<p>TL;DR internship changed from something I'm good at to something I'm horrible at, they expect me to do well despite me having no real skills in that area, hating life.</p>
<p>I was hired to work at a game studio for the summer, which is my intended career field. Although I was offered several other positions elsewhere, this studio told me that I would be working with a gameplay team doing things which were within my skillset, and things which I felt comfortable doing. I was super excited, so I took this team's offer.</p>
<p>However, after 7 weeks here (out of a 12 week internship) I am miserable. I'm working with a completely different team from where I was told I'd be working, and they're asking me to do tasks which an advanced programmer would normally do - I'm a creative writing major with SOME programming experience, but it's all self-taught, so naturally I'm below the skill level they need. I am not doing any of the things they promised me I would do initially. I have been trying really hard to learn the skills they want, but the supervisor in charge of teaching me is a pretty bitter person who seems to resent answering my questions.</p>
<p>I recently had my 6-week review, and my supervisors let me know that I wasn't performing quite at their standards, but was doing an ok job. They said they expect me to do better. I brought up that I am doing work in a field where I have little experience and don't feel comfortable. They basically shrugged and said 'sorry.'</p>
<p>I have also tried to ask if there were tasks I could do that were within my skillset, but they've repeatedly said "we don't have anything, sorry."</p>
<p>What can I do from here? I hate going to work, I hate being here, and I'm extremely unhappy. I'm feeling depressed because I'm living alone in a distant city for the first time for this internship and every day I get told that my work is crappy.</p>
<p>Is the company big enough for there to be a human resources department? Are you getting paid? Did you sign a contract or receive some sort of formal notice of what your internship would be so you have some proof to back up what you’re saying?</p>
<p>If there is HR, schedule an appointment to talk to someone. Whether you’re getting paid or not, an internship is supposed to be an educational experience for you. Yeah, they’ll benefit from the work you do, but it is NOT supposed to be one-sided, which is what your internship sounds like right now.</p>
<p>Chances are it’s too late to find a new internship, and since you’re in a new city, likely paying rent, it might not be possible for you to quit or go home without take a loss. If you can do that and you’d rather quit and head home, that’s your choice. </p>
<p>But…IF you quit, you will NOT receive a good reference from these people. Whether you would even use them as a reference is questionable, given their treatment of you. I’m sorry you’re in such a bad situation! If there is no upper management or HR you can talk to, I would try asking your supervisor to go grab a coffee or something, and tell him that while you’re grateful for the experience and you’re doing your very best to learn and complete your work, you would really, really appreciate some training sessions. And hey, do you think it would be possible if you could maybe do a few weeks of work with the gameplay team? Be as nice as possible. Kill 'em with kindness, and hopefully they’ll soften up.</p>
<p>There is technically an HR department. The larger company I am working for has several smaller studios underneath it, and I am working for one of those smaller studios. I know that if I were to go to HR, the problem would be fixed but they would probably chastise my studio for doing this, which would in turn make me look like a huge tattletale or a whiny brat. </p>
<p>The games industry is also very small, and I am worried that making my supervisors dislike me will probably result in problems down the road, too. Do you think I should take that chance and talk to someone, or just suck it up and survive for the next month or so?</p>
<p>I am getting paid - a lot. That just makes it worse, because I really want to be doing work that feels like it’s worth getting paid that much, but I know right now my work is not good enough to deserve the level of pay I’m getting. :(</p>
<p>You would not “look like a whiny brat” for politely discussing your concerns about your internship. If the work is outside your skillset, there is no sense pounding your head against a wall trying to do something you just can’t do. Talk to your managers, and then bring up your concerns with HR if they’re not cooperative.</p>
<p>Yeah, you have to look out for your own interests. You could be looked upon as a whiny brat by your studio, but you could also be seen as the person with enough dignity to speak up when things were not going the way they should have. Either way, you will have the satisfaction of knowing you tried to do something. </p>
<p>If you truly hate what you’re doing, you have a choice: You could continue hating what you’re doing, or you can do something about it. Most people just continue hating what they do… are you different?</p>
<p>What I actually came in here to say was that “a few training sessions”, as someone above me suggested, won’t help if your programming experience isn’t up to par. I say this as a self-taught programmer who is finding out on his first internship that his programming experience isn’t up to par. I actually found myself in a similar situation to you; though I never hated my job or coming to work, I’m getting paid (relatively) big money to work on something I have less experience in that my employer had thought. My solution was to study every night after work until I understood enough to be functional at my job, and then continue to study at a lesser pace throughout the internship to get better adapted to the work. However, if it’s programming that you’re deficient in, just doing that may or may not be enough. As others have said, you might want to talk to HR. In my experience, they’re there to help as long as you act professionally and explain rather than complain (not that I’m implying that you’re complaining).</p>