How do you use your intern?

unknown7023 · 2013-09-06T11:29:31.000Z

I’m just curious how much you include your interns, if you have one, I am not the sharpest tool in the shed and it must be frustrating to teach someone things about the infrastructure of a network. However, I am just curious how much work you give your intern that’s substantial, not just reinstalling windows or anything mundane

jordanwharton · 2013-09-06T11:32:15.000Z

I don’t have an intern, but if I did I would use them just like I would use a fresh employee. Take them around with everything I do, show them the ropes and make sure they understand what is going on. Turn it into a learning experience for them. They will be more useful this way.

ranhalt · 2013-09-06T11:32:29.000Z

Start with all the menial work and make them realize how boring the real world is. Then give them a project like a PC build. Then tell them they did it wrong and they have to start over again. Continue sending all tickets you don’t want to do to intern while you relax.

bolinoscopy · 2013-09-06T11:34:14.000Z

Toner replacement and lunch pick up. That’s pretty much how we used ours

swearyprincess · 2013-09-06T11:36:04.000Z

Depends how long you have them for, I’d guess.

Any simple but low priority projects you’ve had on the back burner for a while?

sammiddleton · 2013-09-06T11:37:38.000Z

When I originally did work experience with my current company, the IT manager (who is now my boss) eased me into a few concepts as well as small amounts of information about the network. Eventually I think I gained enough trust and experience to do little side projects here and there as well as the mundane tasks.

He taught me little bits at a time which I think benefited both of us, he didn’t have to keep answering questions and I didn’t have to constantly hound him for help.

Eventually I got brave enough to explore certain areas of the network and learn things myself.

marijobosnjak5328 · 2013-09-06T11:38:46.000Z

Wow sad to hear some of the answers. Hope you are joking

sammiddleton · 2013-09-06T11:39:47.000Z

Jordan W:

I don’t have an intern, but if I did I would use them just like I would use a fresh employee. Take them around with everything I do, show them the ropes and make sure they understand what is going on. Turn it into a learning experience for them. They will be more useful this way.

I agree completely. It also gives them a real professional environment experience in which they can learn how everything will work when they get a full job whether that be with the same company or not.

chrisseiter · 2013-09-06T11:42:21.000Z

blood is needed to appease the PC gods…

jorgesosa2 · 2013-09-06T11:46:40.000Z

Depends. When I lack transportation they make good chariot pullers. They excel in toxic waste clearing, nuclear fallout testing, dangerous task in heights and general electrical probing.

Among their abilities there’s also an excellent fetching services for breakfasts, lunches and coffee (granted they have the brains to keep their hands clean), but remember to always back that up with a solid and noticeable video surveillance system, nobody likes to drink spit.

The common tasks they get in my office are the following:

“Get the hell outtta my way”
Constantly answering the questions “When are you leaving?” and “again, when your internship ends?”
Nothing
“Get the #@$! out of the way, again”
a full assorted list of meaningless tasks.
And finally leaving my office forever.

In retrospective my harsh attitude towards interns stems from:

A) All my interns have been “favors” for managers to get them relatives do the internships here. I never requested anyone of them, I have never needed anyone of them, and they have nothing to do here, really, then I have to get creative and put them to do something in order to get HR out of my back because I have personnel doing nothing, this situation really piss me off. They all have been imposed and that just fills my balls. Not that I worry about my job security because:

B) They all, with only a few exceptions have been utter idiots. Really, there’s even a case of one that had the healthy and not stupid or gross at all habit of eating his own pimples, I think I posted about it here a few years ago. Sanitary practices aside, the great majority have been grossly incompetent professionals and utter failures in their fields.

And I’m not talking about professional performance, I’m talking about &%#“?g basic knowledge on how a computer works, like “you studied computers and programing for 5 &%$#”?g years and not only you don’t know how to install a wifi driver on your laptop, but you have the &%#”$g nerve of daring to ask me what the hell a conditional structure is and what is an integrated development environment???"

cpunty · 2013-09-06T11:47:04.000Z

Slave labor.

LittleBobaFooFoo wrote:

blood is needed to appease the PC gods…

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOOD SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE

ranhalt · 2013-09-06T11:50:15.000Z

My intern had to do a regular user desktop build and replace the old one. He forgot to install a few critical things this user needed, and they bought it to my attention. Rather than fix it, I swapped back to the old one and left the new on on the intern’s desk telling him to finish it.

His response: “You could have just done it.”

gabrielle.l · 2013-09-06T11:53:41.000Z

justanintern:

I’m just curious how much you include your interns, if you have one, I am not the sharpest tool in the shed and it must be frustrating to teach someone things about the infrastructure of a network. However, I am just curious how much work you give your intern that’s substantial, not just reinstalling windows or anything mundane

Just a note – in SMBs, a large majority of the work that an IT Pro has to do is, as you all it, “mundane.” Really, only about 20% of the stuff I do is truly interesting. I don’t see why an intern wouldn’t be assigned the mundane stuff, if only to make them realize that having a job in IT doesn’t mean they get to do all the interesting bits all the time.

unknown7023 · 2013-09-06T11:54:56.000Z

I mean I understand that it’s cheap to have an intern, so why not utilize the person more? Is it jsut lack of qualifications?

brandonadams · 2013-09-06T11:56:11.000Z

ranhalt:

My intern had to do a regular user desktop build and replace the old one. He forgot to install a few critical things this user needed, and they bought it to my attention. Rather than fix it, I swapped back to the old one and left the new on on the intern’s desk telling him to finish it.

His response: “You could have just done it.”

and then you immediately fired him, I hope.

46733 · 2013-09-06T12:05:10.000Z

Push ups in drag.

mattjones1537 · 2013-09-06T12:11:52.000Z

As an intern. I agree with most of these. But be aware that the blood you give isn’t little. The IT GOD demand it. and normally get it if you install server rollers those little things are sharp as hell.

jorgesosa2 · 2013-09-06T12:20:16.000Z

BLOOD FOR THE BSOD GOOD. SKULLS FOR THE SPICE THRONE.

alex3031 · 2013-09-06T12:26:45.000Z

We had an intern come on board with us and we had some boring pjojects already planned like makign some changes in AD that weren’t done originally and some other stuff like that, but we also let him work regular tickets, software installes troubleshooting, lots of cell phone tickets since he came from Verizon and is very familiar with their processes. Additioanlly he’s doing some stuff like creating topology maps for us using SolarWinds topology mapper, stuff that I would consider somewhat interesting, since we have little to no idea the layer 2 layout of most of our locations.

jrochow · 2013-09-06T12:31:37.000Z

We do not have the budget for an intern, but I would love to have them for the really annoying tasks we sometimes are given.