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Note/Context: the internship is a specificity of my country, I work 50% of the year in a company and the rest at school, I have a little salary and some day off (but no school holiday). My contract ends at the end of my degree. My official status is Student.

I've been working since the beginning of my third year of College for a big company A who sent me at a customer B (inside their buildings). I am now in 4th year.

For more than the first year It was wonderful, I learned a lot and the atmosphere was really good at the workplace. Surely I sometimes faced some difficulties with my code but I always managed to get over them. At the end of my first year, I had meetings points about my overall work, how I was feeling with the internship etc... Everyone was happy.

Since nearly two months, I changed team and now using a new JS Framework from Google (my boss put me there so I can easily have contact with the front end developper to help me going along with my new solo project).

After some weeks I can now say that it is quite a disaster, I really don't like the atmosphere. There are 3 devs and one of them is making useless and inappropriate jokes about musical tastes, my work speed, or my code quality which he does not have a clue of what I'm doing since he is a back end dev. He is just hearing when the front dev "helps me". He is known to have this behaviour but people seems to have dropped the case. One point for him, he seems to be a very good back end developer.

The second and main issue is that as I said I was put here to get help if I needed to since my school does not provide any course on this Framework and I do not have a lot of experience in JS, but I do NOT receive any assistance. When I'm asking a question, they make fun of me and I feel the front dev is not that pleased to help me. So I ask him for help only when I'm stuck for days.

I'm doing overtime to compensate the fact that I'm quite slow and buying books over the new Framework (+ I always have the documentation near me).

This situation is putting me under a lot of pressure and I fear that it will impact my health. It has now began to wear my motivation and I start to feel useless.

What should I do? Am I the trouble Here? Can I ask my company to send me to another client? Do I need to question my initial choice of studies?

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    Do you have a school adviser that oversees the internship? If so talk to them first.
    – paparazzo
    Jan 23, 2018 at 18:38
  • @Paparazzi I do but unfortunately the school do not really care. Learned it with a colleague facing more or less the same situation.
    – Matieu
    Jan 23, 2018 at 18:40
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    @Matieu Do not stop because of what happened with the colleague. 1. Your case may be different 2. It will bring another case to their attention
    – user8036
    Jan 24, 2018 at 10:00
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    Even if the problem is the team, it's an excellent preparation to the job market : you'll meet other unrespectful colleagues, and you'll have other tough moments under pressure out of your zone of comfort. It's part of the job to deal with both. Time for you to learn that, too. It's part of the internship. Not only learning the technical ropes, but managing pressure and bad people as well.
    – gazzz0x2z
    Jan 24, 2018 at 15:28

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Knowing the problem lets you face it, let's face it, the problem seems to be you. You are letting others control your emotions. We cannot control people or events fully, but we can control our reaction to them.

I agree you should first talk this over with your course supervisor, but if they truly do not care then I would recommend you care, this is your education after all, your stepping stone for life. Continue to learn JS and continue to do your best, but take this surface setback and make it into a real challenge that needs to be learned and overcome for the betterment of your working relationships over the whole course of your career.

Ultimately, no one can ANSWER the how of this for you. It's time to face your bullies and smile, they only have control of your emotions if you let them, so learn to smile and let it wash over you like water off a duck's back, your too busy for their cr@p anyway. In many ways in the long term, learning this skill will be much more beneficial to you than any code or paper qualifications.

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What have you said to the person that actually oversees the team/you? What have you said to your companies human resources?

As an Intern your entire job is to learn and get coffee and do menial tasks that help you learn that more experienced people don't want to do. If anything is getting in the way of your education, including your teammates, you need to speak up to someone.

If that doesn't work you need to go to your academic adviser at your school and discuss this with them (or whoever your internship is managed by at the school). "They don't care" really isn't an excuse not to do anything. It's your education, and only you are responsible for it. That includes making sure you are in a positive environment to learn. Your school should at the very least consider not sending new interns to this company as well if they're not willing to handle the problem.

If the Front End Dev is supposed to teach you, that's what he's supposed to do.

And you should also be willing to stand up for yourself (a little don't go overboard). Tell the team members how you feel tell them to stop treating you badly and remind them you're there to learn from them.

I know a lot of people are anti-confrontation but bullies need to be met head on. You may be able to cut everything out without having to go to your boss. I'd speak up, give them an opportunity to change, then go to your manager personally.

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    "As an Intern your entire job is to learn and get coffee and do menial tasks that help you learn that more experienced people don't want to do". That is not the reality of internship in many countries, and your job being "getting coffee" may be considered a violation of the internship contract by the company and definitely a huge red flag.
    – Adam Smith
    Jan 23, 2018 at 22:09
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    @BirdLawExpert I totally get your idea, out of the fact that for my type of internship I do not have to get coffee or minor task, my main job is to learn so that at the end of my internship I will have enough competences to be hired as a "junior ++" employee. I also won't force people to help me. But I will follow your advices, thanks !
    – Matieu
    Jan 24, 2018 at 8:55
  • @AdamSmith it's a joke my dude. Although I'm not sure how getting coffee for someone would be a violation of anything you'll have to be specific now.
    – BirdLawExpert
    Jan 25, 2018 at 1:51
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You can certainly ask to me moved.

Tell your boss the problems you are having first so see if the current situation can be fixed.

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