Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

Not the work you expected?

I’m sure this is a common experience to college students doing a summer internship.”I expected to do this and this…. going into the internship. But I’m doing something completely different. I hate my job.” Okay, maybe people don’t say the last part, but I have seen many students express their frustration about this topic. Well, guess what. I’m experiencing the same thing. The specific work that I am doing with my company was not what I expected. As I mentioned in my previous post, I expected more of an analytical job regarding different investment opportunities, but I am doing medium analytical duties, and a lot of marketing duties. But I am not mad, and people should not be mad. Here are some reasons why.

  1. “At least you have an internship. “ Not everyone has the privilege to have an internship, and experience the real life work culture. At the end of the day, you are still gaining real work experience, and you will most definitely gain/learn new knowledge and skill you did not know before.
  2. “Stop complaining. It’s not like you can quit right?” Lets be honest here. Just because you complain to other people, “Oh, I hate my job. I wish I applied for another job” it will not get you anywhere. You signed paper documents with your company and is obligated to stay for the term you agreed to. If you decide to ignore that and quit, there are so many downsides to that as well for obvious reasons (Bad reputation, No Recommendation Letter, etc…). Just try to keep a positive attitude and finish strong.
  3. “Talk with your supervisor, and they can help you out” This was my case. I had a 15 minute coffee break with my supervisor, and we discussed what I want to get out from the internship. So I talked to him honestly saying that “Although I understand these tasks I am given are important, I also want to try some analytical job.” And guess what? He took my opinion seriously, and started to assign more analytical tasks. This was a great privilege for me as other interns were doing mostly data mining on LinkedIn searching for potential clients.
  4. “Look good to your company’s employees” Some people in the office have significant work experience, amazing networks and maybe amazing side jobs. Keep in mind that if you are able to work hard and impress your boss, they can ask you to come in again next summer for full-time/internship positions, be willing to open up their network, become a mentor for your upcoming career, etc. There are just so many benefits by working hard and impressing your boss. This was the case for me. My supervisor runs another company (Structured Commercial Finance Company) out of work and actually offered me to join his team starting from this Fall!! Although I am not fully sure if I am going to join at this point, it is great to have these options.

These are only some reasons why you should try to stick through your internship, even if it is not the job you expected. I understand why people complain, but you are only working for 3 months maximum. Just try to give it your best shot, and who knows what amazing things can happen?