Did supervisor act wrongly?

[Double J]

Well he's not really my supervisor. I just report to him for one project I do, but he isn't the one that approves my hours or anything. I'm currently a part-time intern at an advertising/media agency. Many of the tasks that I do have become mundane and somewhat boring - I haven't learned anything new in a while. Thus far, though, it's been much better than your typical internship where you're put to make copies and file. They actually give me work that has deadlines and so on, but it's pretty much been routine for some time now and I'm looking for new projects I can learn from.

 

My main interest is in research, and I was assigned to the associate research director for a monthly report we prepare each month. I won't get into so much detail, but it's fairly easy to do and does not require too many brain cells. The director recently told me that he was going to get me involved in two projects - one was making certain revisions to the project I just mentioned that is done monthly, and the other was to work on a project for a big client we have. I was super interested in the second one from the moment he told me. This guy kept saying "i'll let you know when we'll sit down together and discuss it" but apparently he's been so busy that over the course of several weeks we haven't sat down at all. I'm starting to wonder. When he told me about the big project for the client, I told him I'd love to and that I wanted to get to it right away but... that I attend school full-time and that I did not want it to interfere with my studies (couldn't do it if it required more than 25 hrs a week).

 

I'm starting to wonder if saying this turned him off somehow. Just yesterday I asked him what was the latest as to the big project, and he said "No don't worry about it it's already finished. But I would like you to take a look at it to see the types of analyses we do." I was really eager to work on it but unfortunately it seems like he stringed me along for weeks and didn't tell me anything until I brought it up x weeks later.

 

Do you think the fact that I told him I couldn't commit more than 25 hrs a week was the cause of this? At least I was honest from the beginning. Even the head VP (one of the ones who hired me) told me he did not want work to interfere with school, and I'm very committed. At the same time I wanted to be involved in a more challenging project.

 

Should I ask the director why he ultimately did not include me and if it had something to do with my schedule?

[avman]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. These kind of things happen all the time. Priorities change. People get busy and forget about things. Politics interferes, etc.

 

You were right to tell him that you couldn't commit more than 25 hours per week. Then they'll have to make the decision whether they need someone to commit more than that, or whether they are comfortable with what you can offer.

 

Take a look at the part that he's asked you to now and check out the analysis. Then perhaps you'll be in a better position to work on the next project.