST THE LAW. If you are from some other country, check the applicable laws.

Answer 5

First off, yes, you need to speak with your manager. You have a real problem: an intern is creating code that you have concerns you won't be able to maintain. This is a legitimate risk to the company and your efficiency and is worth addressing.

However, when you have this conversation with your manager, it should not be one that blames the intern. The conversation should focus on the question of how to increase the quality of the work. As an intern, it's expected that left to their own devices, they will not be able to produce code of the same quality as a develop who has been in the industry for several years. They simply don't have the experience to do so.

The only real solution to this problem is to start giving the intern the guidance they need to write higher quality code. This person is still learning, and they will not learn efficiently without guidance. (Notably, it is rather unlikely that their formal education has really prepared them for the workforce.) While putting the intern on work that is less critical will reduce the risk to the company, it won't solve the underlying problem that the intern is not receiving any guidance.

Some ideas you can take into the meeting to offer:

• Frequent code reviews of some kind
• Daily updates (scrums)
• Targeted work that will give them an opportunity to practice specific technologies or design practices

Your goal should be to get the manager to agree to invest in this intern's learning. It doesn't necessarily have to be you that spends this time, but someone needs to. If the manager is unwilling to do this, then they are choosing to accept low quality work, frustrated employees who have to maintain or replace it, and a frustrated intern. There really isn't a lot of in-between: either the company is willing to invest in helping the intern grow and is hoping to get a one-day capable employee, or the company is trying to use the intern as cheap labor and will get what it pays for.