People Share Their Biggest Work Fails In An Attempt To Console An HBO Intern Who Made A Mistake
If you’re on a more or less successful path in your career, the chances are you were an intern at some point in your life. A training position set apart from regular employment dates back to the Middle Ages when an apprentice would learn a craft from an expert and would be granted access to work in the guild. These days, internships are somewhat a burden rather than an opportunity, since it’s often misused as a loophole to attract unpaid or low-paid entry level workforce.
But the challenges of interning don’t end just there. It often entails the same duties and responsibilities as other workers have, plus all eyes are laid on you whenever you make a first slip-up. This is what happened to one unnamed intern at HBO Max who, according to the company, has “mistakenly sent out an empty test email to a portion of our HBO Max mailing list.” HBO wasted no time to call out the offender, stating that “yes, it was an intern.”
And that’s when people on Twitter took the intern’s side, sharing the most wholesome support stories that remind everyone how we’ve all been there, done that.
Image credits: EduardoCuevas
Image credits: HBOMaxHelp
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Haha, that is absolutely hysterical! I love how the IRL versions of my 2 favorite muppets saved her butt.
If an odd email from HBO Max landed in your inbox recently, you're not alone. On Thursday, HBO Max announced that an email with the subject line "Integration Test Email #1" went out to an unknown number of its subscribers. The streaming company then took to Twitter to openly put the blame on an unnamed intern. Their tweet stated "As the jokes pile in, yes, it was the intern. No, really. And we're helping them through it."
But people on social media platform made sure to comfort the ‘offender’ and offered them some emotional comfort in a series of #DearIntern tweets that reflected on their own work failures and embarrassments, as well as their office horror stories.
I've known some pretty shady babies in my day...
Load More Replies...He would've had to raise a paw and swear to tell the trwoof and nothing but the trwoof
To find out an expert’s take on this viral incident, Bored Panda reached out to Dawn Moss, the founder of “Your Interview Coach” who has been helping both candidates and hiring managers through the recruitment and selection process since 2013. Dawn said that Twitter’s support for the intern shows that “there'll be a lot of people who were interns at the beginning of their career and they will definitely empathize with this experience.”
“Being new in any job can be a massive learning curve,” she said and continued: “It doesn't matter how much or little experience you have, each company has its own way of doing things and it takes time to learn those unique ways. I think people can relate to making mistakes as well. Who hasn't made a mistake at work? Most people will feel bad, stressed and/or disappointed with themselves when they make mistakes.” That's why Dawn believes the intern received so much support and empathy.
When asked whether, in her opinion, it's right for such a megacompany like HBO Max to publicly put their blame on an intern, Dawn said that although making mistakes is uncomfortable, they’re a normal part of learning. “In my opinion, it was a little unfair to blame the intern. I think as an intern you should be allowed to make mistakes, learn from those mistakes and be able to make these mistakes in private.”
Having said that, the job interview coach added that we don't know quite how this was handled internally. “It's been good publicity for them, so maybe they were delighted with the intern and asked if they could share,” she added.
The boss is right. It's the company's responsibility to make sure there are backups and security measures to prevent one person from destroying vital information. A lot of institutions and businesses don't have this and as a result they have to pay big money to criminals who have encrypted that data with ransomware.
Something similar happened to me. I was working as an intern at my country's embassy in Britain and I was having problems with the invitations for a fancy dinner party. Found out the Chancellor of the Exchequer does not appreciate receiving unmarked parcels. I was yelled at for one hour by my boss, who told me I nearly caused an international incident.
And to the internet-famous unnamed intern from HBO Max, Dawn suggests networking widely in the business and asking lots and lots of questions. “The more people you talk to around the business, the more they will realize most people have been there and done it and I guarantee they've made their fair share of mistakes too.”
Moreover, “I'd also suggest spending time with experienced people in the company, they will totally understand the learning curve and the politics of the office. It really is good to talk,” she concluded.
Bored Panda also spoke with the Twitter user José Carlos Chávez, who was among the many who shared support for the unnamed HBO Max intern on the social media platform. José shared his own slip-up during his internship online: “As an intern, I dropped a table in a prod database. I decided to resign immediately, packed up my stuff and went to tell my boss. She was talking to the CEO of the company and got terrified and went back to my spot to find out the connection expired before it could run.”
Amassing 14.9k likes, José’s post went viral. “I think sharing our personal mistakes like mine encourages other people who are in difficulties to understand that everyone makes mistakes and that it’s totally fine,” the Barcelona-based software engineer told us. He also added that such human errors are fine “as long as we learn and grow from them.”
When i was in computer science class it would take a week of troubleshooting and having the teacher scour my project and then have the top students in class look at my project before we would realize I forgot a semicolon
According to the 2020/2021 data on internships in the US presented by Compare Camp, completing internships increases job offers by 16%. It is generally believed that an internship paves the way for a full-time position later as the data shows that 70% of companies offer interns a full-time job, and 80% of students accept them. That makes 56% of interns getting full-time jobs from their internships.
On the other hand, it’s widely known that such an opportunity to develop a skill set needed to land a career often demands some sacrifices. Hence, unpaid internships are still a grim reality for many students who are willing to go far to earn industry experience.
The same data showed that an estimated 500,000 to one million Americans work as unpaid interns every year. Not only does it put an extra amount of pressure, both financial and psychological, on an intern, it also leads to fewer job offers. Paid internships are 34% more likely to lead to at least one job offer after graduation versus unpaid internships.
Dear Mr Holland Dear Mr Holland Dear Mr Holland Dear Mr Holland Dear Mr Holland Dear Mr Holland Dear Mr Holland Dear Mr Holland Dear Mr Holland Dear Mr Holland Dear Mr Holland
Dear Universe, Nobody knows what “drop a prod database” means. Hope this helps, Roman
I did something very similar with 4 pints of beer when I was on a trial shift to be a bar waitress. They were the tall, top-heavy glasses that you get for weizen beer in Germany. The owner had to comp them some more drinks and then some more after that. I still got the job and actually turned out to be a good waitress, but that was not the best start. At least I knew to be extra careful with the weizen glasses!
Scope creeped? I'm not sure how that would lead to believing you were under attack...
One time this car drove by my house and it was fine. Car was ok. Wheeled platform being towed behind car was not. One of its two wheels was flat. Made this horrible noise. Were gone before I realized I should tell them.
Gross. The rookie didn’t make a mistake and the tweeter knows it. What a trashbag
Dear Intern, At my first day on the job in a major city's public safety department, I plugged in a space heater and blew the breaker to half of the municipal building which resulted in every court case going on in the county being cancelled that day. There was a high profile murder case taking place and the building officials thought it was an attack because of the murder case. They were ready to start evacuation procedures when maintenance found the blown breaker. Luckily, the maintenance man that realized the issue did not rat me out to anyone other than my immediate supervisor who thought it was funny. I bought that maintenance man coffee everyday for the eight years I worked there.
It's so nice how people shared their own stories to reassure the intern. As someone with terrible anxiety, I always worry that people will be judging me. Kindness like this helps others so much.
Dear Intern, When working an important contract at a large notable firm I took time off to go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. I’m not much of a gambler, so when a friend of a friend said on his trip, he rented a convertible and went to the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon and the Chicken Ranch, I was excited to do the same. When asked at the firm what I was doing on my time off, I told them going to Las Vegas, noting I wasn't a gambler, but was interested in seeing the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon and the Chicken Ranch (which I assumed was another scenic landmark). Weeks later, just before leaving, I told another friend my plans. He asked me if I knew what the Chicken Ranch was? No, I admitted. It’s a brothel he told me. So, for weeks, I had been happily telling my boss, HR, professional colleagues, and anyone who asked I was going to Las Vegas to go to a brothel.
As a county payroll clerk, I once terminated the entire sheriff's department.
As a student (basically a negatively paid intern) I found a novel way to bring up message prompts on other computers in the classroom. Told a few ... colorful jokes. Was later called to the dean's office. Turns out I wasn't just broadcasting to my classroom or even that building. I was hitting every single computer on the campus network. Hundreds of screens including lecture halls. Nearly got expelled.
Dear Intern, the first time I had to apply for a major grant from the government, I very smartly decided to use the provided template to request a raise in my allowance from my Dad as a joke. Turns out, when you hit 'save' it automatically uploads it into the system and you do not have the authorization to delete it.
Currently happening to me! New job. Found out I was poorly trained by the previous person. I felt completely incompetent till I found an email sent to her about the things she had to train me on. Turns out, what she trained me on was only like 10% of what my job is. I made so many mistakes my first week, I wanted to quit. BUT I told myself it's not my fault as I exposed their flaws and lack of training. XD
This probably won't make it or be seen, but Dear Intern, you ain't got nothing on the Australian Mint - a spelling error printed on 46 million, yep forty six million, $50 banknotes now in circulation https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-48210733
Oh those banknotes are so pretty! And I learned two new names today I will have to look up. Thank you.
Load More Replies...Dear Intern: Medical doctor interns aren't allowed any mistakes, b/c of the consequences. If the consequences are less than death? Cold drink, deep slow breaths, and give yourself a hug! ---- have the MD, didn't go into practice b/c dang, I don't want to screw up in a way that could kill someone...
Dear Intern, as a young software developer, I left a temp code change in an enterprise app that routed email from one type of email to another within a company. The change routed all email to me. That means if left in, any client that got the latest release would have every email from their company go to me. I thought of it at 11:58 PM, two minutes before the build. I fixed it in time, but someone else at the company did remove all command from the root directory of our main internal server after doing "sudo root". Wiped out the entire server. I was so afraid it was me, I went home early that day and cried. (It wasn't me. They company was great and never let on who did it.)
Dear Intern, I was stung by a bee the day my internship started. I literally had a softball sized bump on my forehead. Apparently all I said was "Hello" and "Okay". It wasn't an easy position to get, but there I was. Everyday was better, but somehow I didn't notice the bump or odd behaviour. My boss told me a week later. She said there were tense moments.
Honest question here: has the US no apprenticeships at all? This sounds like it is a relic from the middle ages. I'm just curious, because we have an apprenticeship system for those who do not want to study. There are several jobs/ crafts you can choose from. An apprenticeship is around 3 years long. You go to work for 3 days a week and learn the practical craft there + 2 days a week to a special school for the theory parts. You get paid too (plus the usual insurance, vacation days etc pp of course)
You must live in a civilized country. In the US, many "internships" are UNPAID. You're supposed to be grateful to your "boss" for exploiting you. Quite a lot of us live in constant fear of losing our jobs while making so little that we can't possibly save money to live on should that happen.
Load More Replies...People make mistake. That's how we learn. And this intern will always remember this accident becuase it's viral and everybody gave them a nice support
Accidentally changed all the passwords in a production DB of an adverse-event monitoring system when I was a consultant at Pfizer. Had only meant to change mine. Realized I forgot the "WHERE user = " a nanosecond after hitting Enter. I then also realized that I hadn't done it as a transaction...so I couldn't just undo it. I quickly learned the importance of typing BEGIN WORK before everything, from that moment on. They were cool about it. Everybody got a quick email about how their new password was "abc123" (after I changed it again to something other than my intended password) and to please change it at their first opportunity, and if they wanted to kill me, I'd be at my desk for the rest of the day. :-P
Dear intern, I once introduced a 2-character defect in code that caused all people taking a specific online test available throughout the US to be told they had failed, getting a zero score on their exam. They didn't fire me. I wasn't even an intern. I try not to think about it.
I once used the magazine's layout computer to scan some photos after hours, terminating the process running the compilation of an entire issue. Yeah, long time ago. Boss was seriously annoyed.
Dear Intern, when computers were still very new in the workplace you could add little avatars to your screen that chased your cursor. A group of bright sparks, about 10 of us, decided to see how many kittens we could have chase the cursor. Turns out not a lot before you crash the system. A memo went out the next day advising all employees to remove and never add these to your computers again.
Every employee has made mistakes, it is honestly only an issue if someone makes the same mistake over and over again after you have talked to them. Even then, I will try to just modify the employees work or try different approaches with them. If you suck at one thing but are great at others, I will just take that one thing off your plate and have you work on something else. Very few times where the employee was just not working out.
Once my mom machine washed and dried a waterproof tablecloth. It is no longer waterproof.
Once i accidently put wrong bank account number on 60 invoices And send them to 60 clients. It were all the clients we need to pay us that month (it was small company). To make it worse, i didn't just put there wrong number, i put there the number of our investment account. Which meant that the money that were send there couldn't be accesed for at least three months... For a company that small, if all the clients send their payments immediatelly, we could go bancrupt... Luckily i managed to contact most of them And gave them the right number...
Dear Intern, When working at my first job, which was taking care of animals at a nature center, I took out a snake. I was permitted to handle the snakes, as they needed socializing, and so I carried the snake around my neck. I walked around the corner and the snake, which happened to be a rather large python stuck his head out directly at a guest. Guest screamed bloody murder and almost passed out. I panicked and ran away with the snake because my eleven year old brain couldn’t think of anything constructive to do. A bit later, the director of the center (it’s a small business) comes in and asks me why on earth he’d had an hysterical guest asking him why we had 5 feet plus long snakes and why we let them out. The guest hadn’t seen me, and had just seen the snake’s head stick out around the corner at about my shoulder height, hence their assumption it was a massive python. I still get to hear about that one.
Dear Intern, as a new admin at an accounting firm I once sent a client's final tax documents to the wrong client, and both clients knew each other. Thankfully the clients were nice about it, and so was my boss. That was a decade ago and I still triple check all attachments I send in emails.
Dear Intern, I was an intern at a pet store. They put me on a simple task to clean aquarium tanks with fish, and I ended up flooding the store.
Dear Intern, My department hired a data entry person to input about a week's worth of data formerly stored on paper. I accidentally deleted all her work and it had to be done over. I remember telling my boss what had happened first thing the next day. She patted me on the back and and said that in this kind of mistake, there are those who have done it and those who will. She thanked me for coming forward and that was the end of it. I remember that to this day, decades later.
Dear Intern, At my first day on the job in a major city's public safety department, I plugged in a space heater and blew the breaker to half of the municipal building which resulted in every court case going on in the county being cancelled that day. There was a high profile murder case taking place and the building officials thought it was an attack because of the murder case. They were ready to start evacuation procedures when maintenance found the blown breaker. Luckily, the maintenance man that realized the issue did not rat me out to anyone other than my immediate supervisor who thought it was funny. I bought that maintenance man coffee everyday for the eight years I worked there.
It's so nice how people shared their own stories to reassure the intern. As someone with terrible anxiety, I always worry that people will be judging me. Kindness like this helps others so much.
Dear Intern, When working an important contract at a large notable firm I took time off to go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. I’m not much of a gambler, so when a friend of a friend said on his trip, he rented a convertible and went to the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon and the Chicken Ranch, I was excited to do the same. When asked at the firm what I was doing on my time off, I told them going to Las Vegas, noting I wasn't a gambler, but was interested in seeing the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon and the Chicken Ranch (which I assumed was another scenic landmark). Weeks later, just before leaving, I told another friend my plans. He asked me if I knew what the Chicken Ranch was? No, I admitted. It’s a brothel he told me. So, for weeks, I had been happily telling my boss, HR, professional colleagues, and anyone who asked I was going to Las Vegas to go to a brothel.
As a county payroll clerk, I once terminated the entire sheriff's department.
As a student (basically a negatively paid intern) I found a novel way to bring up message prompts on other computers in the classroom. Told a few ... colorful jokes. Was later called to the dean's office. Turns out I wasn't just broadcasting to my classroom or even that building. I was hitting every single computer on the campus network. Hundreds of screens including lecture halls. Nearly got expelled.
Dear Intern, the first time I had to apply for a major grant from the government, I very smartly decided to use the provided template to request a raise in my allowance from my Dad as a joke. Turns out, when you hit 'save' it automatically uploads it into the system and you do not have the authorization to delete it.
Currently happening to me! New job. Found out I was poorly trained by the previous person. I felt completely incompetent till I found an email sent to her about the things she had to train me on. Turns out, what she trained me on was only like 10% of what my job is. I made so many mistakes my first week, I wanted to quit. BUT I told myself it's not my fault as I exposed their flaws and lack of training. XD
This probably won't make it or be seen, but Dear Intern, you ain't got nothing on the Australian Mint - a spelling error printed on 46 million, yep forty six million, $50 banknotes now in circulation https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-48210733
Oh those banknotes are so pretty! And I learned two new names today I will have to look up. Thank you.
Load More Replies...Dear Intern: Medical doctor interns aren't allowed any mistakes, b/c of the consequences. If the consequences are less than death? Cold drink, deep slow breaths, and give yourself a hug! ---- have the MD, didn't go into practice b/c dang, I don't want to screw up in a way that could kill someone...
Dear Intern, as a young software developer, I left a temp code change in an enterprise app that routed email from one type of email to another within a company. The change routed all email to me. That means if left in, any client that got the latest release would have every email from their company go to me. I thought of it at 11:58 PM, two minutes before the build. I fixed it in time, but someone else at the company did remove all command from the root directory of our main internal server after doing "sudo root". Wiped out the entire server. I was so afraid it was me, I went home early that day and cried. (It wasn't me. They company was great and never let on who did it.)
Dear Intern, I was stung by a bee the day my internship started. I literally had a softball sized bump on my forehead. Apparently all I said was "Hello" and "Okay". It wasn't an easy position to get, but there I was. Everyday was better, but somehow I didn't notice the bump or odd behaviour. My boss told me a week later. She said there were tense moments.
Honest question here: has the US no apprenticeships at all? This sounds like it is a relic from the middle ages. I'm just curious, because we have an apprenticeship system for those who do not want to study. There are several jobs/ crafts you can choose from. An apprenticeship is around 3 years long. You go to work for 3 days a week and learn the practical craft there + 2 days a week to a special school for the theory parts. You get paid too (plus the usual insurance, vacation days etc pp of course)
You must live in a civilized country. In the US, many "internships" are UNPAID. You're supposed to be grateful to your "boss" for exploiting you. Quite a lot of us live in constant fear of losing our jobs while making so little that we can't possibly save money to live on should that happen.
Load More Replies...People make mistake. That's how we learn. And this intern will always remember this accident becuase it's viral and everybody gave them a nice support
Accidentally changed all the passwords in a production DB of an adverse-event monitoring system when I was a consultant at Pfizer. Had only meant to change mine. Realized I forgot the "WHERE user = " a nanosecond after hitting Enter. I then also realized that I hadn't done it as a transaction...so I couldn't just undo it. I quickly learned the importance of typing BEGIN WORK before everything, from that moment on. They were cool about it. Everybody got a quick email about how their new password was "abc123" (after I changed it again to something other than my intended password) and to please change it at their first opportunity, and if they wanted to kill me, I'd be at my desk for the rest of the day. :-P
Dear intern, I once introduced a 2-character defect in code that caused all people taking a specific online test available throughout the US to be told they had failed, getting a zero score on their exam. They didn't fire me. I wasn't even an intern. I try not to think about it.
I once used the magazine's layout computer to scan some photos after hours, terminating the process running the compilation of an entire issue. Yeah, long time ago. Boss was seriously annoyed.
Dear Intern, when computers were still very new in the workplace you could add little avatars to your screen that chased your cursor. A group of bright sparks, about 10 of us, decided to see how many kittens we could have chase the cursor. Turns out not a lot before you crash the system. A memo went out the next day advising all employees to remove and never add these to your computers again.
Every employee has made mistakes, it is honestly only an issue if someone makes the same mistake over and over again after you have talked to them. Even then, I will try to just modify the employees work or try different approaches with them. If you suck at one thing but are great at others, I will just take that one thing off your plate and have you work on something else. Very few times where the employee was just not working out.
Once my mom machine washed and dried a waterproof tablecloth. It is no longer waterproof.
Once i accidently put wrong bank account number on 60 invoices And send them to 60 clients. It were all the clients we need to pay us that month (it was small company). To make it worse, i didn't just put there wrong number, i put there the number of our investment account. Which meant that the money that were send there couldn't be accesed for at least three months... For a company that small, if all the clients send their payments immediatelly, we could go bancrupt... Luckily i managed to contact most of them And gave them the right number...
Dear Intern, When working at my first job, which was taking care of animals at a nature center, I took out a snake. I was permitted to handle the snakes, as they needed socializing, and so I carried the snake around my neck. I walked around the corner and the snake, which happened to be a rather large python stuck his head out directly at a guest. Guest screamed bloody murder and almost passed out. I panicked and ran away with the snake because my eleven year old brain couldn’t think of anything constructive to do. A bit later, the director of the center (it’s a small business) comes in and asks me why on earth he’d had an hysterical guest asking him why we had 5 feet plus long snakes and why we let them out. The guest hadn’t seen me, and had just seen the snake’s head stick out around the corner at about my shoulder height, hence their assumption it was a massive python. I still get to hear about that one.
Dear Intern, as a new admin at an accounting firm I once sent a client's final tax documents to the wrong client, and both clients knew each other. Thankfully the clients were nice about it, and so was my boss. That was a decade ago and I still triple check all attachments I send in emails.
Dear Intern, I was an intern at a pet store. They put me on a simple task to clean aquarium tanks with fish, and I ended up flooding the store.
Dear Intern, My department hired a data entry person to input about a week's worth of data formerly stored on paper. I accidentally deleted all her work and it had to be done over. I remember telling my boss what had happened first thing the next day. She patted me on the back and and said that in this kind of mistake, there are those who have done it and those who will. She thanked me for coming forward and that was the end of it. I remember that to this day, decades later.