Should my supervisor treat me (an unpaid intern) like a paid worker?

Question

I'm in one week in my unpaid internship of six weeks in marketing. I already made a post about how I thought I was a bad intern, but after looking at others posts something bothered me.

A lot of people here are saying that an unpaid intern should be here to learn more than anything, and not do something that a paid worker do.

For now, I'm not saying I did that kind of work: most of my time was about researching and building a research file. But some things that my supervisor told me are staying with me.

On my first day, he told me he wouldn't consider me as a student, but as a professional. The meaning behind it I understood was: ''You're going to work here and I'll judge you like someone not in training.'' When he told me that, it kind of surprised me, I'll say.

And the projects I will work on are, well, huge. I'll participate in the production and writing of podcasts for the corporation: a new publicity, you see. He told me I would be the one writing the Presentation report, and this presentation report needs to sell the idea to the one buying the publicity. Basically, if I write shit, his project is a flop.

If it works, I'll probably write most of the podcasts, or what is needed to write. It's a big marketing project and, even if he supervises it, he told me my work would be the center of it.

All of these projects are urgent, like in the next two or three weeks, and the production didn't even start. I never done something like that before. (I'm not even in marketing, I'm in redaction.)

Like, am I imagining things or do he intends to pitch me in something too big for someone in training? Not even a junior, just an unpaid intern. I'll do it if it's still his intend, but I don't want to be overwhelmed by something out of my capacities.

Answer 1

Be glad you are doing something more important than getting coffee but don't feel overwhelmed by the importance of your tasks.

You aren't necessarily getting the whole truth here. Don't be surprised if there is a backup plan in case your work is a flop. If I were to put an intern in a situation to generate a remotely important deliverable I'd likely leave enough time to completely rewrite it if it was unacceptable. People don't generally make it very far in management without a grasp of contingency planning. This sort of pitch may be a half day for an experienced professional, so the 2-3 weeks timeframe might be lots of time.

Based on your comment maybe this will be learning experience for an inexperienced manager. Success of this project is something you contribute to not something you own. If the project deliverables are deficient because there is no contingency plan for intern work that is a management failure not a failure of the intern.

Do your best and learn as much as you can from this challenge. Also be appreciative that you are getting some hands on industry experience even if it is a skill stretch for you.

Answer 2

Should you expect to work on real projects in an internship? Well, yes, that's what good internships are for: it's much better to have a real-world project with real-world deliverables than some little toy sandbox to play in that will be discarded after your internship is over. This way you get real-world experience of dealing with real-world problems, which looks great on a CV when you're applying for a real paid job some day.

And with all due respect, "participate in the production and writing of podcasts" does not sound like what I'd call a "huge" responsibility that will make or break the company. It's also important to remember that the ultimate responsibility for the work assigned to you lies with your manager, not you: if they have actually given you something that's mission critical and beyond your abilities, it's their problem if you can't deliver. Your responsibilities are to 1) try your best, and 2) keep your manager updated regarding your progress, especially if you're running into any kind of trouble.