<p>I got a summer internship this past spring. I’ve been working at an engineering facility with some really great people. However, the excitement I had about the job is gone. I’m not really enjoying it. I don’t like it at all. To the point where I’ve started to doubt my decision to become an engineer. I tell myself that I’m being silly and that life isn’t all play, but I dunno. I find myself counting down the days till Friday night, and then I spend the weekend dreading Monday morning. In addition, my commute is horrible. At least half hour in the morning. An hour plus in the evening. While that by itself may be normal for a job, consider that I don’t have a license and thus my dad is driving me every day, meaning that he probably spends three to four hours in the car every day.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking of quitting, but I’m not sure. Am I just being whiny and lazy? Is this really what a job is and I just don’t feel like working? Please help…</p>
<p>If you quit, what will you do for the rest of the summer? Sit by the pool getting a tan? Find some low paying entry level job at a fast food restaurant or helping on a construction site (the better jobs are mostly filled at this point in the summer)? Or, do you have some other plan that will actually give you more value than you’re getting from the internship (such as taking a summer school course, or another internship in the wings)?</p>
<p>Unless you do have some wonderful alternative plan,don’t quit. Regardless of whether you become an engineer or not, if you quit now you won’t have the internship to put on your resume, nor will you be able to ask them for a recommendation. Both may help you down the road.</p>
<p>There’s also a bigger lesson to be learned: No job/career is going to be fun and exciting all of the time. Really, even the most exciting job has it’s dull side. But, every job will teach you something that will come in useful for the next job. Even boring jobs/internships can teach you about responsibility, dealing with people in business, making your own opportunities, and just sticking to things until you get somewhere else. So, focus on what you ARE getting from the internship, try to keep a positive attitude for the few months you’ll be there, and look for ways to make the internship more to your liking. </p>
<p>Finally, DO consider talking with your supervisor about how you might get more out of the internship – they may be happy to make it more interesting for you if you let them know you feel you can do more.</p>
<p>(By the way, I am a mother who spends over four hours a day on the road nine months out of the year to get her son to and from high school. He has an HOUR AND A HALF commute to get to high school in the morning and then I drive another hour to get to work. We repeat it all on the way home. It’s a commitment I made, and don’t mind doing. But, I would be really p-o’d if my son used ME as an an excuse to drop out of school because it wasn’t as much fun as he’d like. Unless your father is about to collapse, or has complained loudly about driving you, don’t use him as an excuse!)</p>
<p>Summer jobs are not a good indicator of much of anything. Although they are great for the resume, especially when it is an internship. Sometimes you get lucky and have a pretty darn good summer experience. But it is not the norm.</p>
<p>So I wouldn’t judge your long term interest in the career based on your experience at this job.</p>
<p>I had a “wonderful” summer internship as a Research Assistant to two profs at MIT back in the day. I was thrilled to get it. But the reality was neither of them had much of anything for me to do for about 2/3 of the summer. It was a lot of idle wasted time. </p>
<p>My S has a pretty good internship this summer, but he also knew not to have his expectations too high.</p>
<p>hey,
I’m in the same situation here, so don’t feel too bad
at first I was also thrilled to get the job and all
but then when I started working, the job turned out to be quite a horror
I don’t like the job as much as I thought I would
and I nearly cried three times at work in three weeks (I’m a girl :)) then started counting down the days left toward Friday and dreading Monday all weekend
and my commune is pretty gruesome, too
it takes me one hour to get to work in the morning, and one hour to get back from work in the morning, always in a crowded and kind of suffocating train :)</p>
<p>now I’m more used to the job and make less mistakes, but I still fear what’s waiting for me at work tomorrow
I guess it’ll take some time to adjust and set our expectations a little lower
time is a good medication
just try to do the best you can do and in the end, you’re going to be ok</p>
<p>someperson - In a previous lifetime I had several college summer interns work for me. My advice - stick it out. Figure out what you can learn in that environment and have fun (even if it’s only at lunch time).</p>
<p>Here’s a glimpse from the other side of the fence. My interns were really really smart, but had minimal practical skills to offer. I enjoyed working with them, but I’m sure the projects I had them work on were not very exciting. I could not afford to delegate any “mission critical” projects to them, but I tried to give them work to help build their understanding of the business. I also gave them “busy” but very very necessary work to do. I’m sure the work from their point of view was not exciting, I bet your supervisor is trying to build a solid foundation of understanding of the business of engineering for you. </p>
<p>Engineering is a huge field with lots options. Use this opportunity to “interview” folks in firm. Have coffee with them, ask them what they do, what they like, what they don’t like, what would your career path look like. Professionals usually love to mentor bright engaged college kids.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I’ve never found excitement in my work life (even though I’ve loved ALL my jobs). I go rock climbing and single track biking for excitement. My jobs pay for those toys.</p>
<p>Instead, try to figure out what, exactly, it is that you don’t like about it and whether or not that has anything to do with engineering.</p>
<p>If you discover that what you dislike is specific to engineering, changing your major may indeed be a good idea. But if it’s working in general that you don’t like – or the experience of being new and unimportant at a job – then changing your major would not be the right thing to do.</p>
<p>I think what you need the most is a basis for comparison. Have you ever worked before, in any kind of job? If not, maybe you should get a part-time job when you get back to school – doing something utterly unrelated to engineering (like waiting tables or working in a retail store in the college community). See how you react to that job, and compare it with your reaction to the internship. That might give you more data to work with in your decision making about your major.</p>
<p>P.S. Don’t worry about you dad and the driving. If it bothered him too much, he would say so. Sure, driving that much is annoying, but it’s also very valuable because it gives the two of you time to talk – something that is often lacking in families nowadays. You might even take advantage of the time by asking him about his early job experiences. More data!</p>
<p>“P.S. Don’t worry about you dad and the driving. If it bothered him too much, he would say so. Sure, driving that much is annoying, but it’s also very valuable because it gives the two of you time to talk – something that is often lacking in families nowadays.”</p>
<p>Marian I will second this! I drive my boys in to HS everyday, usually 1/2 to 45 mins in the AM and 45 mins to an hour in the PM. For me, this is the best part of the day. Boy, am I going to miss that when they go off to college. S1 is a senior in Sept. and S2 will be a junior. . . :-(</p>
<p>You don’t say what field of engineering you are in or what you plan to do with your degree. “Engineering” covers a lot of territory…don’t give up on it! I would second the call to use this opportunity to pick the brains of the people you work for/with and try to discover what would suit you.</p>
<p>To answer your final job, yes that is what a job is like and you are more than likely lazy. A lot of the pain of this could have been alleviated had you gotten a drivers license and either chosen a job closer to home or got an apartment closer to you work.</p>
<p>It would be foolish to quit your internship. You got yourself into this mess, so deal with it.</p>
<p>someperson - Stick it out, and even if you have to fake it, show enthusiasm and interest while on the job. Those with whom you are working now are future references. While internships look great on resumes, you won’t even be able to mention this one when looking for your next one or a permanent job after graduation. Imagine a potential employer calling the company and finding out you created a negative impression by quitting. And I guarantee…you will have created a negative impression. There were likely students standing in line for a good internship who could have been hired in your place.</p>
<p>I understand what a grind the drive and traffic situation can be. My d drives an hour and a half to two hours, each way, to her internship. (What can I say, she is driving from Far NW Harris County to the Galleria/Post Oak area. It’s only 20 miles, but traffic in Houston bites.) By Friday, I can tell she has had it… </p>
<p>Look at it this way. You only have another 6 weeks or so to go. You are making money. You are making valuable contacts. You are learning. And you are gaining valuable insight as to what you want to do career-wise. Not a waste of time, imho.</p>
<p>I agree with ldmom06 - stick it out! At least you have an end date in sight. What will it say to future employers (no matter what field you decide on) if they found out you couldn’t endure a temporary job, let alone a permanent one?</p>
<p>As others have stated above, every job has it’s ups and downs. There is no perfect job.</p>
<p>You have gotten lots of good advice in all the above posts, so I am going to add something a little out of the ordinary to the discussion, to wit, start a lunch group at the office and learn to cook. My D is in an internship for a research lab and there are several students in the lab, varying from rising soph to rising senior. In D’s dept there are 5 student workers total, and they each have a day of the week to bring lunch for the group. So far they have had fajitas, spaghetti and meat balls, jambalaya, and chili, to name a few. One of the boys went out and brought back pizza on his day. The lunch person also brings desert, so there are cookies, brownies and cakes being baked also. We have had a lot of fun each week thinking of something to teach D to cook/bake that is easy to transport and feed 5 college students. The lunch room microwave and fridge easily accomodates storing/reheating the selection.</p>
<p>A lot of these internships can have their dull moments, as does any job, but this is something else you can do to learn a new skill and make friends, which are not bad things to take away from the summer. FWIW</p>