I'm confused, as the data sorting is not a coded task, why would having IDE on your screen be a godsent?

@nicola In fact, I'd be extremely interested in automating this type of work, it's something I'm quite passionate about, however, the people working on my team have brought it up before, but in the context of 'Well, one day we'd love to have this just all be automated, but we can't really at the moment, so we just have to do it like this.' But it's an excellent idea and was 100% my first thought when I saw what they gave me to do.

@TymoteuszPaul I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. To rephrase what I meant a bit clearer: working with code, even in the slightest and least interactive context, would be a large improvement over what I am currently doing.

Okay, and why won't you just take the time and automate it without asking?

@TymoteuszPaul That is a great question. I can't say I thought of that. I hadn't thought to, mostly because they expect this work done, and I can't really guarantee that I'll be able to automate it with the limited tools / expertise I have. I am only an internship after all, and part of the reason I took this was so I could learn how to automate stuff like this. But I'll take it into consideration regardless because the idea of automating it really interests me.

@Yvain it was less "just go and do it" but think about the process it takes. You don't know exactly how to automate it, you aren't confident in ability to timely deliver (or at all) and yet the work of data sorting has to be done. So in order for you to automate it, the company would have to dedicate time of someone more senior to actually help you do it, and clearly that's what they cannot afford right now. Just providing a bit of perspective. And btw that's something I have to do even well into decades of seniority, as sometimes do it by hand is the best way.

@SolarMike respectfully, I don't really know what to expect, nor what a normal internship looks like. It is because of the times we're living in that I'm seeking advice on what I ought to do given my current situation.

Is this an internship that has been arranged by your school/required for your education? Was there an agreement about what exactly you should/would be doing or learning during it?

Why do you think your colleagues say that it can't be automated at the moment? Are they non-technical people who don't understand that it's possible, or do they know some valid technical reason why it would be difficult? As others have said, I think this is a situation where you could do wonders for your CV, your remaining time at this internship, and your technical skills :D

Consider also, either from home or with explicit and prior permission from your manager, contributing to some open source project existing on github.com or gitlab.com

Where is this (country/region) and is this internship through a school?

Are you getting paid? Are you getting paid market rate? What country are you in?

It would help if you tell us just why you are doing this internship. My experience with a few internships is that you're NOT going to be given serious work, especially if you're an undergrad.. You ARE cheap labor, and the benefit to you is that you're (probably) getting reasonably good money, so you can do things like eat, pay rent, and next year's tuition.

The simple answer is "It is completely commonplace, yes it is normal." Many (say, one third?) of internships are total crap. So there's no surprise. If you don't like it, leave.

If you're doing anything 1500 times, you're doing sports, standing in front of a conveyor belt, or you're doing it wrong. And frankly I'm not too sure about the conveyor belt exception.

What was in the job description when you applied for the internship? Does the internship lead to credit in an academic course?

@Neo Why did this post need to be locked? Yes there are some comments that could be considered chat or answers, but they were also several comments asking for clarifications to the question. This doesn't seem a bad use of comments to me, nor against the site policies.

Back when I worked in logistics, we'd get interns working on their masters in our systems department. The boss would have them put up racks in the warehouse. it was really sad.

I second you should automate your work. I am not sure what you meant by sorting files, but it sounds like something would take a small python script to solve.