3 Lessons My Corporate Internships Have Taught Me

I hated them all, but I have zero regrets.

Many of us were raised to believe that success is all about getting those grades, getting into a decent school and getting a solid corporate job. But honestly —

My internships as an industrial engineering student made me realize that life is too short for a 9 to 5 job.

During my 4 years of studying engineering, I had the opportunity to work in two different industries — construction and aerospace. A total of 12 months were spent discovering what it’s like to navigate in the corporate world.

Could this be my life? Is it really worth it? If not, did I just waste 4 years of my life only to end up changing career paths? These were all questions that often caused me anxiety and stress. Nonetheless, the 3 realizations that you’re about to read have helped reshape the person that I aspire to be.

A Job Without a Purpose Is a Waste of Time

I have never actually understood the meaning of feeling ‘unfulfilled’ by a job. I always laughed at the idea because to me, it was only a job. If it’s paying the bills, then why should I grumble about not being “fulfilled”. However, my experience in the corporate life has shifted my perspective completely.

I started to realize that time is passing by and I’m simply not making anything out of it. I felt like 12 months of corporate work just did not add anything valuable to my life as much as it did to my resume. But what’s the point of having an attractive resume when you don’t want it anymore. Doing all the engineering management work consisted of me giving up ownership of my own work to the company I was working for.

It was purposeful for them, but not for me. It was created according to their rules and needs — not mine. The owners were buying time by making people like myself work for them, while I was there wasting my own time.

No one cared whether I was developing my personal skills or whether I was learning anything new. I was a good intern as long as the tasks were COMPLETED.

The 9–5 Life Is Not For Me

I cannot find words to express how much I despise set hours. Especially when I have no control on how to distribute them in my schedule. I had to show up to work no matter what. My first internship was at a civil engineering company located in downtown Montreal and it took me an hour to get there every day using public transportation — if the metro was running smoothly. The latest I could show up to work was 9 AM, but for some reason I was literally the only employee showing up between 8:30 and 9 AM. Everyone showed up early which always made me look like the lazy one. No breaks were allowed before 11 AM and only two short breaks were permitted, aside from the lunch break at noon. What kind of prison is this?

No matter how much one could possibly enjoy their work, they’ll eventually reach a point where they will be fed up. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that many people chose to go this path for 20 or 30 years of their lives — I’ve seen people last longer! It barely took me 3 months to realize how much I hate this lifestyle. Simply seeing all the endless sea of desks every single day made me want to run away. I would wait impatiently to take my small breaks just to get out of the building and get some fresh air. It was truly suffocating.

Despite all that, I decided to take on a second internship 6 months later since I was part of a CO-OP program for industrial engineering students. For me to meet the requirements of the program, I had to complete 12 months of internships. So I had to give it another shot. After all, different environments can sometimes make a difference — I thought. My second internship was at the Canadian multinational aerospace company Bombardier. To be honest — I was pretty excited to experience working at such a huge company. It is still nice to have it on my resume.

I guess I had really high hopes and this second experience just crushed them. It was again the same ugly routine. It wasn’t as bad as the first one but it was still BAD. The thing that made it slightly better was the fact that my boss was not as picky as the first one. He also gave me more tasks which sometimes kept me away from dealing with my emotions. I still had to show up early to attend the useless meetings everyday and I had to complete my 40 hours a week.

There is Nothing Worse than Having a Bad Boss

As much as I am grateful for the opportunity given to me by my first internship supervisor, I have to admit that working with him was a terrible experience. He was the worst at communication despite being a very knowledgeable and experienced engineer. More than 30 years in his field — yet he lacked so many soft skills. For some odd reason, he felt comfortable inviting me to his office to give me some tasks while talking trash about other colleagues. I just never understood how he would say such things about people he knew much longer than me, regardless of whether it was true or not. Also, he would assign me a task that would take a couple of days to complete and then come to me when I am about to finish only to say that he no longer needs it. I am not talking about a one time incident — it happened several times!

It did not end there. When I would go on breaks with other coworkers, they would often tell me about similar issues they’ve had with him. Apparently, I was not alone. They always wondered how I was able to handle it for that long and they also admitted that they would never be able to do it. Turns out I was the only intern he never yelled at in front of the entire team because I knew exactly how to respond to him while controlling my frustration. As a result, he often came back and apologized to me — people were astonished! He was the last person they would expect an apology from.

Now imagine going through all of that during your first first job experience. YES. It was the first job I’ve ever had in my life. Reminding myself that I was never going to see that place again after 4 months was the only thing that kept me going.

Takeaway

All the negative things associated with the corporate world make me feel even more grateful. If it wasn’t for those bad experiences, I wouldn’t have discovered the entrepreneurship route.

If I had not applied to those companies, it would probably take me years to learn these things about myself. I might have not accomplished much career-wise — but it was truly for my own good. Today, I know that taking the traditional route would mean to give up my sense of freedom, creativity and purpose. By no means am I saying that it’s the same for everyone — the entrepreneurial life does not suit everyone the same way the 9 to 5 life doesn’t.

Don’t live your life with regrets because every failure is a positive feedback.