Making the Most of an Internship: An Empirical Study of Internship Satisfaction

Since internships are becoming more widely used as learning tools for students to help fill the gap between classroom learning and the practice of business, it is important to understand what aspects of these experiences make them the most worthwhile. This study assessed satisfaction of interns by looking at three broad factors (i.e., job characteristics, work environment characteristics, and contextual factors), which may contribute to internship satisfaction. Our results indicate that characteristics of the job (specifically, task significance and feedback) and characteristics of the work environment (in particular, learning opportunities, supervisor support, and organizational satisfaction) were the best predictors of internship satisfaction. These findings can assist business schools, faculty, students, and host companies in making a key developmental experience, internships, as satisfying as possible.