EPTin ur situation, I suppose it depends on how easily u can move out of home , financially and if ur in a relationship etc. if you're 100% sure that other job that pays 5$/hr more and is better , then it's an easy decision, imo.
Should I quit? - Page 2
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HeavOnEarth
United States7087 Posts
in ur situation, I suppose it depends on how easily u can move out of home , financially and if ur in a relationship etc. if you're 100% sure that other job that pays 5$/hr more and is better , then it's an easy decision, imo. | ||
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nMn
United States144 Posts
I would normally agree that you should definitely tough it out and stick around until your designated time working the assembly line of hell is over but i detect a bit of dislike for the place or perhaps some second thoughts about the company's or your direction with them. Your degree is practical and in high demand, I say go with your gut cause you'll probably get a second chance if you're wrong. | ||
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DusTerr
2520 Posts
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CatharsisUT
United States487 Posts
1. Internships are a lot of things, and actually doing the full-time job is pretty low on the list. I've sat in on intern reviews, and actual job ability isn't nearly as important as you think it is. They are going to evaluate you on your effort and character. People want to hire a person who is going to pitch in wherever they can. Need someone to go get dinner for the team? That should be you; you're not above it. 2. Everything you do now is fair game in your future interviews. I don't know how big this field is, but people are going to know if you quit. How are you going to explain it in an interview? Consider the alternative; you stick it out, put 100% effort in it, and hopefully win an ally from the people where you currently intern. That's hugely valuable, and the more references you have available the better. 3. These guys have been in your position, and they think there is value in what you're doing right now. No matter what you think, that's something you should consider. | ||
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Chairman Ray
United States11903 Posts
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Gummy
United States2180 Posts
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lolsixtynine
United States600 Posts
On June 23 2011 12:30 Gummy wrote: I feel so sorry for you man. I work at a desk job and it is amazing, stimulating, and I get a lot of money. Glad to see you really feel his pain :p | ||
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Smoru
United States83 Posts
A couple years back I had an internship at a web development company. (It was the summer after my freshman year of college). I expected to be doing web development for real, working with the real developers, learning the trade. But, for the first half of the summer, I did incredibly mundane stuff. I drove my boss's son to and from the day camp he was going to, I filed papers, made copies, even drove to the bank to deposit checks for the accountant who was there. Then one day, my boss sat me down and said it was time to actually get to work. He put me with the most senior developer at the company, and he had me work on pieces of his project, and helped me along the way. After that summer was over, I was offered to continue the internship next summer, I opted to do research with my CS professor, but my boss was so happy with my work that he said, provided I complete my degree (next May!), I'll have a job waiting for me once I graduate, even if its not with his company, he's willing to use his contacts to get me employment. So even though I felt like I was wasting my time that half of the summer, I ended up gaining skills and making some great contacts to help me out later in life. I assume that your internship is a summer long thing. Stick it out, regardless of whether or not you ever end up doing work related to your major/career path. If you quit, it'll look bad on your resume, and you won't be able to get an internship for the rest of the summer; which would mean working at McDonalds or something (not fun at all, believe me). EDIT: I creeped on your profile OP and we have the same birthday! woot! | ||
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tryummm
774 Posts
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Gonff
United States686 Posts
1. Tough/seemingly worthless assignments are a 100% normal part of the internship experience. I believe the phrase is "shit rolls downhill." I know you're not new to interning since you've done it before, but I honestly think it's important to have your patience tried. If you're really going to be an engineer someday, this is probably your last and only chance to experience the less glamorous, real-world effects of your profession's work. 2. It's important for your work with this company and your future work to have first-hand knowledge of an entire process. How much did you really learn about this kind of thing in your last internship? Did you meet the people who implemented your designs/formulas? Did you really learn how those designs took shape and became real? Companies love someone with first-hand experience on the line because they better understand the constraints and implications of their upper-level decisions, whereas someone less experienced makes those decisions in a vacuum. 3. Finally, and most importantly, no company wants a job hopper. They want a team player. The company you're with now is doing this to see how willing you are to be selfless and help out (the manager said "we'll see by the end of the month" merely to test your patience imo), and your future company will look at this experience in much the same way. When you go into your first real job interview, the interviewer will ask you why you left this conveniently located internship after only a few days. It's not going to look very good when you tell her you left and moved away because they used you as "cheap labor" and you wanted more money. All that being said, I'm sure you'll blossom professionally no matter what decision you make here. The line of work you're pursuing is way beyond what my brain is capable of, so it might very well be true that working an unrelated line job is beneath you. My point is that even if it is beneath you, you're an intern, and interns are supposed to do things that are beneath people (sometimes even themselves). At least you're not running around fetching cappuccinos for your boss. My tax law professor used to go on in-class rants every time he got emails from students with titles at the bottom of their email signatures. He would start yelling, "You're students! Clerks! I don't care if you're president of this or editor of that. You haven't done anything yet. When you do accomplish something, then you can give yourself a title. Until then, work hard and keep your head down." That pretty much explains where I'm coming from on this topic I guess. | ||
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EpiK
Korea (South)5757 Posts
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CurLy[]
United States759 Posts
What do you think they get interns for? | ||
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obesechicken13
United States10467 Posts
On June 23 2011 11:10 Riku wrote: For those who don't know, I am an Engineering major focusing on mechanical engineering. Recently, I started an internship at a company that makes various sensors, mostly for large vehicles. I was told that I would be tasked with figuring out the appropriate "recipe" for some discs used in the pressure sensors, because they had been having a very low yield of usable ones. While the pay is decent, the location is about an hour drive from me and the hours are 6:00am-4:30pm Mon-Thursday, which means I need to wake up at 4:15am to insure I get to work on time and that I generally don't get home until around 6:00pm (thanks to rush hour). None of this would be an issue, as I was aware of it all before I accepted the position. 1. Why would you mention your work routine if you've already accepted them? 2. A lot of my computer engineering friends can't find jobs, or can't find jobs related to computer engineering. They're really smart too. However, as part of my "orientation" with the company, they have decided to have me work the assembly line for the first two weeks. This means I am not practicing engineering at all, I'm just acting as cheap labor as I do the same repetitive tasks that they could train any person off of the street to do in five minutes. I was informed this was to familiarize me with the machines, but I figure if I'm an engineer and I can't figure out a machine in an hour (let alone the 20 hours they want me to put in at each station), that I shouldn't have been hired in the first place. The first day, I had to stand pretty much all day, because they had removed the chairs to increase efficiency of the workers. Apparently, standing increases efficiency because there is some odd hope that if you rush through production faster that you'll be able to sit down and rest your aching back and legs. When I inquired as to why I was working on machines that had absolutely nothing to do with the task I was hired for (not even for the same line of product), I was simply told that I will "see by the end of the month." I'm seriously considering quitting and restarting my old internship, which would probably pay $5 an hour more, but I'd have to move and live away from home. Should I just tough it out or get a respectable job? First off, I think the job is really respectable. Secondly, I'm really surprised that no one has asked you why you quit your old internship to begin with. Did you just do it a previous summer and finish it? How are you sure that you will get your internship back? If you worked at the other internship for one summer, you may find that working at a different company will teach you a wider range of skills. Finally, for what it's worth, I think that, given what you've told me, were I in your position, I think I'd stay in the current job (again, I don't know as much as you). I think I'd just have some company loyalty. I did quit a web development internship this summer, but it wasn't really my choice to do so. My parents made me quit :/ Good luck. Your situation sounds great! :D | ||
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Myrkskog
Canada481 Posts
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Riku
United States1064 Posts
For the work itself, I understand many people are telling me to suck it up and realize how the rest of the nation earns a living. Great, I respect the rest of the nation for those efforts and I've spent the last three years of college working to assure I'll never have to do that work. What concerns me is an internship is about LEARNING. It's supposed to be beneficial to me. Right now? Sure, I learned about the machines, but I learned basically all I could on the first day. Now I'm not being cheap labor (as I'm hired as a contractor, being paid less, etc). I am being forced to do assembly work that teaches me nothing, get paid less than the other workers, and still have to deal with a longer commute than anyone else who works there. If money was a concern, there are many places more than happy enough to hire me that are closer to home and have a more enjoyable work environment. I took this job so I could learn and expand my current skill set. For those who don't know, I've already had two previous internships, both where I worked the ENTIRE TIME as an engineer from day one, and both were for extremely reputable companies. In fact, one of the comments that I received is that I am more highly qualified for engineering than some of the full time engineers that work at the current company. Right now, I want to take data, run tests and work on rewriting one of their computer programs to record data for me. I only have the internship for two months before I go back to school, which might not be enough time to do that work, and yet they want me to spend a quarter of that time doing unproductive assembly line work on products that have nothing to do with my project? That is why I'm considering quitting. | ||
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Riku
United States1064 Posts
On June 23 2011 12:58 thedirtyleg wrote: 3 reasons why you should stay at this job: 1. Tough/seemingly worthless assignments are a 100% normal part of the internship experience. I believe the phrase is "shit rolls downhill." I know you're not new to interning since you've done it before, but I honestly think it's important to have your patience tried. If you're really going to be an engineer someday, this is probably your last and only chance to experience the less glamorous, real-world effects of your profession's work. It isn't an assignment, though. It's simply assembly line work. If putting a microswitch in a tester, hitting a button, then tossing it in the appropriate bin is giving me some sort of great insight the 2000th time I do it instead of the 10th time, then I couldn't complain. However, it doesn't. And, yes, I have done it over 2000 times thus far. On June 23 2011 12:58 thedirtyleg wrote: 2. It's important for your work with this company and your future work to have first-hand knowledge of an entire process. How much did you really learn about this kind of thing in your last internship? Did you meet the people who implemented your designs/formulas? Did you really learn how those designs took shape and became real? Companies love someone with first-hand experience on the line because they better understand the constraints and implications of their upper-level decisions, whereas someone less experienced makes those decisions in a vacuum. I actually did a lot of hands on assembly work at my last internship. However, it was on things I designed, helped design or review. I found that assembling them gave me great insight into how to improve the design, etc. I got to talk with everyone in the creation process, from engineers to the machinist to the lab techs who put it all together. That was a great, helpful experience, but I was constantly working on different devices and new designs. I didn't have to do the SAME THING over a thousand times. On June 23 2011 12:58 thedirtyleg wrote: 3. Finally, and most importantly, no company wants a job hopper. They want a team player. The company you're with now is doing this to see how willing you are to be selfless and help out (the manager said "we'll see by the end of the month" merely to test your patience imo), and your future company will look at this experience in much the same way. When you go into your first real job interview, the interviewer will ask you why you left this conveniently located internship after only a few days. It's not going to look very good when you tell her you left and moved away because they used you as "cheap labor" and you wanted more money. It isn't conveniently located, and I don't think that anyone will question "I was told I was hired as an engineer and they used me for manual labor instead." On June 23 2011 12:58 thedirtyleg wrote: All that being said, I'm sure you'll blossom professionally no matter what decision you make here. The line of work you're pursuing is way beyond what my brain is capable of, so it might very well be true that working an unrelated line job is beneath you. My point is that even if it is beneath you, you're an intern, and interns are supposed to do things that are beneath people (sometimes even themselves). At least you're not running around fetching cappuccinos for your boss. My tax law professor used to go on in-class rants every time he got emails from students with titles at the bottom of their email signatures. He would start yelling, "You're students! Clerks! I don't care if you're president of this or editor of that. You haven't done anything yet. When you do accomplish something, then you can give yourself a title. Until then, work hard and keep your head down." That pretty much explains where I'm coming from on this topic I guess. Thank you. | ||
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n.DieJokes
United States3443 Posts
On June 23 2011 13:48 Riku wrote: In fact, one of the comments that I received is that I am more highly qualified for engineering than some of the full time engineers that work at the current company. Really, do you have a degree? | ||
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Dhalphir
Australia1305 Posts
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Riku
United States1064 Posts
Almost, I've finished all of the required classes other than advanced technical classes that I take. However, a number of the people they have working on engineering aren't engineers and, from what I've seen, don't really know much about engineering. | ||
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Riku
United States1064 Posts
On June 23 2011 14:00 Dhalphir wrote: It may be that they have you do it for so long despite it not taking that long to learn it, so that when you are working in a higher up positiuon than this, you have an appreciation for the people down below and don't trash talk them as just grunts. They may not be educated as well as you, but they damn well work just as hard. I have lots of respect for the workers and love them to death. However, I'm going going to be working here for 8 weeks, so I don't see why they'd waste 2 of those weeks when my project would probably take 10. | ||
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