In order to finish my bachelor's degree, I am required by my university to complete an internship. During the internship, I worked in a company.
After the internship, there is some sort of write-up phase for students to write their bachelors thesis. It is customary for students to do the majority of the writing within the institution the internship was done in.
My writing phase has just started, and presumably, there won't be any problems for me to finish my thesis. I have some trouble, however, with the company i am working/writing in:
My internship was paid (not very good, but on terms i agreed upon). Now though, i am on an unpaid contract that only lays down rules for me to use the companies' infrastructure (and intellectual property legal stuff).
I find myself doing stuff for my superior not directly related to my thesis far too often, in my opinion: i went on a buisness trip with him and a coworker last week for multiple days, he asked me a couple of times to 'just try something out' unrelated to my thesis, but to other projects i was not involved in so far. I was also asked to participate in a group workshop spanning three days, with all other participants doing the same job as me, but they are obviously being paid.
While I really enjoy working at this company and like the work as well, I feel that I should not sell myself short (or, in fact, give myself for free). I would like to raise this issue and possibly come to an outcome of either me getting paid for additional work or not being asked to work on additional tasks.
How can I resolve this situation in my favor?
Additional information:
- I was already offered a half-time position following the completion of my degree, which would be ideal to work on alongside a masters' program i am aiming for.
- The country i am posting from is Germany.
- Other interns in their write-up phase are being paid to work on their thesis exclusively, while i am not.