Thanks, welcome to corporate America.

November 27, 2007 12:04 PM

What are some ways to get over the fact that you lost the chance to get the position you interned for?

I interned with a software company with around 5 other students. We all started doing the same type of task, basically quality assurance. After awhile, it was clear that I was doing the best out of all them relating to this task. I was told that I would be moved to another department where I would be given the task of bringing their stats up for QA. My immediate manager told me that after I bring them up to a certain percent that I could move up to do strictly programming and have a shot at a programming position. I didn't want this task because it didn't involve much from my CS degree but I took it anyway.

The problem was that this department was in another building next HQ and with no higher level managerial programmers. My fellow interns stayed in HQ and continued to do QA but also began to be given programming task. I continually asked for such tasks in my building but was denied due to that not being "part of the qa position". I still managed to reach the magic number they gave me and began to do small amounts of programming.

Now, I was offered a full-time QA position but was told there were no development positions I could apply for, so I took since it was better than nothing. Two interns later told me they were offered full-time programming positions during the time that I was in the other building doing QA.

Now I feel hosed that just because I did good in QA but was never given the opportunity for programming that I was not even given the chance to apply for the development positions. I'm not angry at the other interns as we have become friends during the meantime, but I keep thinking that it should have been me in that position. We found out each others salary over few drinks at a bar to celebrate the new jobs and I found out they made more than me but I lied and said I made the same as them.

I just need some advice to get this behind me, I don't want to start off in my full-time job thinking negatively as I think this will effect my performance. I like the people that I work with and plan on staying for, at the least, a year at this job.

posted by spacesbetween to work & money (17 comments total)

This sounds kind of not fair. Life isn't fair, of course, but the whole point of civilization is (in my mind) to make life more fair -- that's why world-savers work so hard.

If you can find a way to talk to your manager about this, old manager (the one who promised you a shot at a programming position), you really ought to do so.

There's a chance, of course, that the real reason you were transferred is that you were good at QA but [they thought, for whatever reason] you wouldn't be good at programming. You might want to be prepared for this, and make it easy for the manager to say so (if you really can handle this truth).

If it helps, I got angry reading your story. Man, that's no good.
posted by amtho at 12:18 PM on November 27, 2007

The title of your question says it all.

You should be happy this did not turn into a job you got. Think about it. You did a great job, and other people got rewarded. This is exactly the place you DON'T want to work. Be happy for found out before committing yourself to this company for any extended period of time.

The principle of getting over this is the same as getting over a relationship: Start looking for something else. When you interview, keep such concerns in the forefront of your mind, and ask away. How is merit rewarded? What if you want to change roles? How are promotions awarded? And so on and so on.

You learned one of life's little lessons. Make a few notes about it and be prepared for the next one.
posted by poppo at 12:24 PM on November 27, 2007

Hi. I have felt a few times in my career that I was passed up for a promotion. I have always given myself a 48-hour period to pout about it and then I move on. When I find myself dwelling on a missed opportunity, I remind myself that my 48-hour period is over and I again move on. Becoming negative and bitter is bad for your performance and your health. It will eat you alive. 48 hours might not be your time period, but give yourself a date/ time and stick with it.

Sometimes a missed opportunity can turn into a better one later on. That may sound sunshiny and fake, but I have been passed up for one job only to get a better opportunity later on. Just a thought.

Another piece of advice, NEVER ask what people make (you didn't say whether you asked or if the info was just put forward). Nothing good ever comes of knowing other people's salary.

These things have worked for me. Best of luck to you.
posted by beachhead2 at 12:34 PM on November 27, 2007

Ah yes, the old "they switched me to a different building and I didn't get promoted" phenomenon. Well, it doesn't help when you're the best worker, but there's nobody around to see it, now does it? I think you've really done a good job of isolating the problem here, and I wouldn't get too down on yourself. There could be great things in store for you down the road.

You're spot on in diagnosing potential problems with your attitude. You need to be very careful you don't start acting like you deserve something more than you are given. This is a form of self-punishment, and yields no tangible gain. Building positive personal relationships with your employers is crucial to promotion in any business environment. If you end up taking some lumps, release the bad feelings and learn. Don't lie to your colleagues. Let them know about your vulnerability without being bitter about it; this will open yourself to being helped by them.

If the idea that people owe you something fuels your hard work, I suggest you change your mentality. Look what it's gotten you into: isolation, possible exhaustion, lying to your colleagues, feelings of under-compensation and low self worth. Be happy with what you have, and what you don't have, make it a goal. You can do it. You will find that if you can use this as an opportunity to put yourself on a track of spiritual and financial growth, you will develop a skill set that will serve you for the rest of your life.

If you don't believe, in your heart or hearts, that your employer has your best interests in mind, I suggest you quit.
posted by phaedon at 12:36 PM on November 27, 2007

I asked a version of this sort of question awhile back and got a lot of good advice.
posted by Falconetti at 12:37 PM on November 27, 2007

Getting a good programming internship is mostly luck and voodoo as far as I can tell. I was rejected by one large company that flew me out to interview for a QA internship, but I ended up landing an internship at another large company where they let me write a whole application that ended up being used globally.

The good news is that after you start working it becomes less of a crap shoot. Build up good performance reviews at your current position and try to get some programming experience (even if you have to do it in your spare time). Once you are recognized as doing a good job you can either apply for a real programming job where you work or move on to a different company.

The point is, look at your QA position as a temporary thing. Things could be worse, you could be unemployed. Keep an eye out for new opportunities and try to move up when you can.
posted by burnmp3s at 12:39 PM on November 27, 2007

I'd start looking for other jobs. You sound qualified for a programming position, and, since you know what the other interns are making as programmers, you know what you're worth. If the company treated you this way during your internship I can guarantee it will not improve over time. I disagree that you shouldn't compare salaries - comparing salaries is the only way to get a real feel for what the market is.
posted by selfmedicating at 12:49 PM on November 27, 2007

Hey, congratulations, I just went through the same thing. I should have quit when it happened, but I accepted a title/promotion for a position I was not trained for in the interests of cultivating my skills. This is now known to me as a "Peter Principle" trap. What I learned from this eventually-disastrous move is that you should have a good idea of what you want and what you're doing, and if QA doesn't fit into that (even though you might be good at it), do not go in that direction and quit if you have to. Also, know that QA is typically a dead-end for your resume because QA peeps are hard to find (it takes a certain mindset) and employers will always be only interested in the QA aspects of your resume.

Maybe I'm still bitter about my experience (which was not in QA), but part of defusing that is spreading a little piece of my story as advice to others.
posted by rhizome at 12:55 PM on November 27, 2007

Look on the bright side - you learned one of the big lessons of surviving as a corporate drone: the good work you do counts for nothing if management doesn't see it.

(This leads us to Spats' corollary: working in a remote office, even if it's the next building over from HQ, is a career dead-end. Would that I had learned this half a decade ago...)
posted by a young man in spats at 1:04 PM on November 27, 2007

I think you should think about this often, with regret and anguish. I think you should aspire to make this the most regretful experience of your lengthy career.

Why do I say something so negative? Because this is not all that bad. You didn't get a job with a company that wasn't truthful with you. That sounds like a pretty good outcome for you, though not a terribly unusual occurrence.

I'll have to tell you, I have something even worse to regret. I was offered a job defining the field of network security back in the late 1980s, when nobody really knew what network security was. It was for a government funded research group that defined the standards for the government's network security policies. There was essentially no industry doing network security at the time, because almost nobody had heard of the internet, so I could have been at the heart of a multibillion dollar business. I could be lighting my cigars with hundred dollar bills, if I still smoked cigars.

But, did I take it? No, I did not. I took a job with a company writing the language specification for the programming language Ada95. What a stupid career move! Nobody in the world cares 1.0 whits about Ada. And why did I take this stupid Ada job? Because the government research lab's day started at 7:45am, and everybody was required to be there promptly at 7:45am, no exceptions. I didn't want to get up that early.

Compared to my regret, your regret is pretty small, and I think you should revel in it's minisculoscity.

Sorry, I hope this doesn't sound flip, but I also hope I sound bitter about my biggest career misstep, because I still am, and I have noone to blame but myself.
posted by vilcxjo_BLANKA at 1:15 PM on November 27, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

You did get hosed, as you put it. Have you spoken to your old report, the "immediate manager" who was in charge of interns? He got you into this; he probably neither has any incentive or desire to get you out of it, but it'd be worth a chat with him.

Don't stay in this job unless you want a career in QA - your biggest mistake was taking the job in the first place. (You didn't have to!) Go out and find a programming job.
posted by ikkyu2 at 1:24 PM on November 27, 2007

Well, two possibilities suggest themselves:

1) the company doesn't give a rat's ass about your hopes and dreams (this is true of most companies), but you fill a slot they need filled and are able to get done a job they need done. Given that where you are works for them, don't expect them to move you; that would entail a risk on their part (that you wouldn't be as useful cost-to-benefit in some other position) and a cost (they'd have to find someone else to do QA).

2) the company did the right thing: they correctly guessed you'd be a poor programmer, and slotted you into a position where you'd do well.

These two possibilities are not mutually exclusive. Think long and hard on whether you are better suited to be a programmer than a QA guy. If you decide you're a programmer, start looking for a new job. Very politely tell your supervisors that you're looking for a programming job, as QA isn't where you want to be, and see if they either 1) think you're so good at QA that they offer a raise, or 2) offer you a programming job. If they don't, leave on great terms, thank them for the expericence, and start a programming job.


(vilcxjo_BLANKA writes "I took a job with a company writing the language specification for the programming language Ada95. What a stupid career move!"

Parenthetically, that sounds like an awesome job. And binus that you didn't have to be there at 7:45 am (who can think at that hour anyway?).)
posted by orthogonality at 1:56 PM on November 27, 2007

And binus that you didn't have to be there at 7:45 am ...

What is binus?
posted by JimN2TAW at 2:07 PM on November 27, 2007

I can't type. It's "bonus".
posted by orthogonality at 2:27 PM on November 27, 2007

Your situation sucks, but that's life. I have similar stories and I try not to think about them. If I did, I'd be too pissed off and resentful to function.
Do not allow yourself to accept what happened and get stuck in a rut. Be thankful you have a way to pay the bills for now, and look at the QA job as an incentive to keep looking for The Perfect Job. Get out as quickly as possible.
posted by HotPatatta at 4:15 PM on November 27, 2007

The problem was that this department was in another building next HQ...

I'm going to have to disagree.

The real problem was that you were politically inexperienced and didn't understand the full implications of what you were doing. Nothing in your CS education could have prepared you for it, and in fact:

*** This is why internships EXIST ***

You now have real, live, work experience. And you're just beginning.

The most important lesson you should take away from this is that the best guardian for your career path is you.

So, if you want to be doing development work: a) search your company's job reqs. If there are development positions, apply for them. Repeat as necessary. b) start applying for development jobs at other companies.

If you're happy with the QA work, skip all that and do the QA work. But don't want one and do the other, especially this early in your career.

-T


P.S. I strongly disagree with the folks saying that this should cause you to rethink if you're right for development. Getting caught up in a typical corporate snafu should not be a cause for self-doubt -- that way lies madness, as well as the bitterness you're already experiencing.
posted by tkolar at 9:32 PM on November 27, 2007

Look for a job elsewhere. If the company can't figure out how to hang on to you that's their loss. They aren't doing you any favours giving you a job, you're helping them out. People look at employment backwards. If you can't get a dev job at this place, look for one elsewhere. Clearly the company isn't as awesome as you may think it is if they can't keep their employees happy.
posted by chunking express at 6:41 AM on November 28, 2007