A doctor's first year out of medical school. As now their responsibility is upped by an order of magnitude, this is where all the learning gets done, rather than as a medical student. Avoid hospitals in July.

Intern (prounounced "pee-ahn") younger college student who scurries about the building, performing odd tasks and little favors for their employer. Here at my company, the interns seem to do all the coding and development, while the regulars are stuck with tech support issues.

Also notable is that when the employer has tasks to be accomplished that require physical labor, it is the job of the intern to hop to.

Yes, gathering wood, mining gold, or constructing buildings are all part of the daily life of an intern. Unlike sheep, however, rampant clicking does not make the intern explode. Eventually, after sufficient annoyance, the intern will ignore the employer and say "Leave me alone". (One big Warcraft reference)

The world of an intern is not that bad. Most of the intern population of Corporate America today come from various schools and universities during the summer holidays. I myself am embarking upon my third such internship, this time in a financial firm. Previous internships have been with a major technology firm, a new media dot.com, and now, a finance firm.

As a technology intern, my duties were ardous and varied. My main task was sitting in an acoustic lab listening to CD's, and when I had the time, watching Top Gun on dvd over the network. My contriubtion to the company was nothing short of vital.

The next year, as a marketing intern at a dot.com, my main tasks involved listening to George Carlin radio online, learning from my boss how to lie to the CEO, going out on long lunch breaks, and getting to go to PC Expo and playing around with high tech stuff. I have no clue what I did that was of importance at that company, but I was assured, by my boss, that my contributions have been extremely helpful and important. Needless to say, my boss was fired a month after I left to go back to school.

Now, at a financial firm, my job as an intern is to do semi real stuff. I have to do spreadsheets and research so the real guys don't have to. My job is revolutionary, I believe that I am the first intern in the history of the company to do something useful. But the fine art of time-wasting is not forgotten, for there is plenty of down time between projects.

Interns are not hired by firms to test their competence. Rather, they are hired to see if they can be thrown into a strange environment and adapt effectively. They are not expected to be babied, and if they can find a niche in a corporate environment, life can be pretty good. If not, life can be a living hell.

INTERNS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!

In*tern" (?), a. [L. internus: cf. F. interne. See Internal.]

Internal.

[Obs.]

Howell.

 

© Webster 1913.


In*tern", v. t. [F. interne. See Intern, a.]

To put for safe keeping in the interior of a place or country; to confine to one locality; as, to intern troops which have fled for refuge to a neutral country.

 

© Webster 1913.

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