I am an electrical engineering intern at a utility company. The company requires that we have a presentation at the end of the term. The presentation is expected to contain information regarding the projects over term and share challenges, successes, accomplishments, and provide feedback. I have not had a great summer due to low amounts of work, and micromanagement.
Would it be professional to include that in my feedback?
How can I word this without offending someone?
No, it would not be professional to include this in your presentation.
Most internship presentations are meant to be a summary of your work and the things you've accomplished over the term. It's usually more of a benefit to you than the company, to help you develop technical communication and presentation skills. Including criticism of your experience in this venue, which will likely include a number of co-workers you don't know very well, would be inappropriate and reflect poorly on you.
That's not to say that you can't give negative feedback on your experience at all, but the presentation is not the place for it. This sort of feedback is better given to your manager in a one-on-one setting where a conversation can be had rather than a one-way lecture.
I would also note that your comments won't be received well if this is the first time your manager is hearing about it. If you have been lacking work all summer and haven't been asking for more or indicating your manager that you don't have anything to do, then you are equally responsible for your poor experience. Managers can't fix a problem they don't know about.
Edit:
Since you were specifically asked to provide feedback in the presentation, it's okay to include something. Definitely include positive feedback for the things you enjoyed. If you are going to include anything negative, it should still come off as positive and that you enjoyed working there. For example in your case you could say,
I wish I could have been able to get involved in more projects.
This will come off as "I liked it so much I wish I could do more!" instead of "I was bored and had nothing to do." Say what you wanted, not what you didn't like. It's all about spinning the negative feedback to sound like a positive. Probably best not to mention the micromanagement, as I'm not sure how to make that sound good.
A lot depends on the culture you live in. Whereas it would be unprofessional to criticise your superiors, in some cultures you would be able to include a positively phrased sentence such as:
The experience was great overall. In my next job I hope to be able to take over more advanced tasks and have a slightly more autonomy.
Or similar. It's not straightforward, but people will understand what you mean if they want to understand.
In some countries this wouldn't be ok however.
Respectfully, a mature answer would also take some accountability for all this. I don't know the whole story, but it is very rarely just one party's fault; for instance, I realize it is hard to get in at a really good company, but if you had managed to get into an early Google or found a better boss / team, this wouldn't have happened to you.
I'm also not sure it's in your best interest to express these things at all, certainly not directly to your manager or the anyone in the organization. If you vent about it, it's good that you chose to do it in an online forum like this, or talk to close friends who are unlikely to spread the information back to your manager. Just my two cents
Good luck!
