Overview
Your internship is all about you learning new skills and practicing your English language skills. So it is inevitable that during your work experience, you’ll struggle to complete a task or understand what it is your boss wants you to do. This is perfectly normal and you shouldn’t be ashamed or embarrassed because of it.
Just breathe, sit back and read our tips on how to ask for help in different situations:
- The internet has unlimited amounts of information on many different topics; if you don’t understand the meaning of a word, or the theme that your task is about, research it. Type it into Google and you might be able to read up on the definition or the subject, which might help you to understand what you are meant to be doing.
- Check with other interns, or people who are working on the same thing as you, if they know what they are doing and if they can show you what it is that you are meant to be doing on the project.
- If you aren’t certain about some minor details to do with the task that you have been assigned, ask your manager to clarify what he/she wants you to do and make notes about what they say so you can refer to them later on.
- Maybe you have a technical issue because you have never used the programme before, in this case don’t be afraid to ask your manager for training on the specific programme. Schedule a time with your manager – whatever works best for their schedule, and they will take you through how the programme works and what to do.
- Ask your manager. If you are really struggling and don’t know what to do, ask your manager to brief you once again and ask if this time they go through the assignment in more detail, so that you can understand what you are meant to be doing.
As a last resort, if you have asked for help and you still don’t understand, or don’t think you are able to complete the assignment, then take your manager aside and see if you could be given a different task to do.