I need advice. Should I leave this off my resume?

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

Hello all.

I started a spring internship in January that was supposed to run until June. The commute was pretty far, and the pay didn’t really justify it. I was told in the interview that I would need to work at least 25 hours a week. After I signed my offer letter, they scheduled me 31 hours a week, five days a week. Including commute, these were long days for a full time college student in major classes.

I took this internship because I thought I needed it. It was good at first, and I learned new skills. Then after the first month or so, the learning stopped and it became mundane tasks with nothing changing. It was cold calling. Cold calling truck companies to take loads for our companies. People were rude, I was hung up on a lot, yelled at, etc. I guess I developed thicker skin.

Anyway, the learning stopped, and I wasn’t learning new things. I was just cold calling, and I became quite miserable. The internship was explained that this was a part of it, but I didn’t know it was all of it. I became miserable, and my mental health and grades have taken a hit. I decided I needed to do what was best for me, and start looking for the summer, because this was a spring internship. I found a better summer position at a closer, well know company doing things that aligned with my future career goals.

The problem was the non negotiable start date was May 21st, and the internship was supposed to go until mid june. I was torn, because I didn’t want to burn a bridge, but I also needed to keep my own best interests in mind. I decided to tell my bosses I was putting my two week notice in as professional as possible.

It did not turn out how I had hoped. This bridge is burned. Despite my professionalism and honesty, my supervisor was understanding, but gave me a hard time about breaking my commitment to the internship, and leaving early. She was also being kind of a jerk about it. She asked when my start date was, and when I accidentally said the wrong date, she immediately started questioning me, like she didn’t believe me. She went on to say what a tough spot I was putting her in, being a busy season and leaving them short handed. This was probably the worst moment of my career. I asked for a reference, and she stated “You can put me on a job application, and let’s leave it at that.”

I was a good worker, and gave my all despite how bad my life was going. Now I don’t know if I should even put this on my resume. I have no references from this experience, and people will question why I left early, and look at my resume with suspicion.

I am also afraid I made a giant mistake. Things are tense at work, and I am kind of ashamed I didn’t stick it out. As it will be a rain cloud over my career.

This sucks.

2

Talk to your school’s career or placement office as to whether or not it should be included on your resume.

To me, it seems that you should have been informed that most of your internship would involve cold calling for business before you accepted the position.

However, once you accepted the position, you should complete the entire internship since it was just a few months.

Nevertheless, everyone with any real world business experience understands that cold calling for business is a tough, burn out position.

3

Yes leave that off your resume, and don’t ask list her as a reference.

4

It is not unusual not to get a written reference. Many companies do not allow them but it is fine for a supervisor to be a personal reference (not the company). If someone were to call the HR department, often they will just confirm the dates you worked there.

5

So there is no chance of leaving it on?

6

Do you have any other meaningful, substantial work experience? If so, then leaving this off will be fine since you presumably have another work reference, and you were a student during this internship so wouldn’t have a gap in your resume during which you were inactive.

If this is your only meaningful, substantial work experience so far, you should include it. Many companies don’t provide much of a reference anyway, and will only officially confirm the dates of employment. You can also use a co-worker instead of a supervisor as a reference - a co-worker would not be as impactful as a supervisor, but would be better than no reference. If you put this on your resume, include a short description of your responsibilities - if you state that it was primarily cold-calling, it’s likely that no one will request a reference if this experience is unrelated to the skills/knowledge desirable for your new position.

7

I have things in my resume where I don’t list the company name, just a generic description (Trucking Company Internship). You can do that. Now…when you fill out an employment application, you must answer honestly and fully. They usually ask if they can contact the employer, say no to that question.

If you are asked, say they scheduled you for more hours than the initial arrangement called for and the commute was more time consuming than you expected, so you ended up leaving about a month early. Don’t say ANYTHING else bad about it.