If you want a quick read of this article, the biggest pitfall that you — as an intern, is not being hired at the end of the internship (for various reasons — there were no junior positions, your mentor ignored you completely and so on). This involves a (huge) handicap on your next job hunt.
Disclaimer: I am presenting the conclusion that I got to after two failed internships of mine. While there are a lot of people that had good experiences as interns, I wish I never accepted this kind of role.
Alright, so what’s that huge handicap? Think about it: If you are accepted somewhere as an intern, the company invests in you even if it’s not a payed internship. Someone needs to look up after you. However it is quite possible that at the end of the internship to be rejected, and not necessarily because you did not meet the expectations. The reasons, as enumerated on the first paragraph, are not because of you.
So, if the company invested in you, you did a fantastic job, and they rejected you, because the management plans have changed in the meantime, what will you tell at interviews?
The interviewers will think that you were not good enough and will not hire you. Not to mention, that when you are a junior you don’t have much options.
How did I conclude this? Based on my experiences — two failed internships, in a row.
#1 Internship
I worked my tail off studying for this one. I even missed the college graduation party in order to gather some more hours of preparing for the interview. It was a well known company in town. Even as a professional, getting hired there was not walk in the park; and getting a job as a junior anywhere back then was a hell of a challenge.
I passed the interview and the offer arrived. Yaaay! I was the happiest man on Earth. I still remember the hang out with … other people. I wouldn’t call them friends nor enemies. Right now they’re just some shadows lurking in the depths of my brain, they slowly sunk into my past.
I still recall my frenetic dance moves and hysterical laughing. If only I would’ve knew that all my happiness will last a bit less than that summer.
My mentor had no interest of helping me, or showing me something to learn from. She spent most of her time with a close colleague having fun together. Her colleague was a bad person, from my point of view. He was bad because with his ten years experience in the field, he needed technical assistance all the time. And he was always trying to put me in a bad light. Someone warned me, on an … unofficial context, that he hates me because of my immense willing of learning.
I taught it was a joke, but after a while I got pretty sure that this was the case. My mentor kept ignoring me and ultimately she decided that I am incapable of adapting there so had to go.
Aftermath: with 3 months of experience, I was invisible on the market. I had a hiring offer to a small company during the internship, but I declined being sure that I will be hired there.
#2 Internship
After ~2 months of a wild good goose chase I could barely found myself another internship. This time, on tiny company. I kept my willing to learn a bit hidden. Laugh all you want, that was my judgement, made by a 23 year old student. I’ve done the tasks that they gave me to and I’ve never did overtime. In the meantime I was invited to a job interview, but I declined it, since I didn’t want to make absences from my current job, barely obtained. This was a mistake; they (the second employer) wanted a bit more engaged.
Aftermath: I started my career with two failed internships. Good luck explaining what happened at the job interviews! I learnt the hard way that I should never lie at an interview.
What happened next, will be presented in the next article (coming up next week). But the help was limited all the time. Limited is a diplomatic way of saying next to non-existing. I wrote in my previous articles the lack of instructions or the arrogance of senior developers in the front of a junior to give you an idea what I, and a lot of juniors. have been through.