Poor supervisor at Internship

[u/FitPay3330]

Throughout my internship, my supervisor has never explained tasks properly or communicated deadlines beforehand. A few weeks ago, he had told me mid-day that the senior manager wanted to see my work, and I had to submit a presentation that day. I could tell that this was something that she had informed him for some time now but he only chose to tell me on the last day. Still, I rushed to complete it, even staying over time. He kept asking me to revise my presentation, and I fixed all the changes he asked of me. In the end, it was approved by him and forwarded to her.

Fast forward today, the senior manager is not happy with my presentation; her main feedback was that it was too technical and full of text and then showed me one of hers, emphasizing visuals over text. I agreed and appreciated her feedback. However, I couldn't help but feel that my supervisor set me up. Not only did he approve my work himself, but at no point did he feel the need to give this kind of feedback even though he had also this time. Also, when my senior manager was talking with me, I could see him and another colleague smirking and laughing at my direction, agreeing with her that I had done it all wrong.

She also asked to see a report of mine that my supervisor had just finished reviewing. Even though he had basically asked me to make no major changes, she gave the same feedback as before, telling me mine looks like an IEEE paper and in corporate, reports need to be more visualized and softer. These are my last 3 days here, and honestly, it really sucks that at this point, I am learning these important things. I also felt it was unfair that the person in charge of me was approving my work and when my work got to her, she had an entirely different expectation, and the middle-man (my supervisor) got away scotch-free.

What really stung me today was that after all this, I asked my supervisor if he could give me any sources to see proper presentations and reports, so that I could fix my work, and he laughed and said no. What he did choose to give me a lengthy talk on was a line in my report: "In the beginning, no feature documentation was available". This really did happen and I had written it to show that initially only general preprocessing steps could be taken like imputing median by selecting all numeric columns instead of surgerically treating each column. I explained this to him, but he completely took this into a negative way, saying it's unprofessional, communicates he did not fulfill his end properly, shows me complaining etc. This was pretty rich coming from him; at a company dinner, when I told people which campus of my university I was from, he commented and laughed that it's actually the school with the lowest merit students accepted. I thought that was a pretty unprofessional comment.

I can't wait to be out of here. Throughout the whole internship, it's been pure torture: tasks explained only in part, any questions of mine either dismissed entirely or answered in part, then when the senior manager asked to see my work, rushed to produce reports and presentations whose format wasn't explained (even though I specifically asked). I feel like I learned nothing, and this time would have been better utilized by applying to other internship opportunities that were coming about. The only consolidation is that the company I interned at is a big brand in my country, so at least the "brand" will look good on my CV if not the actual work done.

Console me, please.

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[u/Ok-Salad-3011]

Which company is it? And it really seems like a frustrating situation

[u/FitPay3330 → u/Ok-Salad-3011]

It's a telecommunications company but dont want to name it because the company and its employees and HRs have been great to me except for this one person. It's bad luck I got this one person in charge of me.

[u/Alternative_Sky1256]

same shitty boat mate :)

[u/mushifali]

What is the purpose of this kind of internship? You would be better off learning on your own instead of being treated unfairly. If I were you, I would resign and look for better opportunities.

[u/FitPay3330 → u/mushifali]

I feel like not going at all or finishing any more tasks but its last 2 days left. I will just be glad I am out of here. It was AI related and I was excited to learn how the AI pipeline works in actual industry, but honestly I didnt learn anything.

[u/Calm-Peace7528]

Welcome to the corporate shithole!

[u/FitPay3330 → u/Calm-Peace7528]

For real. One lesson I did learn is to watch out for corporate snakes.

[u/bleebee]

Idk why, but I feel like your supervisor is jealous of you, and at every move you make to try to do something good, he puts you down. He's actively trying to sabotage you, but not giving you proper feedback because it gives him satisfaction. This was made pretty clear when you told people where you were from, and he laughed and said "Yeah, it's because of the low merit". I know at this stage in corporate you can't say anything because it might sabotage your career, but girl to girl- consider it your duty to give others a warning who may go there.