There is a quote from F.Scott Fitzgerald that I really adore, it says “Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss”, and although the Gatsby’s author was not talking about internship, I couldn’t find a better way to describe.
Being an intern and interning for a major company in a stylish, stainless steel building sounds like every collegiette’s dream. And it is. Because, an internship is the first step to a real life job, a real life paycheck and being an adult. But, it’s also the first step towards disappointment and seeing how the world outside undergraduate classrooms works.
Differently from American and British colleges, Brazilian students start interning quite early in their academic life, especially those majoring in Communication. In better words, we intern for almost four years, full time, 6 hours per day for a small salary. And if we are on holiday from school, it doesn’t mean we are also free from our intern position.
I’m not a P.H.D in internships and I settled in my second and third, but I came to realize that four of my good friends had a couple of problems in their first internship, just like I did. Three of them quit, one got fired (she was also considering quitting before she heard they were cutting budgets). I quit too. Want to know what’s best? Life goes on. All those girls got a nice second internship and I did as well.
My point is not trying to say “You will have a dreadful first internship”. Much on the contrary. My point is “If you do have a horrendous internship, doesn’t matter if it’s your first, third, fourth or eleventh, you CAN quit”. If you feel disoriented, low energy and depressed, consider quitting. I mean it.
When you start working, you feel great and your boss sounds so nice and helping, everyone greets you, there are coffee machines at your disposal and your very “grown-up” computer. After two weeks of the freshman buzz, you finally start to understand how every piece in the company fits together. And then, you figure out what is your role and how you must play it. Once in a while, you won’t feel it is a perfect match, only that you are a fish out of water and even if you try hard, there is no way to make it work.
Some people have a monster moody boss that is never satisfied with what you do, but doesn’t help you improve. Others find themselves in a toxic – competitive – workplace. A few hundreds get an internship where they cannot handle being both a full-time college graduate (with good grades) and an employee, so they have to chose one or deal with the fact their health and mental state will be in turmoil for a long period, their stress will be never-ending and they won’t be able to study or work as much as they want. Then, if you do relate to any of those circumstances, quitting is not a bad choice.
It is a common belief that quitting is for the weak and only those of soft mind choose to let go. It depends on the situation, like everything we do (and will do) in our lives. When I was miserable in my first internship, I thought the whole trouble was me. That I was too spoiled and couldn’t take orders, until I found out everyone in the company was a bit miserable in their own way. My colleagues didn’t like it there and couldn’t see a prospective future. My colleague intern quit a few weeks before me. I quit before Christmas and when I left there, I was happy that I would have a small holiday and that all the pressure was gone.
Letting go didn’t make me weaker, it simply made me more mature about my job expectations, dreamlike internships and how to handle myself in a professional environment. Only remember, we are young. Too young. We have time for trying thousands of jobs until we find the one. Either stay in your internship or leave, this is your decision, and only you can say how much is too much.