It’s not a good feeling to when you are fired from internship. You may be feeling that you are “damaged goods,” but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Over the long run, a bad internship outcome is not going to change your life in any meaningful way.
I remember when I first got fired from an internship. After two weeks in it, I absolutely hated it. However, I just didn’t have it in my heart to tell my boss that I didn’t want to do it after just two weeks. My work reflected that my heart wasn’t in it. The directions they gave me to complete my job were extremely hard to understand.
I remember feeling at how damaged I felt after getting fired. That I would never be hired by another company ever again with no end in sight. Every article I read online talked about how “these days, it’s more of an anomaly to have a perfect career record instead of having blemishes”.
I didn’t believe those articles because I thought they were just trying to make me feel better. The more I see my coworkers progress through their careers, the more I believe that to be true. For some reason, I thought there was this magical “record” that people keep close tabs on you for.
So that they can know whether you’ve been fired before and that why would a new employer take a chance on someone who couldn’t pull their weight? I was way too serious back then. Yes, I was fired from the internship, but my subsequent employers actually NEVER knew how to find out whether I was fired or not.
The job applications never even asked anyway, so it didn’t matter. I worried about nothing.
When Can You Get Fired From Internship?
The short and sweet answer to “can you be fired from an internship?” is a resounding yes. Most employment in the United States are “at-will,” which means you or the company can terminate the relationship at any time with or without a reason.
However, companies usually and generally don’t fire interns willy nilly. There are specific instances when you will be fired which are:
1) When You Mess Up REALLY Badly
Do you know the story of Paige Jennings? She used to work as an intern for Lazard as an investment banker but the company fired her because she would post naked pictures of herself online. It takes a special story like that to get fired from an internship.
Jack Welch blew the roof of a factory when he was working at GE and the company still didn’t fire him. Companies forgive business mistakes but it takes a special and personal story that gets you to be fired from an internship. Remember that a company fired a group of interns for not liking the dress code.
The interns annoyed the company by asking in the first place and fired en masse. It takes a special story like the two above for the company to fire you. When you make an extreme mistake as the above, then it will come as no surprise when you get a pink slip.
2) When You Ask For Too Much
Another way that you can get fired from an internship is when you ask for too much. When I started my internship, my heart wasn’t in it. The company didn’t give me clear directions in order to finish and do my job. Even after asking 2 – 3 times for clarification.
Therefore, I asked for reduction in hours quite often. Week after week, I asked to not go into the office. The first couple of times, my boss granted me the reduction but after a while, he got fed up and gave me the boot afterwards. What I learned from that experience was to quit when your heart isn’t in it.
When you feel the need to ask for too much without being able to give in return, then ask yourself whether you should stay at the company. I should have quit. Instead, I waited until the company fired me. I learned from that experience. I should reject them instead of the other way around.
Is it OK to Get Fired From Internship?
The answer is a resounding yes. It is absolutely OK to be fired from an internship. Don’t take yourself too seriously. No one really knows how to find out if you’ve ever been fired from an internship, anyway. How many companies asked me whether I’ve been fired before?
None. No one really cares, anyway. You’re just an intern, you’re not really that important in the grand scheme of things. I even went so far so to talk to my school’s career counselor to put my mind at ease. I’m chuckling now at how far I went to anticipate for my future.
I thought I ruined my future. Why would any company want an employee who was fired before versus another employee who wasn’t fired before? Ah, how self important I thought that I was. It’s not like I stole from the company or that I led to the company losing millions of dollars.
It was just that I didn’t like working there. Believe me when I say that people don’t like working. Our jobs don’t engage the majority of us on a day to day basis. Therefore, there’s even the possibility that a potential employer and I would have bonded over the lack of desire to work.
Who can say? Regardless, if you’ve been fired from an internship before, you’re not the first person to get fired nor will you be the last person. Just relax, sit back, and give yourself time to heal from the mental change. It’s going to come at a shock at first but you’re going to get over it after time passes.
Everything is going to be just fine and work out by the end.
My Story of Getting Fired From Internship
All right! Now it’s time to get to the juicy story of the company firing me from the internship.
I mentioned that the directions that my bosses gave me to do my job were hard to understand. Let me tell you what I mean.
For example, when I asked a super basic question such as “how do I know whether the real estate is under construction from looking at Google Earth”? Or something along those lines. They would respond with a very complicated big picture answer such as how real estate can affect the overall economy of a city.
It took me a week of me constantly asking for them to tell me that it just has to do with how the buildings on Google Maps look. A building under construction looked a certain way versus a finished building. A 2 second answer that took a week for me to actually learn so that I could do my job. It was kind of ridiculous, from my perspective.
My dissatisfaction showed in my commitment to the job because I kept trying to not work and lessen the hours that they assigned. I don’t like asking multiple times for a simple answer. One day, when I emailed for yet another reduction in my hours, my boss quickly emailed back that “this isn’t working out”.
Bam! Just like that, they fired me. No warning, no discussion, nothing. It was quick. The great thing is, I didn’t even have to pack up my things. I didn’t leave anything at my desk so there wasn’t anything to pack. So that is my story of the company firing me.
It’s been about 6 years since the company fired me and it hasn’t affected or changed my life one bit. It’s just a distant memory now.
What to do After Getting Fired From Internship
If you’ve been fired from an internship, then you’re thinking “what do I do now?!” Let me tell you exactly what you should do after getting fired. The very first thing you need to do is to bounce back from failure and not do anything rash. You don’t make any big life decisions when you’re reeling from a loss.
Don’t frantically apply to 500 companies looking for validation that you can get another job. Don’t call your friends crying that you lost your job. Just keep cool, relax, and let the news absorb for a week, two weeks, or a month. You have to get to a place of homeostasis again and get your mentality back to normal.
Accept that it happened and truly wrap your head around the fact that what just happened is meaningless. In the grand scheme of things, you’ll find another job. There isn’t a single person I know who didn’t find a job eventually after being unemployed. Your life is long and even if it takes 2-3 years to find a job, it doesn’t matter.
Keep calm and continue forging on.
The second thing that you need to do is reflect and realize what you want to do with your life. When companies chain us to our jobs, we don’t have time to reflect what we truly want out of life. Someone finally gave you the power and leeway to do so. It’s time to figure out what to do with the gift.
I regret not actually taking the time to figure out if working is what I want out of life. I don’t know what would have happened if I took this crucial step. Regardless, you can significantly improve your life by taking a step back and figuring out the answer.
It’s Not a Big Deal
If you’ve been fired from an internship before, it’s not a big deal. You don’t need to reflect and figure out any lessons this taught you. All the lessons that I thought I learned from the company firing me never applied to me afterwards. I never used the lessons I “learned”.
Learn to not sweat and care about the little things. There’s many worse things that can happen aside from someone telling you the job isn’t working out. As long as you’re living and breathing, you are still scrappy and have the fighting spirit in you!
If someone else in the future does care about my story, then I don’t really care anyway. Let them reject me all they want, I’ll just move my talents to another company who sees the value and opportunity of adding me to the team. It’s one of the big benefits of financial independence.
Keep calm and keep crushing it!
David, here is an on-topic piece of information. Federal Labor Law allows a potential employer to ask anything they want. State laws vary, I hear. But one’s previous employer may only legally answer three things: 1) start/finish dates; 2) title and duties; and 3) salary. They can give more information, but that makes a potential for liability. If you ask, ‘how were they as an employee?’, you might get an answer like ‘pretty good.’ Questions/answers like that are subjective, but the three items listed above are objective.
That said, employers have a certain way of communicating what they want to. A bad employee at one of my prior jobs quit with no notice, and wrote a spiteful and disrespectful “f you!” resignation letter. My old employer would then fax that resignation letter to interested parties inquiring. The employee wrote and signed the letter, and it demonstrated unprofessionalism at several levels. And was objective.
Whoa, that’s a really interesting story. At that point, it’s just the latin term “Res ipsa loquitur” which means let the thing speak for itself. You don’t even have to say anything then, all you have to do is just show that letter.
I had no idea they could legally answer the salary information. I would have thought that that would be considered personal information and that companies legally couldn’t answer that. I learned something new today!
It’s kinda upsetting that federal labor law allows companies to ask anything they want but employees practically can’t ask anything they want. I highly dislike the high power imbalance between company/employee but that’s the world we live in today. Have to accept it!
The finest book I’ve ever read on this subject of Human Resources/Interviews is “Get Hired!” by Paul Green. Loads of practical information and tactics/strategies.
If you read ‘Financial Samurai’ and his excellent book, “How to Engineer Your Layoff” he also discusses pertinent HR; he highly recommends developing a relationship with a HR representative, and they really do want to help the employee (although they represent the company, first). My answer is not complete or encompassing (for instance, you can be asked for grade transcripts, proof of citizenship or right-to-work,
You can also search ‘what can a potential employer ask?’ and get some helpful answers. One aspect (of many) are the questions they are NOT supposed to ask, i.e. how old are you, what country were you born in, who did you vote for, what church do you go to, etc. But there are tricky ways they can inquire, i.e. what year did you graduate, what is the best language you speak, what are your thoughts on a ______ president, etc.) Thanks, David, continued success to you!
Thank you JayCeezy!! And as always, I appreciate your thoughtful and thorough comments 🙂
Interesting story, David–thanks for sharing! Think I’ll include this in my next roundup 🙂
Lately, I was on a hunt for internship opportunities. Luckily, after several trials, interviews and assignment tests, I got selected as a research writer at one of California’s startup company.
I was excited and happy the day I received my “Welcome Letter” from the company. I already had so many false dreams because this was my first ever internship.
I started really well. Submitted tasks before deadlines. Obeyed to everything my Editor Head asked to me do. Didn’t breach any policy. Didn’t do anything illegal or bad.
I worked 8.5 hours each day. Gave my every bit. Gave just everything into it in the hope that I could win it.
But suddenly one day, past 2 weeks of working, I got a call on Skype. I didn’t know that it was the senior manager. I panicked a bit! But I had to pick up the call.
I picked up the call cluelessly and wished her a “Good Evening!”, then she suddenly went on telling me that “we want to terminate our internship contract with you”.
I was shocked, my heart was bouncing, and so many tear drops began falling down my cheeks. It didn’t even stop. I wasn’t able to speak or say a word.
But with a heavy voice, crumbling I politely asked the reason. She said “it’s just not working right”.
I requested her to not take away this opportunity from me. But she didn’t even listen or pick up my call or revert back to my emails.
It’s been one day and I am still unable to overcome the loss. It feels like my life is over already. I don’t feel like living anymore. Everyone around me is prospering in their career but except me.
I feel like I am just good for nothing. I a piece of garbage and waste. I don’t deserve to be alive anymore. I am just a waste. I don’t know what to do in life now. I am unable to collect myself anymore.
I know exactly how you feel. How do I know? Because I’ve been there! Right now, you feel like you are “damaged goods” and feel like your entire self worth is less than nothing. In life, you can do everything right and still lose, which means that you are blameless. You have your entire life ahead of you! It’s time to take a step back, relax, and make your mind go back to homeostasis. It’ll take like a month.
How old are you? Are you still in college? Trust me when I say that the only way people find out if you’ve been fired is if you tell them. There’s no record or anything else.
If you want to talk more about it, I’m all ears. You got this and it’ll get better.