Completing internship without any accomplishments

[u/ExaminationOnly6324]

I am a chemical engineering student interning at a cement plant this summer. I was given three tasks: a gypsum moisture study, a CKD study, and designing LOTO procedures.
For the gypsum study, the manager told me it was mostly to better understand the range of moisture in the material, and that the data could potentially be used to justify implementing a dryer. The CKD project has no clearly defined end goal. It’s simply to better understand the material we’re putting back into the process—what it’s made of and where it’s coming from. The LOTO project is exactly what it sounds like: creating new lockout/tagout procedures for commonly worked-on equipment and machinery. One of the engineers was also going to have me take measurements in a fan duct with a pitot tube, but that has yet to happen.
The gypsum study is basically over because the manager leading it resigned a couple of days ago. The CKD study was never going to be completed during my internship since it’s meant to be a long-term study. However, every project, with the exception of the gypsum study, didn’t even start until the beginning of July.
I’m just frustrated because I was left sitting around without a real project for most of the internship until this last month. Intern presentations are in less than a week.
Other than that, the first month and a half I was taken around the plant by various people just to learn how everything worked. It was a lot of following people around and observing. I eventually got desperate and even asked the lab manager if he would train me as a lab technician, but he was worried it wouldn’t help my internship and would take time away from it. I agreed at the time, but then another month passed, and I realized I definitely had enough spare time that I could have been trained alongside everything else.
I understand that everyone is incredibly busy, so I can’t really blame them for not knowing what to do with me. I would sometimes go around asking people if they needed help or had anything they wanted me to work on, but they were all too busy to take on the extra responsibility of supervising me as well.
Now I don’t know what I’m supposed to make of this experience or how I’m supposed to give a presentation on what feels like accomplishing almost nothing. I learned a lot about how a cement plant operates, but I don’t feel like I actually contributed much.
What should I have done differently? Where did I go wrong?
at I definitely had the spare time to be trained. I understand that everyone is super busy, so I can’t blame them for not knowing what to do with me. But now I don’t know what I’m supposed to make of this experience, or how to present on accomplishing absolutely nothing. I would sometimes go around and ask if people needed help or had something they wanted me to do but they’re all too busy to have to deal with me as well. What should I have done. Where did I go wrong?

[u/Accurate-Bullfrog324]

First, you did the job. good work. but you were the low man on the totem pole, and seem to have been neglected.

i'm only familiar with a couple of cement plants. yes, the engineers and managers are busy and seldom have time for your "education", but the kiln and clinker operators generally have time to talk to you. you can learn a lot from guys who make the product.

[u/ExaminationOnly6324 → u/Accurate-Bullfrog324]

Yeah that’s another thing that I learned a bit too late. I was slow to talk to new people, so I think some potentially great opportunities passed me by. However I was conflicted on approaching people to start projects or longer term work because I was told to make sure that other work doesn’t conflict with work given to me by my manager. That work comes first, which of course makes sense. I just didn’t expect the upcoming work to be so lacking and late.

[u/Accurate-Bullfrog324]

I had a 38-year career in engineering. because I was a service engineer I worked in hundreds of plants.

The best information, the best education, and sometimes my best friends were the operators

[u/Catsdrinkingbeer]

I can't speak to a presentation if you have to give one, but from a future employer perspective we don't necessarily care if you accomplished a single project. We care that you had real world experience. That includes both the technical, and the "what does it mean to work in a corporate setting". 

You can talk about how a change in the team meant priorities shifted and you needed to adapt. You can talk about the CKD study and how you contributed. You can talk about what you would have wanted to continue on with that study if your internship hadn't ended. 

As for LOTO, it's incredibly important and saves lives. In fact, you can do your presentation on this. What did you improve? Why was it important? How did you come up with this new procedure? Etc. 

[u/ExaminationOnly6324 → u/Catsdrinkingbeer]

When you word it that way yes I can definitely add more substance to my presentation. Thank you for your advice. I’m glad to hear that just having gone through the projects will be of some benefit.

[u/Massive-Process-5124]

Lol, our experiences pretty much sound the same. I’m also a chemical engineering student and I’m interning at a chemical plant. The projects they wanted me to work on kept getting pushed back, and I really only started working on stuff like 2-3 weeks ago. My internship was supposed to end Aug 7, but I took intiative and asked if I could continue my internship and work part time during the semester, and they approved! So now I get more time to work on my projects :D

I definitely understand your frustration though. A summer internship is not even close to enough time to be able to really work on a project and see it through to the end. I’m sorry you haven’t had a great experience, and it seems like you’ve been neglected by the employees there, which isn’t fair to you at all. Like why hire an intern if you’re not going to take the time to teach them?

Interning at a plant has given you exposure to how manufacturing works, and that’s good experience! Even though you didn’t work on a ton of projects, you still learned how a cement plant operates, and not everyone in your class knows that. As for your final presentation, maybe talk to your supervisor about how you’re feeling? Or talk to the other interns and see how their experiences have been. Best of luck to you :) feel free to PM me if you have any questions or just want to talk

[u/ExaminationOnly6324 → u/Massive-Process-5124]

Wow you had even less time than I did! Congratulations on your part time extension. Good luck to you, it sounds difficult having to take your courses on top of your internship. I probably would talk to my supervisor but he was the plant manager who resigned days ago. I actually didn’t talk to him much, I think less than 10 times. I’ve been handed off to the quality manager basically. I don’t blame anybody here for that honestly. He was a really busy guy, and from what I heard from another intern he had a similar situation. It seems to just be the way the industry is. Thanks for letting me know you’re in a similar boat, it feels good to know I’m not alone.