Last summer I had an internship with a construction company in Boise, Idaho. There I had the best working experience I had ever had, with a company, people, and a project that was really cool. I had an interview for a full time position, and I felt it went really well. Unfortunately, I did not get a job offer back despite the great feedback I got from my mentors and coworkers. I later found out the reason I did not get the job was because I started my internship late compared to everyone else, since Oregon State gets out of school a month later than semester schools such as Boise State. I felt really frustrated and disappointed with myself that I didn’t get a full time offer, but after talking with my coworkers and family about it, I realized two things. First, it was partially out of my control with me starting late. I found out that the company often knows who they want to hire about a month into everyone’s internship, which ,meant I didn’t even have a chance to show that I was a good employee. Second, construction is a small world, and it was important that I still showed up every day ready to work, because you never know what opportunities you may get in the future. I did hear from some people that other interns who did not get jobs drifted very far from the company, and I was told that I still had a strong connection and was in good standing with the company after I had left.
My main motivation for sticking with the internship was simply for my future. If I somehow work with this company or get back in touch with them, it was important to me to keep the good connections I had and leave my internship on a strong note. That was the “compensation” I was seeking when I told myself to keep working hard and show up every day. In the end of it, I got to work on a very unique project, and was able to learn a lot from the experience.
