Today, I want to discuss the intern pandemic currently going on in the marketing industry. I mean, it is most probably going on in other industries, but I will focus on the marketing space because I have witnessed it firsthand.
Now, my problem does not even stem from the overloading responsibilities that come with being an “intern” but the actual reality is that no manager is guiding these interns and making them see where they have made mistakes or errors.
This is why you will hear interns, just like in the image attached “winging it”!! Winging it? From my replies to these types of messages, you see how mad I get when I hear or see them.
Because I have been there, and though my journey started well, learning a lot as a volunteer, by the time I got an actual internship role, I realized I was the only one on the team, “winging it” and consistently going over and beyond to learn what needs to be learned.
Unfortunately, this often leads to an unorganized approach to learning. Without clear guidance, interns can find themselves accumulating a vast array of knowledge without a clear understanding of what’s truly essential for long-term success.
Do you know the consequences of this? When they ask for your years of experience, you say 3 years. This inflated sense of experience can be misleading. When job hunting, claiming three years of experience might seem impressive, but in actual fact, it was last year you started to learn the fundamentals of what makes you a needed marketer.
So do you really have 3 years experience or 6 months experience?
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