In this paper, we argue that identities often become destabilised and disrupted during macro-level transitions across organisational boundaries i.e. university to the placement organisation. This can lead to conflicts between the role of students, who remain enrolled with their university programme, and interns, who see themselves as student-practitioners. We aim to untangle the complex relationship between work and placement identities, often intertwined and taken-for-granted in work-based learning (WBL) arrangements (e.g. internships or placement programmes).