Work environments

No reply, and I think I might know why. I share my mentor's calendar and it says they have appointments until noon. Perhaps that's why he did not reply... that seems to be what I observed as their management style.

I also realized they sent an email to all of the interns saying that they would get back with an update this Monday, about a meeting later this week. No update. If it was because no one was free for a meeting, they should have at least pointed that out on Monday. Send a quick note, takes a couple of minutes.

I read articles about why people quit their internships, and I also read about toxic work environments. If you keep going to jobs in toxic work environments, it's not going to be good as you can get stuck, and carry negative experiences with you to a new environment. This is why I need to find a better work environment, a more happy one, like the one I had at my job when I was still in school. (Actually, I had two jobs, and both of those jobs were amazing.) Only when the real world came, the environment was meh.

Call to action for now would be, if my mentor calls, then we'll meet. I decided not to call because if my mentor did care, he would have replied to my e-mail. If he doesn't call, I'll just assume we are meeting on Monday as per our discussion yesterday.

I have decided I will stick with the job unless my mentor is really reluctant to change things/be clear. I think if I resign, they might not pay me, and that's not something I want to have challenges with. It's actually really uncertain now if I will be paid at all/timely.

Am I just staying for the pay? I'm really not getting any benefit from this other than that. The reason why most interns quit their internships is because they can find better jobs, and the internship didn't provide benefit to them all. It's sad that if you put it on your resume, it's good, because it shows work experience. But you know what? I don't think that's justified, you still need to share stories of your experience there, and if you didn't benefit at all, what kind of stories could you share? Although, maybe some interns like that, having an internship that didn't benefit them but looks good on their resume. I'm definitely not one of those interns.

I kind of wish the program was reverted back to the old style, where the program paid and was the employer. I think that would be much easier, because then I could have someone to address my concerns to... all I have right now is an HR personnel who is a volunteer and not even a board member anymore. How is that helpful at all?

I think I'm going to call up the other company that I had postponed for after my internship. They have graphic design internship positions, but I have no idea if it's paid or unpaid. I think, at this rate, I would prefer the internship as a whole because I need experience with graphic design, but not for more than a couple of hours per week/few hours per month. If I can get a part-time job with it, then it would be okay if it was unpaid. Hmm.

After this internship, I think I should stay away from internships with small non-profits/small companies.