During internship, one must possess the willingness to learn and adapt to a different situation. Feedback given by the team or supervisors are meant to improve your skills and help you to see other perspectives. Feedback should not be seen as a ‘personal attack’ to your ability, or an offense to you.
In the past, the following attributes prevented certain interns ( especially those who have limited working experience and from foreign cultures) from learning or maximizing their time to gain more knowledge:
- My country is more developed than yours, I know what is best for your organization.
- This is how we do this task in my country/my university, I am unwilling to amend my task with your feedback.
- Your perspective and mine are different, I insist on doing this task my way. I won’t amend my task even though it is going to be used by your organization. Take it or leave it.
- Why should I follow your organization’s policy and procedures? I do what I want and how I want to do it.
- I have a higher degree/more experience in this field than you, why should I listen to you?
- I am not a follower, I do it my way, I don’t listen to feedback.
- Why should I explain to you about my actions? I am me -- I demand freedom of speech, so my office and homestay behaviors are none of your business.
- Your other intern didn’t know how to do this task. I have done it very well for your organization. If you don’t like it, (foul words)!
- I won’t transfer the tasks ( such as videos on own channels, document on own google doc space) I have done during internship to your organization. It is my intellectual property, why should I follow office policy to transfer the ownership to your organization?
Interns who are relegated the responsibility to be team leader must read the article below to gain more perspective about leadership. Learn to manage diverse groups of people from different background, interests and with different levels of cooperation.
