The Internship Onboarding Checklist: Everything to Do Before Day One and During Week One
By The Internhuddle Team · Onboarding · Published · 7 min read
Onboarding is the highest-leverage fortnight of an entire internship. A prepared first week tells the intern they matter and gets them productive fast; a chaotic one costs weeks of confidence that a 10-week program cannot afford to lose.
Quick answer: intern onboarding splits into three lists — before day one (paperwork, access, mentor assigned), day one (welcome, introductions, how-work-happens tour), and week one (starter task shipped, first mentor one-to-one, expectations set in writing).
Before day one
Everything on this list should be finished the week before the intern starts:
- Contract signed and stored. Chasing signatures during week one is awkward for everyone; chasing them in week six is a compliance problem.
- HR paperwork collected — tax forms, right-to-work documents, emergency contacts, and any NDAs. Send these as a single checklist, not a drip-feed of emails.
- Accounts created — email, chat, project tracker, code or file repositories, and any internal tools. Test the logins yourself.
- Equipment ready — laptop imaged, monitor on the desk (or shipped, for remote interns), with a written setup guide.
- Mentor assigned and briefed. The mentor should know the intern's name, background and start date, and should have blocked time in week one. An unbriefed mentor is the #1 cause of a bad first week.
- Starter task scoped. Pick something small, real and self-contained that a newcomer can finish inside a week.
- Welcome message sent a few days before: where to be, when, what to bring, who will meet them.
Day one
- Someone is waiting for them. Obvious, and regularly missed — especially for remote starts, where "join this call at 9:30" beats an empty calendar.
- Team introductions — short, name-and-what-they-do rounds. Follow up with a written team map they can refer back to.
- The how-work-happens tour: where tasks live, how standups run, how work gets reviewed, how to ask questions (and reassurance that asking is expected).
- Access check: a 30-minute block where the intern logs into everything while someone who can fix problems sits with them.
- The onboarding checklist, handed over. Give interns their own copy of the remaining items so they can drive their own onboarding instead of waiting to be told.
Week one
- Starter task shipped. The single most important week-one outcome. Finishing something end to end — through the real workflow, with a real review — teaches more than any document.
- First mentor one-to-one. Set the rhythm: when you will meet, how to raise problems, and what the main project will be. Put expectations in writing; memory is unreliable on both sides.
- Logistics swept up: payroll confirmed, building access working, any missing paperwork chased now rather than at month end.
- Friday check: a two-question pulse — "what confused you this week?" and "what do you need next week?" — catches most setup problems while they are still cheap.
The two-week rule
Hold off on formal assessment for the first two weeks. Interns are, by definition, people early in their careers in an unfamiliar environment; judging them while they are still finding the kitchen produces noise, not signal. Start the weekly feedback cadence in week three, once the settling-in period is over — then keep it every single week.
Common onboarding failures (and the fix)
| Failure | Fix |
|---|---|
| Accounts not ready on day one | Access checklist owned by the admin, completed the week before |
| Mentor didn't know they were the mentor | Assign and notify the mentor at offer-acceptance time, not start time |
| Intern shadows meetings for two weeks | Scope a starter task before they arrive |
| Paperwork trickles in over a month | One checklist, sent once, tracked to completion |
| Nobody notices the intern is lost | Friday pulse question in weeks one and two |
Frequently asked questions
What should be ready before an intern's first day?
Before day one: a signed contract, completed HR paperwork (tax and right-to-work), created accounts and tool access, a working laptop or equipment, an assigned mentor who knows they are the mentor, and a scheduled first-day agenda. If any of these are missing on the morning of day one, the intern's first impression is that the company is disorganised.
What should an intern do in their first week?
Meet the team, learn how work flows (standups, tickets, reviews), complete a small starter task end to end, and have a one-to-one with their mentor where expectations are set. The best single week-one goal is shipping something real, however small.
How long does intern onboarding take?
Administrative onboarding should be done before day one. Practical onboarding — being able to work without constant help — typically takes two weeks for a well-run program. Budget those two weeks deliberately and hold off on formal assessment until they are over.
Who is responsible for intern onboarding?
Split it: a program admin (or HR) owns paperwork, accounts and scheduling; the mentor owns the work-related onboarding — the starter task, tooling walkthroughs and introductions. A shared checklist that both can see prevents each side assuming the other has it covered.