1, Introduction

This is my third assignment for the Profession Literacies class. This is also my first time to write a report in a team. Xinyue Liu is my ream mate. I am very glad to work with her. Our report is about the internship for art students. We have found three interviewees, and designed more than 10 questions. We analysed the answers of our candidates, and wrote this report.

This version is different from the version we submitted as assessment. The assessment has a word limit of 2200 words, and our report was 3000 words. As a result, we had to delete the “Complexities” part in the assessment version. In this blog, I will post the complete version of our report.

2, Report

Internship Guidance for Art Students

  Distinctions between Administrative Assistant and Tutor 

Wenhao Lu 1020580

Xinyue Liu 986129

Executive summary

This report provides a comparison between the two types of internships: administrative internship and tutoring internships, based on the experience of three students Yifan, Mila, and Diana from the University of Melbourne. Three structured interviews were conducted face-to-face or online, containing eleven questions. Yifan worked as an intern of Account Executive Assistant Intern in an Advertising company. Mila was an intern of a Marketing E-commerce in an Automobile company. And Diana works as a tutor in Melbourne University. By comparing these two types of internship, we found that there are six distinctions in their answers in purpose, source of stress, gain, discrimination, and the value of the job. We also discussed the future of these two positions by connecting them with a heated current issue, Artificial Intelligence. Last but not least, if students are interested in an administrative internship, it is recommended that they research as much information as possible about the company and department. Showing their advantages to impress superiors would bring more opportunities. Tutoring internship is recommended for those who want to be academic after graduation. To be creative, to think critically, and to improve the ability to work independently are necessary to do the internship well. And this job can be very stressful because of the challenges from students. Therefore, it is important to know how to deal with stress and be open to all sorts of opinions.

Table of Content

Executive summary

1. Introduction

2. Discussion of Findings

2.1 Demographic Data

2.2 Distinctions

2.2.1 Purpose 6

2.2.2 Source of stress

2.2.3 Gain from the internship

2.2.4 Discriminations in the internship

2.2.5 Value of this internship

3. Conclusion

3.1 Limitations and possible surveys

3.2 Recommendations

References

Appendix

1. Introduction

An Internship is a period of working experience. It is offered by companies, schools, or other types of organizations. Nowadays, it is popular for university students, who are looking for skills and experience in a particular field, to have an internship before they start their working career.  

Among all the different types of internships, this report focuses on two specific types of internship: internship as an assistant and internship as a tutor. These two types of internships are quite popular among students of art. 

Assistant Internship:

The assistant interns provide basic administrative support in an organization. When a manager or a department in a company needs an assistant, they will usually recruit an assistant intern. The work of an assistant intern includes collecting and reporting invoices or reimbursements of managers, planning and organizing events, recording contents of conferences, maintaining and updating databases, etc.

Tutor Internship:

Generally speaking, a tutor working in a university who is responsible for the course coordinator, provides tutorial support to the students throughout the semester. Students have committed a lot of time and effort to go to universities. They expect a good learning experience and a satisfying learning outcome, which needs close cooperation with the teaching staff. When the class is too big, tutors play an important role in facilitating students to achieve their academic goals. Their primary duties involve contacting students face to face, telephone counseling, monitoring online discussion, marking assignments, etc. 

The purpose of this report is to provide suggestions to the students of art who are interested in these two kinds of internships. By analyzing the intern experience of our three candidates, we seek to give students a general view of the two types of internships. We aim to find distinctions and similarities between these two in order to help the students to choose the internship which fits them.  

2. Discussion of Findings

2.1 Demographic Data

Yifan (Assistant) 23

Yifan is a male student who studied German Language in China during his under-graduate time. He is now studying Master of International Law at the University of Melbourne. He worked as an intern of Assistant Intern in Ogilvy Advertising company. 

Mila (Assistant) 24

Mila was a bachelor of German Literature. She is now studying Computer Science as a Master at the University of Melbourne. She was an intern of a Marketing E-commerce Assistant Intern in the Chinese branch of a german Fortune 500 company, Continental Automobile. 

Diana (anonym) (Tutor) 28

Diana is from India. She achieved her bachelor’s and master’s degree in History in India. She is now doing PHD in Melbourne University. At the same time, she works as a tutor in the South East Asia History class in the School of History and Philosophy Studies.

2.2 Distinctions

We designed 11 questions (see Appendix) to acquire information on their internship as much as possible. Analyzing the answers of the candidates, we have found the following distinctions between the two types of internship.

Chart. Distinctions between the Two Types of Internships

Distinctions	Assistant Intern	Tutor Intern
Purpose	1. General working experience and skills;2. Good-looking CVs.	1. Teaching experience;2. Personal pursuit;3. Good looking CV;4. Money.
Source of stress	The superior/line manager	The clients (students)
Gain	1. usually no professional knowledge;2. General working experience and skills.	1. Academic knowledge; 2. Teaching skills; 3. Money.
Response to the Job Criteria	Profession knowledge not helpful	Academic knowledge and research skills very helpful
Discrimination	A bit of gender discrimination/bias	1. Gender, racial, language discrimination; 2. Showed subtly, but not in hiring process or with colleagues.
Value	1. Basic of the company;2. Hardly any value to the world	1. A way to achieve self-development in the academic area;2. A guide for students

2.2.1 Purpose 

When talking about the purpose of the internship, the two former assistant interns said that they did not expect to acquire professional knowledge from the internship. One of them, Yifan, also said that he was obligated to have an internship according to the University regulations. ‘For a language student like us,’ said Mila, ‘We did not have many choices.’ For them, the Assistant internship was a chance to have access to a broader development space. Their bachelor major was in some ways a restriction to their future career. To take an Assistant internship, they expected to learn general working skills, such as communication skills and organizing skills, and to get familiar with the working environment. 

Compared to Yifan and Mila, Diana has more internal motivation. Through preparing for the tutorials she teaches, she is keeping filling the blanks in her knowledge about world history. And she is also learning new perspectives from her students. ‘One of the reasons is that I am an academic. I am doing a PhD, and I want to be an academic again,’ she said. On the other hand, teaching as a career is what she is passionate about: ‘I like teaching, and I have always wanted to teach.’ Through tutoring, she expected to learn teaching skills and accumulate more experience for her future career as an assistant professor in a university. In addition, a satisfying amount of salary is also an incentive for her. All in all, ‘this opportunity gives me a lot of exposure, experience and also good money,’ she concluded.

2.2.2 Source of stress  

‘I went to work at 10 am leave at 6 pm. My manager and college would tell me what to do every day. And I just did as they said.’ This was a typical working day for Yifan. The assistant intern do what their manager or boss told them to do. The manager is the most important person for the assistant intern. Most of the time, interns do not need to face the client. Their boss evaluates their working performance. As a result, the stress comes from their managers. 

Regarding Diana’s job, she teaches once a week. And before every tutorial, she needs to do a lot of preparation work. No one would tell her what her tutorial should be like. ‘Earlier I was just a student who just came to class, preparing for answering questions. Now I have to ask the right questions to my students and make them speak.’ Being a good tutor means that someone needs to be creative and to be able to work independently. Such nature of tutoring as a job, in fact, asks for an excellent individual competence, which gives Diana a lot of pressure. Besides, ‘The subject I am teaching is a new subject for me,’ which means that she has to learn ahead of the students and know more than them. Despite this, students may still ask questions that she doesn’t know or challenge her by disagreeing and coming up with new perspectives. So according to Diana, her students are the most significant source of stress.

2.2.3 Gain from the internship

When the two assistant interns are asked about professional learning or opportunities, they have different answers. Yifan, a former German language student, is now studying international law. ‘Nothing professional I have learned from this internship,’ said Yifan. After a half-year internship in the advertising industry, he found out that this field is not for him.

Before Mila took the internship, she decided to change her major to computer science in the master’s study. She had done some research in advance. She found out that this internship would benefit her future study. ‘I have learned some analyze skills from this internship for my master study,’ said Mila, ‘but not a lot.’ 

In terms of the gain from tutoring, Diana said she got a lot from all aspects of the job and all kinds of people. Firstly, she learned about the history of the region she was not familiar with because the subject she eras teaching was a new subject for her. Secondly, she also learned the teaching process. Although she had rich knowledge of history and research skills, she had little experience in teaching. This opportunity enables her to learn and practice instructing kills, class management skills, speaking and writing skills, etc. 

2.2.4 Discriminations in the internship

“There was actually some biases during the recruiting process.” said Mila. A manager in Mila’s department needed to find an assistant intern, and she said that she preferred a female assistant, because she thought females are usually “more attentive and careful.” However, some managers prefer a male assistant because they felt that male could perform better under high working pressure.  

‘There is no gender discrimination in the part when I am hired and with my colleagues. But I have noticed the ways the students respond to different tutors sometimes are different.’ Such different attitudes showed in a subtle way might have something to do with gender, race, and language (e.g., accent, proficiency). It is pointed out that ‘certain students won’t come prepared’ and ‘despite coming unprepared themselves, they judge me as if I didn’t do my job properly.’ If Diana gets ‘judgy eyes,’ she would feel upset and think, ‘maybe I am not the right person to teach you.’ 

2.2.5 Value of this internship

The assistant interns are like the basis of the company. ‘What I did are small things,’ said Mila, ‘But someone has to do these things.’ However, Yifan described the assistant intern as a “cheap labor force.” The work he did was simple and repetitive. “Every college student can do that internship.” laughed Yifan. Both of them thought that this position had hardly any value.

Diana gave a different answer: to herself, this tutoring job offered an excellent opportunity for self-development. She learned new knowledge in her academic area and accumulated more teaching experience for her future career. To her students, she was like a guide in their academic pathway, helping them achieve better learning results. To the university, she contributed to its daily operation, creating a better learning environment with other staff. 

2.3 Complexities

Artificial Intelligence is a machine or device, which has an artificial “cognitive” functions, such “learning” and “problem solving”. Nowadays, AI is applied in many different fields: Search engine like “Google”, facial recognition software on the smartphone, medical diagnosis machines, self-driving military vehicles, etc. While the AI technology is developing, some people worry about the possibility that AI might take their job in the future. We have asked our candidates their opinion about whether their intern positions will be replaced by AI in the future. Their answers are quite interesting.

Mila did not think that AI could do the job of assistant intern. “Assistant sometimes needs to deal with emergencies,” said Mila, “and I don’t think AI could do that.” At the same time, another former assistant intern, Yifan, held different ideas. “Of course it (AI) can replace me in this internship!” said Yifan and laughed. He described his internship as simple and repetitive. “I did almost the same stuff everyday. I felt like I was a robot.” 

And Diana said she was not sure if AI can replace tutors. She agreed that ‘some lecturers can be replaced by AI’ because ‘it is not interactive’, but as for tutoring, she thought it was hard to be replaced for several reasons. First of all, ‘some people may read that particular reading and come to discussion but might get the meaning totally wrong.’ Computer should have the ability to bring the topic back to the right track. Besides, computers have sot of limited perspective because it depends on the information that has been provided to. And different people will come up different opinion and perspectives about the same event. Diana remembered that ‘once there was one student who totally disagree with me, even with the basic questions for the tutorial.’ That’s just what history is all about. And it is possible that somebody provides wrong information. What’s more, without face-to-face communication, there will be no emotional exchanges. Students may lose their attention or patience in front of the ‘robots’ who is keeping collect their data.

We believe that is was a very complex question, whether a job or internship can be replaced by AI. However, the AI problem shows that both “soft skills” and “hard skills” are necessary in an internship. 

Hard skills refer to skills related to a specific task or situation. Hard skills are not related to one’s personality. These skills can be tested. For example, calculating skills, audio editing skills, data collecting skills, etc.

Soft skills are a combination of communication skills, social skills and other skills. Soft skills enable people to work well with others, to deal with others and to be flexible. For example, interpersonal skills: to act nice, personable, friendly and with a sense of humor; teamwork skills: to be cooperative, agreeable, supportive, and to get along with others. 

Our candidates believed that some parts of their internship work can be replaced by AI. We believe that these parts belong to hard skills, such as doing daily routine work and giving lectures. 

Some parts of their internship work, that cannot be replaced by AI, belong to soft skills, such as reacting to emergent situation, communicating with colleagues, managing time, giving quick response to new perspectives, managing the classroom, building emotional connections with students. 

We believe that students should develop their soft skills, so that their can be competitive enough to survive in the society of rapid development.  

3. Conclusion

3.1 Limitations and possible surveys

This report still has many limitations:   

1, We should set up different reference groups according to when they took their internship.

2, We should have more students from distinctive majors. We believe that major is an important aspect when students want to choose an internship.

3, We should make internship types more specific, for example, assistant interns in the field of commerce/law/engineering/human resource, or tutors for bachelor/master or different subject.

4, The opinion of superiors could be included. This could provide ideas from different angles.

For future surveys, we would like to see more thoughts of people who took the administrative internships or tutoring internships or both so that we could have a more comprehensive understanding of what these two kinds of jobs are, what other distinctions or similarities they have. We would also like to know what might be different for locals and immigrants at the workplace. Knowing the challenges beforehand can help graduates with different cultural backgrounds better integrate into local communities. In addition, it will be interesting if we investigate the same internship position but in different areas and compare them. Lastly, the thoughts of people at related positions (e.g., superior) should also be taken into consideration. This will help interns understand the expectations of them and have a better work performance.

3.2 Recommendations

For students who are interested in assistant internship:

An assistant internship is suitable for beginners. Relatively low working pressure and relatively low requirement are friendly to those who have never done a job or internship before. It is recommended that you do some research about the department and the company before you decide to take the job. ‘You should think about whether you are interested in this kind of work.’ suggested Yifan. The work of the assistant intern is simple and repetitive, and some students may find that boring. However, this work is not easy, and interns should be patient and pay great attention to the daily routine. “Always be prepared.” suggested Mila. Assistant interns should always be ready to show their advantages, impress the superior so that they can have more career opportunities.    

For students who are interested in tutoring internship:

Tutoring internship requires good knowledge in a specific subject area and allows you to keep improving in that area. It best suits those who are good at studying and want to be academic in the future. Even if being an academic is not your goal, the general working skills such as communication skills, time management skills, etc. can be improved throughout the internship. Additionally, compared with administrative internship, tutoring asks for creativity, critical thinking, the ability to work independently. So it is not an ideal job for those who prefer implementing instructions and repetitive work. Also, there will be a lot of external pressure, especially from the students. But if you want to do this kind of job, you need to be humble, patient, creative, and open-minded. ‘It is okay if you don’t have all the answers. You can always say to your students that I am not sure about this particular thing, so I’ll learn about and get back to you soon,’ Diana said. In other words, it would make you feel better if you accept your imperfections and keep learning in the process.

For all students

Students should be aware of what kind of person they are, what kind of skills they have, and which type of work they like. It is vital to get to know the internship, as well as to get to know yourself before you make a decision. 

References

Internship

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internship#cite_note-1

Assistant Internship

https://www.jobhero.com/resume-samples/administrative-intern/

Tutor

Click to access ROLES+AND+RESPONSIBILITIES.pdf

Appendix

Interview questions:

1, Why did you choose this internship?

2, What was a typical day in the job look like?

3, What do you like about working there?

4, What sort of learning and professional opportunities were there?

5, What was the most difficult part of the job? 

 5.1 Have you ever thought about quitting this job? When and why?

6, What do you learn in your course (for example: professional knowledge?) that is helpful in your job? Any Example?   

 6.1, If not helping: Why do you think it is not helpful?(What do you learn from ur course? What does the job need? )

7, Do you think there was any discrimination in this job?

8, What is the possible career following, after you finish your studies? Are you going to do the same kind of job as your internship?

9, What’s the value of this job? (To the company/To professional field/To the world）

10, What do you want to say to the future students who want to get the same internship? 

11, Do you think  Artificial Intelligence will replace this job position in the future? Why?

3, Reflection

This is my first time to write a report. Through this assignment, I learned how to write a report for general audience. This is also my first teamwork writing assignment in Melbourne. I find it very comfortable to work in a team.

This is also my first time to make an interview. The most important thing, I believe, for the interviewers is to make the interviewees understand your questions. Sometimes, my candidates might not understand my questions, or they might misunderstand the questions and give me an answer that I don’t expect. Sometimes I had to explain the question for them.

The challenge I’ve met during this assignment is, as I mentioned above, the word limit. We have to make our sentences simple and clear, “dezombiefy”.

I would like to thank our candidate: Diana, Yifan and Mila. I would also like to thank my teammate Xinyue for our good cooperation, and Janne for her excellent advice on our report.