For summer interns · Return-offer conversations
You’ve done the work. Rehearse what happens when they say “budgets aren’t finalized yet.”
The blog post says ask at the two-thirds mark. You still don’t know what your voice does in the 1:1.
Week six of a ten-week internship. Your project shipped. Your manager’s Slack reactions are positive. The midpoint review is Thursday. What you haven’t done is say “I’d like to return full-time — what does the path to a return offer look like?” out loud and then sit there while they pivot to “HR handles conversions,” “let’s revisit after your final presentation,” or a warm smile with no timeline. Kommi puts you in that 1:1 first — with a manager who deflects the way real managers do — so Thursday isn’t your first take.
The script isn’t the hard part.
Every career blog has the same advice: ask around week six or seven, be direct, say you’d love to return and ask what criteria matter. You have the sentence. What you don’t have is muscle memory for when your manager says “you’re doing great — I’ll put in a good word with HR” and you have to decide in real time whether that counts as a yes, a maybe, or an evasive no with three weeks left on the clock.
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What’s at stake
A return offer is a $70k–$130k job you skip a year of recruiting to land. An evasive answer at week seven with three weeks left means you start interviewing in August without a safety net.
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Why you hesitate
You’re afraid of sounding presumptuous to the person who writes your evaluation. You keep rewriting the email instead of hearing yourself ask the question out loud.
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What career blogs can’t do
Metaintro and PropelGrad tell you when to ask. They can’t simulate the manager who praises your project and then deflects with “budgets are still being finalized.”
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What a career coach costs
A 30-minute session with a career coach runs $75–$150. You need a rep tonight in your dorm room — not a Calendly slot after the midpoint review already happened.
Sample roleplay · 3 minutes
“Budgets aren’t finalized yet. I’ll put in a good word.”
You’re Alex. Week seven of a ten-week internship. Your manager Chris just finished reviewing your project demo. You need to ask about full-time conversion before the evaluation window closes.
You (Alex)
“I’ve really enjoyed the team and I’d love to return full-time. Can you walk me through what the path to a return offer looks like, and what I should focus on in these last three weeks?”
Manager (Chris)
“You’re doing great — the dashboard work was solid. Headcount is still being finalized for next year, so I can’t make any promises right now. But I’ll definitely put in a good word with HR.”
You (Alex)
“That’s good to hear. Is there a specific timeline for when return-offer decisions get made? And are there criteria I should be hitting that would strengthen the case?”
Chris (manager)
“Honestly, it’s mostly out of my hands. HR runs the process. Just keep doing what you’re doing and we’ll see how it shakes out after your final presentation.”
Your move
- → Ask for concrete criteria: what would make Chris confident advocating for you?
- → Request a follow-up date: “Can we revisit this the week before my last day?”
- → Avoid accepting vague reassurance as a yes — an evasive answer is information
Each choice changes how Chris responds — more deflection, a candid “headcount is frozen on my team,” or a direct “here’s what I need to see from your final project.” You practice asking without apologizing for wanting a job, and catching yourself when you’re about to say “no worries, I understand” and leave with nothing actionable.
Then the coach reads you back to yourself.
Not a LinkedIn post. Not seventeen internship tips. One observation about what you did, one adjustment for the next ask, one sentence you can carry into Thursday’s midpoint review.
Sample coach debrief
“You opened with clear intent — that’s the right move at week seven. When Chris deflected to HR and headcount, you asked about timeline but then said ‘that makes sense’ and dropped it. You left with encouragement, not criteria.
Try next time: ‘I appreciate you’ll advocate for me. Can we get specific? What would you need to see from my final presentation to feel confident submitting a strong recommendation?’
Carry into Thursday: ‘I’d like to return full-time. What criteria matter for a return offer, and when will I know where things stand?’”
Questions interns ask
- Isn’t this just reading a blog post out loud?
- Blogs tell you the script. They don’t simulate the manager who praises your work and then deflects with “HR handles conversions.” Three minutes in a simulated 1:1 catches whether you accepted vague reassurance or pushed for concrete criteria.
- I’m only an intern for ten weeks. Is $11.99/mo worth it?
- A return offer is worth $70k+. One career-coaching session costs more than a year of Kommi. You also get unlimited sessions across every scenario we ship — salary negotiation, performance reviews, hard talks with managers. Most people find a second scenario before summer ends.
- What if my manager already said they’re hiring me?
- Kommi is for the ambiguous middle — when you’re getting positive signals but no explicit offer. If you already have a written offer, our salary-negotiation page is a better fit.
- Can I practice different manager responses?
- Yes. The roleplay adapts when you choose different responses — a manager who cites frozen headcount, one who asks “what makes you think you’re ready for full-time?” or one who gives a candid no so you can pivot to recruiting early. Run the same ask three ways in fifteen minutes before your review.
$11.99 a month.
A coach with a calendar runs two hundred dollars an hour. Kommi runs roughly forty cents a day — and is awake when you can't sleep, which is when most of these conversations are actually being rehearsed anyway.
We don't have a free tier, a team plan, or a premium upsell. One price, no pricing page riddle. If we add tiers later, we'll do it because users asked — not because a growth deck did.
About forty cents a day.
- Two free sessions before billing starts
- Then $11.99 a month — about forty cents a day
- Unlimited sessions — any conversation you can describe
- A coaching read after every session, and your progress over time
- Cancel in two taps; 7-day refund if you change your mind
One conversation you’d have talked yourself out of is worth years of this. Or just sleep better on Wednesday. Either way.
Run your first rehearsal — free →US only at launch. We'll get to the rest of the world.
The conversation is on Thursday. Begin tonight.
Three minutes. Two free. 7-day money back after that.