interning: a great idea or slavery?

I'm not sure exactly what the point of this post is. I think it's mainly so that I can vent a bit, and maybe someone will have something of value to add.

i'm internign at a small publisher. They publish spiritual new age kind of stuff, which is ironic considering the machine-like atmosphere of the office. I realize, after three weeks, a few things:

I have no interest at all in my tasks
I'm learning nothing, other than how to use office equipment
I dislike my boss
My coworkers are stiffs
There's no chance of my ever getting hired
Even if there was a chance, I wouldn't take the job offer

The boss lady pays me nothing (as was part of the deal), and she's impatient when I ask her to repeat what I perceive to be ambiguous directions. It's 24 hours per week and most of it is really miserable. I've had a lot of jobs - I've been a landscaper, a busboy, an extra in movies where they make you stand in the cold for days on end - but nothing pissed me off like this place does.

the other day I forgot my wallet so I borrowed $5 from the boss lady at lunchtime. She politey gave it to me and the next day I paid her back. It didn't bother me at that point, but looking back on it, it really ticks me off. Granted, we agreed I wouldn't get paid. A lot of internships are like that. But I realize now that it is very, very wrong. I'm working as hard as anyone ekse in that office, for free, when I could be out looking for jobs, or off in the beautiful Colorado mountains just sitting in the friggin sun. And she can't buy me lunch.

But there's something that's keeping me from quitting. It's the same thing that kept me from standing up for myself ever since I was a kid getting picked on. Is it fear of confrontations? Or am I just such a nice guy that I can't stand letting people down?

Think I should go in tomorrow?

 

Well, maybe i'm being obvious, but an internship is basically a doorway into an industry after study. Is it worth the skills learned, experience, extra points to add to your resume? Most importantly, is this the job that you want to do for the rest of the near future, maybe your life?

I didn't even go far enough through university to get into an internship. Sure i've seen a bit of the world, but part of me wishes i'd stayed. The fact that i'm an intelligent person still slaving away in menial jobs with no prospects at all is only partly made up for by the times I spent rambling around mountains in the sun.

Dod you think you could stick it out just for the sake of your future?

 

i don't have nearly enough information to say whether or not the internship is worth it... but i definitely say that you should go in tomorrow.

if you want to quit, give them notice and put up with it for another week or two while you are finding something better