I understand that work is fluid, and there are busier times than others. That's not what I'm talking about. This is when interns are taken on when, for whatever reason, there is zero scope to give them anything to do whatsoever. Before anyone feels the need to be snide about interns 'not being good enough', again, this is before there has been any opportunity to evaluate their work or to form an opinion about them. The same intern was also clearly decent enough to pass your screening process, so it's a reflection of your standards if they are still deemed unfit to be given work at all. It is immensely frustrating to spend time and money going through the most opaque of application processes, setting up base in an entirely new city and hoping to do your best only to be met with "we have no work to give you". Leaving at a reasonable time is also frowned upon and so the expectation is to sit in the office doing nothing. If you're too eager for work or keep asking for things to do, you'll be yelled at for bothering the team. If you independently do research related to the work the team does, nobody has the time to read it and you shouldn't be 'over-enthusiastic'. You can't volunteer to help some other team out, because you're bound to the one you've been assigned to exclusively. The expectation then is to kill 10-12 hours a day. I've taken to studying the syllabi for courses I'll have to do in the future. It might seem like a non-problem because interns are paid and so, who in their right mind would complain about getting paid for nothing, right? Wrong because a) costs can exceed the stipend amount significantly and 2) sitting in a decked out glass prison when I could be making use of my skills isn't very fun. Just don't take people on if the end result is a waste of everyone's time and resources.

Gonna speak from an Associate’s pov- We take interns to do the work we don’t have time to do. When we ourselves were interns the same thing happened with us too, you’ll realise this once you reach the other side of the tunnel.

Further, sometimes we might also not give interns work and this work has come directly from our own seniors to whom we are accountable. We can’t tell a PA that we’re waiting for the intern to send in the draft so we could review it and send it further to you. We know the transaction at hand, we know the client and if possible, we do actually involve interns.

Hope this helps a bit and good luck ahead!