Bailed on my Internship--Wrong Move?

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Gouman

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Well, I bailed. The group within the firm I was with issues securities backed by subprime mortgages. Of course that market is not doing to well these days and I got word that our groups budget has been slashed and there is a virtual hiring freeze for the rest of the year. The analyst position that I was in the running for was suddenly not in the budget at all.

Of course, being an unpaid intern, nobody told me this directly--who wants to give up free labor. Well somebody did end up dropping a dime and I put in my two weeks right away. I confronted my boss, he conceded, but hinted that there may be positions opening up down the road but wouldn't be specific. My gut told me to get out while I still have a month to shop myself around until I graduate.

My bosses all are really cool and offered to write me recommendations and give references etc, so I'm leaving in good standing. Still it was hard to walk away from a job where I get to work in the "front office" everyday.

In the end, I think it was a good move. What do you think?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at Monday, August 6, 2007 at 10:50PM by Gouman.
 
bad move.. getting an internship (since its unpaid anyways) is better than none. Look at it this way, to get inside an I-Bank you need an internship or some form of experience. In my opinion you should have continued it anyways since you did not have an alternative internship lined up you could have switched to.
 
good move. if you must, you could get an internship at a firm with real potential.
 
Bad move. Since you only have one month left before you graduate, it is unlikely that you'll find any meaningful internship in one month. I'd stick it out and leverage this experience to market myself to a full time position at another firm. You can easily market yourself as someone that witnessed in the frontline the biggest financial fallout in the last few years. I am sure lots of employers will be interested in your internship experience.
 
I don't know why you would bail if it was going to be over soon anyways. I see your point about it wouldn't convert into a full time, ok. It is usually always better to have a job while looking for one. All in all, its not a career killing move, just be prepared for some extra quizzing when trying to explain why you left.

In reality, if you are straight up about it and humble ("I learned a lot but realized that my time was better spent 100% focused on job search since they were not going to be hiring") then I think people will understand.

However, if it were me, I would have loved to been on the front lines for this sh!t show. I agree that it would have been a nice resume builder, as everyone will be talking about this for your recruiting season (at least).
 
Zuran and Saks--

You both make valid points.

Damn, looking back, I learned so much and could have learned so much more.

Still, I don't have a rich mommy/daddy to turn to when I can't make rent. I've already been working for free for four months, burned through 85% of my savings and these people were basically saying we are not paying you anytime soon. If I don't find a job that pays soon it's "Welcome to Mc Donalds can I take your order please" for me until I do land a real job. To avoid that I felt the need to devote 100% of my free time job searching.

I hate being a slave to money.
 
Hey man, if you can't do it, you can't do it. Just talk up what you did and focus on getting a full time gig. Good luck.
 
I can't help but feel like I could've taken out last minute student loans or something and waited out this downturn.
 
Gouman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the end, I think it was a good move. What do
> you think?

I'll flip a coin and see what I think about it. Anyway, things are as they are - whether or not a good move, it's already history, isn't it? As you have already made your choice, I mean. Try to make the most of those references and recommendations, maybe you can even get some help in setting you up for a series of meetings and interviews, getting names and phone numbers out of your bosses now that they're feeling a little bit guilty for letting you down. It will soon wear off, though. Anyway, this might turn out to be your best move, ever, if you play things right.
 
Ask your former colleagues and bosses if they know another company that's looking for ambitious young people. These are the best ways to get in somewhere.
 
This doesn't seem like such a great move to me, but it also sounds like - since you're in good standing - you can recover from it. If there's any way to get back, I would try.

The fact is, an internship is more about seeing how an office runs, how the parts fit together, and to get practice taking some role there. The fact that you're doing subprime now in a crisis doesn't mean you'll be doing subprime for the rest of your career. Also, people think "living through or handling a crisis" is a major event. If you survive this, you have more clout because you watch people overpanic and the fallout. To get that kind of experience right up front in your career would not be a bad thing.
 
wawa Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gouman Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > In the end, I think it was a good move. What do
> > you think?
>
> I'll flip a coin and see what I think about it.
> Anyway, things are as they are - whether or not a
> good move, it's already history, isn't it? As you
> have already made your choice, I mean. Try to make
> the most of those references and recommendations,
> maybe you can even get some help in setting you up
> for a series of meetings and interviews, getting
> names and phone numbers out of your bosses now
> that they're feeling a little bit guilty for
> letting you down. It will soon wear off, though.
> Anyway, this might turn out to be your best move,
> ever, if you play things right.


I agree with wawa. What's done is done. If you're writing to seek additional perspective for us, that's fine, but what we tell you now shouldn't and won't impact what's already happened so nothing gained by dwelling on it. That being said, it's pretty much up to you how you spin the story going forward, and a lot of the other people here have talked about ways of making a potentially negative experience into a more positive one.

Ultimately, I'm still unclear as to the nature of this internship...was this a summer internsihp or a year-round? Because if it was just a summer internship, I don't know that I would have bailed on it...year-round unpaid internship would be something else though, and you could easily explain your decision to do that.
 
numi Wrote:

> I agree with wawa. What's done is done. If you're
> writing to seek additional perspective for us,
> that's fine, but what we tell you now shouldn't
> and won't impact what's already happened so
> nothing gained by dwelling on it. That being said,
> it's pretty much up to you how you spin the story
> going forward, and a lot of the other people here
> have talked about ways of making a potentially
> negative experience into a more positive one.
>
> Ultimately, I'm still unclear as to the nature of
> this internship...was this a summer internsihp or
> a year-round? Because if it was just a summer
> internship, I don't know that I would have bailed
> on it...year-round unpaid internship would be
> something else though, and you could easily
> explain your decision to do that.



This was a year around internship on the MBS desk of a top company. There is no official end, you either get extended every couple months, or you get fired. I was extended, just not a full time offer.

When I say there is no end, I mean it, there is a guy I worked with who was an unpaid intern for a year and half before getting an offer. Most people can't last that long without pay. He survived because his inheritence was footing the bill.

Lastly, I value the AF opinion, thats why I bother asking questions here. I always get no BS answers here.
 
Gouman, then I think the outcome is fine (i.e. your leaving the job). However, make sure that you are departing for the right reasons (you need time to take care of things before returning to school, have some family or personal things to deal with, etc.) and not the wrong ones ("markets going south? firm in trouble? I used to know you guys. I'm outta here!").
 
any internship whether big or small is just to gain experience and contacts. If you think about internships this way then you can stay in them, no matter how horrible they seem. At the end of the day you realize that you did learn something from the internship, whether it maybe big or small. I had five(City of Chicago, UBS Financial Services, Merrill Lynch, DePaul Univeristy, and Blue Cross Blue Shield by the time i graduated from undergraduate, all five of those called and offered me full time positions as well. Some of the internships i had i thought were pointless initially, but looking back at them,they have all taught me something, and they allowed me to get a job even before i graduated.

When you start something, finish it no matter hwo difficult.
 
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