I hate my internship/regret taking it

engstudent11
Wed, 30 May 2018 23:14:28 +0000

I am a engineering student that just finished my junior year. For the past month I started my internship that goes through December. I REALLY regret taking it. I absolutely do not like the line of work that it involves. And it’s not just that – it’s my coworkers too. If this was just a normal May-August internship, I would suck it up. However, because my graduation is pushed back a year because of the fall semester portion, I don’t know if I can mentally suck it up. (My school does not have a set-in-place co-op program). I will return to school and do my senior coursework (which is mostly group work) with students I have never met before so I already know I will be getting screwed with teammates for my important projects. I also will have no friends graduating with me at all (not just in my major, all my friends are graduating on time). Plus all my scholarships will be lost for my 5th year and right now I have a full-tuition scholarship so it is a big financial burden to not graduate on time. I also signed a lease in where I go to school before I got the offer and can’t find a sublease (at my school you have to sign about a year in advance). I feel underqualified, and I honestly do not know how I got the job because it is with a major corporation and I felt like I interviewed okay at best and my resume is average compared to my classmates. When I was took the tour on my on-site interview, I could tell it was something I wouldn’t enjoy. I also didn’t think they were going to hire me, and basically took the interview as “good experience” for my next.

But then I got the offer, and my parents really really really pushed me into taking it even though I was hesitant. This was Fall Semester, so I would’ve had time to keep looking. At the time, I wasn’t being picky and applied for everything that I was “on-paper/by the job description” qualified for without actually looking closely because I didn’t want to graduate with no experience. But by the time the day came for me to decide, I didn’t have any other interviews lined up so I didn’t want to risk it (they gave me a 2 week window) and I caved and did what my parents said and went in with an open mind.

I don’t like my line of work, my coworkers, location of my job, or the company culture. I really tried to go in with an open mind and see the positives because I know I’ll learn a lot, but things haven’t clicked. I haven’t been this miserable in years, and I have diagnosed ADD and anxiety and I’m worried about it affecting my work. I can barely sleep at night dreading going to work the next day. I’m really trying to stick it out, but if things don’t look better by end-of-July/early-August I really want to get out of it. But I don’t want to graduate with no experience/quitting because I’m worried about what that would do for my full job search. My friends who have done internships before me say it takes about a month to get acclimated, so hopefully I just haven’t given it enough time. Has anyone been in a similar situation and can offer any advice on what to do?