Get arrival instructions before the last minute
If the start date is approaching and instructions are missing, send this to your confirmed recruiting or onboarding contact:
“I am starting [role] on [date]. Could you confirm the arrival or login time and time zone, address or meeting link, first-day contact, and any steps I still need to complete? Please also let me know how I will receive equipment and whether I should bring anything.”
For an on-site role, check the entrance, badge process, parking or transit, and any clothing or safety requirements. For a remote role, confirm equipment delivery and how to join orientation if account access is not ready. Ask about an agreed accommodation before the first day rather than assuming it transferred automatically from recruiting.
Complete the real onboarding process, not an imitation
Use the portal or contact confirmed by the employer. If an unexpected message changes the system, asks for banking or identity information, or tells you to buy equipment, verify it through your existing contact before acting.
Do not deposit a check and send money to a supposed equipment vendor. The FTC identifies that kind of onward-payment request as a fake-check scam pattern. Legitimate-looking offer details do not make a new payment request genuine.
Keep a short record of each required form, its deadline, and whether the system confirmed receipt. Ask HR about an unclear field; do not guess a legal or identity detail simply to get past a portal error.
Sources[1]
Turn the first assignment into something you can finish
“Research competitors” could mean an afternoon's fact-checking or a month-long market study. Confirm the output before starting. For example: “I will compare five competitors on pricing, target customer, and onboarding in a two-page memo. I will send an outline Wednesday and a draft Friday. Is that the right scope?”
| Decide | Example answer |
|---|---|
| Output | A two-page comparison memo, not a slide deck and dashboard as well. |
| Scope | Five named competitors and three agreed questions. |
| Inputs | Public pricing pages and approved internal notes. |
| Review | Outline Wednesday; manager feedback before the Friday draft. |
| Destination | The team's approved shared folder. |
That fictional assignment has an output, limits, and a chance to correct course before the deadline. Also ask where the information should come from, who will review the work, and where to save it. For technical or operational work, confirm the environment you can use and what you must not change without review.
Raise a blocker with enough information to fix it
Instead of “My laptop does not work,” send: “I can sign in, but the reporting tool says my account has no access. I tried the setup instructions and restarted the sign-in flow. Could you identify the access owner? Until then, I can draft the report outline using the public sample.”
Say what is blocked, what you tried, and what you need. Suggest work that is actually permitted while you wait. Do not use a personal account, upload employer files into a personal AI tool, or change system permissions to bypass a delay.
Check hours and pay before an error repeats
Learn where to record time, when timesheets close, and who approves corrections. Confirm the first payday and which dates it covers. When the first pay statement arrives, compare the hours and rate with your records and review deductions; check gross earnings separately from the net deposit.
If something is wrong, send payroll the affected period and the specific discrepancy through its approved channel. Do not send the full pay statement to a group chat or wait until the internship ends to reconcile missing hours.
Sources[2]