I’m an intern at an engineering consulting company, which I have enjoyed, but my supervisor never seems to have much work for me to do.

Most days when I ask him what I could help out with, he doesn’t have anything for me. So then I ask my fellow employees if I can help with anything and I’m met with the same response. Nobody seems to have any work for me, but I get paid regardless. I feel dishonest about it.

Any advice for how I could get more out of my internship when there is nothing to do?

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Find things to do - it is often hard to keep an intern busy because it can often take more time to train someone (who will might only be around for a few months) than to just do it yourself.

I organized our department parts + fasteners into racks because it was a mess, not because I was told to. Then people would start coming to me to help locate this or that. I got invited back term after term with growing responsibilities and was running my own projects, complete with field validation, by the time I graduated.

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I would go around to people who aren’t your supervisor and tell them you have the bandwidth to take care of some CAD (or anything really) for them if they have anything.

When people who report to me do this, it takes pressure off me to fill there schedule and shows initiative.

"You can say, I see you are ....., I can know how to do ....
I've been watching you do it, I think I can handle it"
I call this the honeymoon period, absorb it like a sponge for now and enjoy it.

I think the best thing you can do if you can’t find work to do, is shadow someone and learn about what they’re doing. Chances are it make become your avenue into getting some more work on your plate. You might notice some busy work in the process which you can offer to ”take a stab at”.

I get this, I was ALWAYS bored during my internship and it made the day go by so slowly.

Do something. Learn on what they have CAD, FEA or something. Walk around and see who is busy and offer to help. Understand the business.

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