I hate my internship/regret taking it

engstudent11
Thu, 31 May 2018 07:53:03 +0000

I could do an internship next spring, but that would still push my graduation back a year. So as I said earlier, I’m not against taking a semester off but I would really want it to be with something I’m interested in. Without giving away specifics, I’m working for a household name company that is very on the industrial/manufacturing side of engineering and I would rather be working in product design.

I want to stick it out until the end of July before I make any decision because hopefully my mind will change once I do more work and get acclimated to my coworkers, but if it doesn’t, I’ll still have a summer of work experience to put on my resume. But I don’t want to screw over everyone else with uncompleted projects. I will say that I do like my mentor (but right now that’s the only person), but I don’t want to bring it up with her yet in case I get fired. But we have had a conversation about where I eventually want to be working and what I’ll be doing after December because she jumped around a few jobs in a few fields. I already told her that because of my victory lap (pending I stay) I’ll have an extra summer to intern and I want it to be something opposite to see a different side of engineering before I start a full time search.

My employment is at-will, so I technically can quit it just wouldn’t look good. I will also add that my pay is below industry average and below my other friends who aren’t working in my specific industry whose jobs are similar to mine. Side note: It’s almost 4am where I live and this is the second time I’ve woken up. This has happened everyday since I started.

An option im toying with if I do go back to school is contacting my advisor soon and asking his advice. I’ve never seen someone from my school leave an internship early. But my advisor places a lot of students into undergraduate research roles, and while not an internship, it’s better than nothing.