I had a similar experience where I wasn’t briefed on what to expect, the person ‘in charge of me’ introduced me to people here and there and told I’d be involved in some exciting sounding meetings. Then I was left at a desk for hours. Next, I got picked up by another person working on a project. Was I supposed to be working for them? I didn’t know, but helped them out anyway, and my supervisor seemed to have already forgotten about me when I checked with her later. She had mentioned I should say what I was interested in, so I asked politely if I could be moved to another department.

After a couple of days, she sent me to the department where they already had plenty of people silently working on a research project. Before, I’d resolved to be friendly, to put myself out there, but now I was feeling like I was just bothering people a lot and not getting anywhere. After a few days of mainly, repeatedly, asking, ‘Is there anything I can do for anyone?’ ‘Tea, anyone?’ and cringing at the near-silence, I got called to my supervisor’s office. She said the company wouldn’t need me any more and I should go away and think seriously about whether I wanted to work in the media or not! Nothing I said made a difference. It was a 4 week internship I’d diligently applied for, and she kicked me out after 8 days!