Investigating undergraduate business internships: Do supervisor and self-evaluations differ?

The authors analyze consistency between supervisors' and interns' self-evaluations based on interns' gender, time of completion (summer or academic year), and sponsor (on-campus department or off campus). Students, in general, tended to have lower ratings for computer skills, relative to supervisors, suggesting that they do not appreciate the skills that they possess. When student self-evaluations differed from those of supervisors, women gave themselves lower ratings than supervisors, whereas the opposite was seen for men. When evaluations differed, students completing on-campus internships tended to rate themselves higher than their supervisors, whereas the opposite was seen for students completing off-campus internships. Suggestions for better advising and preparing students, in advance of completing internships, are provided.