Should I quit my internship?

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>I just started my internship at a small advertising studio that has about 15-20 employees. They were supposed to start paying me $10/hr but they keep on delaying giving me the paperwork to sign and it's very frustrating when someone keeps on telling you they're going to send me the paperwork (3-4 times now) and never sends me it. I'm also supposed to be signing a confidentiality agreement along with the paperwork. </p>

<p>I've only worked there 2 weeks now, so I haven't been there long. I only work 2 days a week, Thursdays/Fridays and that's the amount of days they wanted to give me as well. The other three days I have class, so I don't have any other time to commit to it. </p>

<p>At first when I started, I felt the environment was welcoming and they buy everyone lunch everyday. People were friendly at first, but now since I've started I just feel like an outcast and very alone. I try to talk to people, but also the studio is very busy and high stress level so I don't want to bother anyone usually unless it's my boss. Everyone is constantly working on compositions to send out to clients because we have tight deadlines. The only work I've been given is to research for the 3 shows and pull images for inspiration, and it's just gotten to the point where I feel very unproductive, and not very useful at all. Yes, I'm researching, but that's all I've been doing for the 16 hours I work a week, and I haven't been able to design anything because that's not my assignment. That's the one of the main reasons I came to this internship was to learn about designing for advertising for entertainment. </p>

<p>My main problems with the internship are:
-I will not have enough time to do the whole process of researching, concepting ideas, and then designing for the projects the company gets it because I'm only there 2 days a week and so far I haven't done any real work.
-Usually when they come up with concepts, they go out and photograph their ideas and come back and design it, and I won't have time to do that especially if they are doing the photography on a day I'm not there, and also if the project is due on a day I'm there. Therefore, there isn't enough time for me to do these kinds of projects if this kind of problem occurs.
-I feel disconnected with the people, mainly because they are super busy. Everything is in high demand, and very tight deadlines. It is an extreme competition because they compete with other design studios doing the same job. Also, the people I work with, I just do not feel I fit in well with the group because no one ever talks to me, and even when I try to talk to them it doesn't help. At this internship, we also sit around at a large table for lunch and I still feel like an outcast.
-I still haven't gotten paid, but I really do not mind if I only worked 2 weeks because I really feel like the work I did wasn't even anything except for research and pull images of inspiration. If it was actual design work, then maybe I would want to really be compensated for my time there. </p>

<p>So my main two questions I have to ask are: </p>

<ol>
<li>Should I quit this internship?</li>
<li>What is the best way to quit the internship? Resignation letter? Verbally? Can I quit immediately instead of having a two weeks notice?</li>
</ol>

2

<p>Wait–so are you actually employed there? It sounds like you haven’t signed anything with HR yet, which is kind of weird if you’re already working there. Generally, you have to sign a bunch of stuff with HR before you’re allowed to even start. But maybe it’s different because it’s a small company?</p>

<p>It’s possible that you haven’t been given very much work because you’re only an intern, you’ve just started (it sounds like you’ve been there a total of four days, which is really nothing), and you haven’t even been officially hired since you haven’t signed anything. Have you tried meeting with HR about the paperwork? When you were hired were you given any sort of information on the type of work you would be doing? Interns often get a lot of the sort of grunt work that no one else really wants to do, and you might not get as much work as some of the employees get. What did they tell you you would be doing? If they wanted to only hire you for two days/week, then they would theoretically have some plan of what to do with you.</p>

<p>This is a job, not necessarily a social experience. It’s not really a time to chat with your coworkers all day, especially since (as you said) they have a lot of other work to do since there are tight deadlines to meet. Have you tried talking to people during lunch? That seems like a great time to chat with people since you all eat lunch together. You’re still new (again, you’ve worked there for four days, and those days weren’t even consecutive) and it takes time to feel like you fit in, especially when everyone already knows each other.</p>

<p>What were you told was going to be your pay schedule? Biweekly, monthly, by project, etc? Most of the places I worked at either paid biweekly or monthly, so regardless of this whole paperwork situation, you probably wouldn’t have been paid yet anyway (biweekly pay cycles may be offset by a week or two to give HR time to get your timesheets and issue a check). How are you tracking your hours? Do you submit a timesheet or do you clock in and out? You should talk to your boss or HR about this, if you have no idea what any of the answers are.</p>

<p>I would recommend sticking it out, at least until you have a better offer in hand. You’ve barely started (in my opinion, you haven’t even really started if you still haven’t signed anything saying you’re working there), and you need to give it time. Have you discussed your concerns with your boss? Have you asked about what tasks you should be doing and if there’s any room to move on to learning about design? This is also something you may have to work your way up to, and they may start you with basic stuff first. It doesn’t sound like you’ve given it a chance, and that you expectations may have been too high. Give it more time, and talk to your boss and HR about your concerns. If nothing else, it’s something to put on your resume, and quitting an internship after two week is never a good thing, unless you got some spectacular offer elsewhere. It’s okay to look around for other things, but I wouldn’t ditch this place so quickly, especially since you’ll likely be in the same situation anywhere else (only able to work two days/week).</p>