Did not feel very welcome. - Intern SPUR Employee Review

1.0
12 Mar 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Initial interview was very friendly and I thought it would be a good fit after another internship I had ended. Although it was not quite related to what I had experience in previously, my background and familiarity with the San Francisco area was a plus and everyone thought it would be a good fit overall. There was no compensation at the time for the internship.

Cons

I realized it was a bad fit not too long after I started. I had been hired to set up community meetings between members of the local government, citizens and interested groups. The person who hired me said he wanted someone who was in this position to "take charge," which I and the other person who had been hired to split the duties assumed that we'd do the research and decide who to bring in. But then the person who hired me (who turned out to be our supervisor) actually already had decided who we should contact. Which was fine in the sense it made our jobs easier, but that wasn't how the job was described to me. The other intern and I we told we were to make the job our own, but in reality we were really just interns doing the grunt work and could not really expand on the role because we were so constrained. At the time I was hired, the supervisor was also not actually always available. I cannot recall why he was not physically present, but I do remember the other person who was supposed to supervise us had gone on vacation after I had been hired. So in some ways the other intern and I were very much on our own with minimal supervision. While that can be nice, it was a little frustrating because I had just started and already there was a conflict between what I thought the role would be and what was apparently expected of us. There was no set office space for the interns, so my colleague and I would move from office to office and floor to floor. Although this was not so bad (sometimes we would have the entire room/floor to ourselves), sometimes I was made to feel VERY unwelcome if someone had something scheduled in X space. In one instance, the person did not explicitly ask me to move, but would ask in roundabout ways: "Do you know there's a meeting here at X time?" and eventually sent the admin assistant to sheepishly kick me out. The passive-aggressiveness was really disappointing and I wish the original person had simply explained she needed the space instead of dancing around it. Also, because the other intern and I had no set space, we had to use our own laptops and phones. There was a space dedicated to the interns, but it was taken over by someone else's papers and was only meant for one person. After the above incident of the meeting space passive-aggressiveness I quit., for a total of about 3 weeks (I did not work every day). The position was without pay and the place felt very unwelcoming and "stuffy," although I suspect that last part was due to the unfriendly woman who was possessive about her meeting space (unfortunately it looks like she's still working there).

Explore other reviews about SPUR

5.0
31 May 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Supportive environment and opportunity for growth/ choosing projects specific to your interests.

Cons

No cons during this experience

2.0
10 Feb 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-There used to be a lot of young people -Good networking -Nice office space -Good amount of vacation time (but no sick time)

Cons

-Different teams are treated (and paid) inequitably with little transparency -Not a stable work environment -Lots of turnover -Not a lot of room to grow -Hired management that had shiny resumes but not good people management skills -Takes forever to hire -Not a good place for junior staff -questionable decisions made by management

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All