Questions to Ask as an Intern
Twenty questions for an intern to ask a manager and colleagues, ordered from the first week to the last day. They cover how to get unstuck, how the work is judged, how to ask for feedback that is actually useful, and how to leave well.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What would a good first two weeks look like to you?
Why ask it
Managers rarely have this written down but almost always have an answer, and it is usually smaller than an intern expects: set up your accounts, understand one system, ship one small thing. Asking removes the guesswork from the period where you are most likely to invent busywork.
How do you prefer to be contacted, and when should I expect a reply?
Why ask it
Some managers want everything in one daily message, some prefer to be interrupted immediately. Getting this wrong is the most common reason interns are seen as either needy or unresponsive, and neither reputation is about the work.
When I get stuck, how long should I try before asking?
Why ask it
The single most useful question in the first week. You get a specific number, often twenty or thirty minutes, which frees you from the choice between wasting a day and looking incapable. Ask what they want you to have tried before you come.
Who should I go to for what?
Why ask it
Teams have an unwritten map: one person who knows the data, one who knows the process, one who has time. Asking your manager to name them saves you from routing every question through the busiest person, which is what most interns do.
Which meetings should I be in, and which could I sit in on quietly?
Why ask it
Interns are either overbooked or invisible. The second half of the question is where the value is, because listening to a client call or a planning session teaches you more about the organisation than any onboarding document.
What internal names and acronyms should I learn this week?
Why ask it
Every organisation has thirty terms that everyone assumes are common knowledge, and not knowing them makes meetings unintelligible. Asking once, early, is normal. Asking in month two suggests you sat through six weeks of confusion.
What does this team's work turn into, and who actually uses it?
Why ask it
Interns are often handed a task with no view of the output. Understanding who reads the report or uses the feature changes the decisions you make while producing it, and it is the context nobody thinks to provide.
What is a piece of work you would hand me if I showed you I could handle it?
Why ask it
Better than asking for more responsibility, because it asks for a specific thing and an implied condition. You end up with a target, and your manager has effectively told you what to demonstrate first.
At the end of this, how will you decide whether it went well?
Why ask it
Ask in the first week, not the last. The answer is sometimes about output and often about reliability, judgment, or how little supervision you needed. Either way it is the only rubric that matters and it is almost never published.
Would you look at this before I send it out?
Why ask it
The habit rather than the question. Asking for review before anything leaves the team protects them and teaches you the house standard quickly. Interns who send work directly to clients or other departments unreviewed create the problems people remember.
Is there an example of this done well that I could look at?
Why ask it
Faster and less draining for everyone than a briefing. A previous report, deck, or piece of code shows you the expected length, tone, and level of detail, and it prevents the first draft that has to be entirely redone.
What did the last intern do that worked, and what would you have them do differently?
Why ask it
Managers are candid about a predecessor in a way they will not be about you, and the answer is a direct list of what to copy and what to avoid. If you are the first intern, ask what they are hoping this proves.
How much of this work can I talk about or show outside the company?
Why ask it
Ask before you need it, not while writing your portfolio. Some work is confidential, some can be described without numbers, some can be shown freely. Knowing the line means you can build a portfolio as you go rather than reconstructing one later.
Am I creating any work for you that I could take off your plate?
Why ask it
Reframes the relationship, because supervising an intern costs a manager real hours. Answers are usually concrete: chase your own approvals, write the notes yourself, stop sending drafts before checking them. Acting on one changes how you are perceived.
Is there anything I should stop doing?
Why ask it
More productive than asking for feedback in general, which produces reassurance. Making it easy to name one thing gets you the specific habit, the excessive updates, the meeting you talk too much in, that people were not going to raise.
Who on the team would be worth half an hour of my time, and would you introduce me?
Why ask it
Asking your manager to select and introduce is far more effective than sending cold messages, and it keeps them informed rather than wondering why you are booking time with their colleagues.
What does the path from a role like mine to yours actually involve?
Why ask it
Ask someone two or three steps ahead rather than at the top. You get the real sequence, including the sideways move and the year that did not count, instead of the career page version.
What do people outside this team misunderstand about the work?
Why ask it
Produces the honest account of constraints, politics, and dependencies that no induction covers. It also gives you something genuinely useful to say in an interview about what the job is actually like.
If a return offer is possible, what would make you argue for one, and when is that decided?
Why ask it
Ask around the midpoint, not the final week, so there is still time to act on the answer. The timing matters as much as the criteria, because in many organisations the decision is made before the internship ends.
Before I leave, what should I hand over and to whom?
Why ask it
Interns disappear and leave half-finished files nobody can find. Spending the last few days writing down what you did, where it lives, and what remains is the thing colleagues remember, and it is what makes a reference easy to write.
Making an Internship Count
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Habits That Do the Work
Batch Your Questions
Keep a running list and bring it to one scheduled conversation rather than interrupting six times a day. You will find half the items answer themselves, and the ones that remain get proper attention instead of a hurried reply.
Send a Short Weekly Summary
Three lines: what you finished, what you are stuck on, what you plan next. It takes five minutes, gives your manager something to correct early, and becomes the record you draw on for a reference or a return offer discussion.
Write Down What You Are Told
The system names, the person who owns each process, the reason a decision went a certain way. Nobody minds explaining something once; being asked the same thing in week five is what registers.
Ask for Feedback on One Thing
Requesting general feedback produces reassurance. Asking whether a specific document was the right length, or whether you spoke too much in a meeting, produces something you can act on this week.
Sequences by Stage
First Week
- 1What would a good first two weeks look like to you?
- 2How do you prefer to be contacted, and when should I expect a reply?
- 3When I get stuck, how long should I try before asking?
- 4Who should I go to for what?
Halfway Through
- 1Is there anything I should stop doing?
- 2Am I creating any work for you that I could take off your plate?
- 3What is a piece of work you would hand me if I showed you I could handle it?
- 4If a return offer is possible, what would make you argue for one, and when is that decided?
Final Two Weeks
- 1How much of this work can I talk about or show outside the company?
- 2Before I leave, what should I hand over and to whom?
- 3Who on the team would be worth half an hour of my time, and would you introduce me?
- 4At the end of this, how will you decide whether it went well?
What Interns Get Wrong
Waiting to Be Given Work
Managers are busy and an idle intern is easy to overlook. If you finish something, say so and propose the next thing rather than waiting for an assignment. Two days of silence reads as disengagement even when it is politeness.
Hiding a Mistake
Errors are expected at this level and are almost always cheap to fix immediately. The thing that damages a reputation is discovering the mistake a week later through someone else. Say it the same day, with what you propose to do about it.
Treating the Internship as an Extended Interview
Making every conversation about the return offer wears people out and makes colleagues guarded. Do the work well and ask about the offer once, at the right time, with the specific question above.
Asking Only Your Manager
Your manager is the busiest useful person available. Peers one or two years ahead can explain the systems, the shortcuts, and the politics with more patience and more honesty.