[mattlondon]

Beat advice I can give you is to be endlessly positive and do whatever they ask you to do as well as you possibly can even if it is not what you want. If on your first day they give you a mop and a bucket and direct you to the toilets, then be damned sure you make those toilets the cleanest they've seen.

Silly example I agree (they won't ask you to clean the bathrooms... probably), but demonstrating a strong work ethic will get you noticed and earn you a good reputation that will pay back many times in the future.

I've had interns who get surly and moany when they don't get asked to work on machine learning to cure cancer and turn lead into gold, but got asked to fix some unit tests or something else unglamorous. They become a real pain to work with because you know they'll complain about whatever you give them so you end up just giving them scraps or at worst basically giving them nothong and letting them spend their time on tiktok or whatever because it's less hassle than trying to satisfy their ego. Don't be that person who makes a fuss for being asked to do real-world work and you'll go a long way.

Good luck

[Broken_Hippo]

If on your first day they give you a mop and a bucket and direct you to the toilets, then be damned sure you make those toilets the cleanest they've seen.

Unfortunately, this can easily backfire. Make sure it is clean, sure, but at some point you are going to take time cleaning and it won't be appreciated at best. At worse, you are going to be told it took you to long to do the work. This is coming from someone who, at a foodservice job, had someone teach me how to mop. Their standards - for mopping anyway - were quite a bit lower than the standards I grew up with at home. It hasn't just been that establishment, either: Everywhere has some of this.

I'd much rather see someone be told, "Do well, but there is no need to be perfect. Be efficient where you can". This goes so much further and besides, most folks expect the new person to do a few things that are a bit off.

Not being fussy about the work you do, though: Solid advice. I've generally tried to do something other people dislike, if possible.

[s1t5]

I would like to give the opposite advice. Learn to tell the difference between doing unglamorous work (which you'll need to do) and being taken advantage of by your employer.

> demonstrating a strong work ethic will get you noticed and earn you a good reputation that will pay back many times in the future.

No, this is an exception rather than the rule. Depending on your employer/manager, a strong work ethic may or may not be noticed. If it's noticed, it might even impact you negatively since you'll be the guy who can be abused and overworked in the future especially if you can't speak up for yourself. The other options are that nothing changes with your work ethic or that you're rewarded in some way. In the cases that you are rewarded, it's more likely that your employer is giving you meaningless tokens, praise and/or more responsibility rather than actual perks or increased compensation.

[mschwaig]

I think an organization should be able to deliver on what it promises when hiring someone even to an intern and both parties expectations should be expressed in good faith as clearly as possible. Frankly if someone told me they were cleaning toilets unexpectedly in their software development internship my advice would be to look for ways to get out of that internship if they can because engaging with that company is clearly a waste of time.

[_l8xu]

Oh ok that last part sounds "bad". Something my dad always thought me: you cannot always do something you love in work. A hobby is something where you do something you will "always" like.

But you should have a workplace you like, because that is key, from my point of view.