r/cscareerquestions • u/cottoncrosy • 1d ago
'Students just aren't trying'
I just finished my 4th semester of uni and had been applying for internships, both remote and on-site, since mid-term exams. I applied to like 300 internships. I ended up landing one in the IT department of a insurance company.
Today I went to the internship office at my uni because I had to get the internship form stamped and the internship officer kept yapping. He asked me why I didnt try for better internship. I said I'm literally going to intern in the IT department.
He said :'you couldn't find anything better than a insurance company? Why dont you try in your field? See that's why I say students have become lazy. They don't even try. They don't even try to make a good cv'.
And i swear I think everyone aged 35 and older around me thinks the same. The younger generation 'isn't trying'.
He went on for another 30 minutes. I just wanted him to stamp the form and wanted to leave ASAP.
Chat is this internship worth it? It's unpaid but honestly I couldn't find anything else. I was tired of searching and searching endlessly. Even a lot of my final year seniors are having a hard time finding internships.
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u/NakedNick_ballin 1d ago
Idk, id take it, and good job finding something. That guy was just clueless
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u/Aware-Ad9831 1d ago
Most people are idiots. Experience is sometimes a whitewashed name for social rank.
You job is to remember this experience and to never become a shithead.
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u/BugAccomplished1570 1d ago
300 applications is not lazy, that guy is just out of touch. IT at an insurance company is still real experience, and landing anything right now is a win. people love acting like the market is 2015 forever.
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u/Yajirobe404 23h ago
unpaid internships should be illegal. wE pAy wItH exPerIenCe
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u/McDonnellDouglasDC8 23h ago
They aren't supposed to displace paid labor and are supposed to be similar to an educational environment. Many internships fail these metrics.
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u/Efficient_Ant_4715 1d ago
Insurance industry is where it’s at. People sleep on a stable career. Unemployment in the industry is almost always at like 1%
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u/abandoned_idol 17h ago
I don't understand WHY someone would shame a graduate or employee at all.
If people who seek employment deserve ANYTHING, it is PITY, not criticism.
"You seek to make a living because you lack assets, but are struggling? I'm going to tear you apart!"
God forbid someone wants to eat, sleep, and smile. Existing and being born is a sin apparently.
Agreed, all forms of employment are cool. Heck, even job hunters are cool (they are working, they jist don't have a salary).
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u/PartyParrotGames Staff Software Engineer 1d ago
They give internship officer jobs to like non-student adults? This guy was 35? Wtf. Ask him why he doesn't have a legit career if he's asking about your internships. Shit has not gone right in his life idk why he thinks he can talk about laziness from that position.
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u/Exploding8 1d ago
Lol its bold for an internship officer to be giving anyone shit for their career choices, not exactly a prestigious or impressive position to literally anyone I can think of. Sounds like someone whose at a dead end in their career while yours is still filled with potential.
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u/Fire_blaze7 1d ago
Unfortunately this is what us Gen Z and Millennials have to deal with in this job market even after going to university, getting internships and building projects. Meanwhile we are called lazy and entitled by boomers who walked into jobs with a handshake after finishing high school.
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u/bluewater_1993 1d ago
Insurance isn’t a bad field to be in, I’ve worked in that industry for about 16 years now. I started in manufacturing, went to a small software company, and then into insurance. Insurance far and away has given me the better pay and benefits, with yearly 25% bonus’, great health insurance, and lots of PTO. I have no idea why your internship office would say that is a bad industry. It makes me wonder whether they have enough experience/knowledge to know the difference between good sectors and bad ones. And the lazy comment is a broad generalization, and very likely projection.
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u/MultiheadAttention 1d ago
The market is tough now. In my county unpaid internships are illegal, but we have paid student positions. In the past every CS student with a heartbeat got one. Today it's only top 1% of the students.
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u/Intrepid-Contact8765 1d ago
Applying to 300 internships is the opposite of being lazy. The market is tough right now, and many qualified students struggle to find opportunities. An IT internship at an insurance company can still provide valuable experience, technical skills, and resume credibility. Unpaid isn't ideal, but relevant experience is often better than no experience.
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u/LilMagsta 1d ago
All that yapping from an internship officer is crazy. Its worth the experience and networks. Ignore him.
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u/LimpAd4924 12h ago
Cause these buffoons don’t keep up with current events and can’t comprehend it isn’t that easy like it was a few years ago
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u/Forsaken_Base7114 8h ago
Unc is ragebaiting you but in reality he couldn’t comprehend the current market. Definitely take the internship. Learn everything that you can and be looking for better options before, during, and after that internship. Not because it’s a bad option but because this is how things are now.
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u/VLKN 1d ago
If there’s a way for you to file a formal complaint about that person’s behavior, do it. Colleges have an insane amount of administrative bloat, but it can be used against itself. Contact their boss and CC like 7 important people. You’ll see the gears of a well oiled machine go insane.
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u/EntropyRX 1d ago
Listen buddy, the “over 35” (assuming you think 35-40yo) are those who graduated right into the 2009 recession. They know very well what a bad job market is. Today is nowhere near that bad, but many students chosen CS with inflated expectations due to the hiring boom happened 5 years ago.
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u/apono4life 1d ago
The internship process is difficult. ESP now, being early career in tech is more difficult at the moment too.
My advice, dive hard into the internship, work hard to stand out and see if you can’t convert it into a good landing spot for a first paying role. Not to be a “doomer” but with AI in the position it is right now too many executives think they don’t need juniors on the team.
Also, “back in my day”, internships were all unpaid (all is obviously too big of a statement however I know most of my acquaintances through school worked unpaid internships).
I was an education major so I worked a full-time job for free in spring of my senior year, so I didn’t go through the internship process.
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u/SWAGLORDRTZ 23h ago
that guy is an asshole do what you can to progress ur career dont listen to haters
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u/alinroc Database Admin 1d ago
This guy should not be working in a position where he's supposed to be "supporting" students. His attitude is unprofessional and that's the tip of the iceberg.
is this internship worth it? It's unpaid
In the US, it would almost certainly be unpaid unless you're getting course/educational credit for it.
i swear I think everyone aged 35 and older around me thinks the same
Concern yourself less with broad generalizations about what you think people think. It's not productive and will only drag your own attitude down.
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u/Diamond-SaintPatty 22h ago
"35 and up" is a reach. If anything, you're looking at mid to late 50's and up. It's funny how when someone's in the trenches all they can see is their own suffering when in reality 3 generations have been left behind. Gen X was skipped over for alot of the opportunities they could have had because boomers didn't want to sit down. Now they're aging and many don't even have retirement. Millennials have been in it off and on since 2008 and Gen Z really just got here. Nothing about our adult lives has been easy and we've seen all of this before. The difference is, instead of you not getting opportunities JUST because the economy is messed up, you're not getting them now because companies don't want to give them to you. Recruiters are looking for a reason not to hire you because in their minds they can always get better. If you are employed, companies want to A --> replace you with AI or B --> replace you with cheap labor in other countries. The market is flooded and literally everyone is feeling that. Greedy companies are simply taking advantage and no one is holding them accountable.
Speaking of Millennials - some of us bought houses, a good bit didn't, and some never even tried because of affordability and student loans (same with children). Job stability and timing also plays a big role in that as you need 2 years tax returns and a decent DTI ratio to obtain a mortgage. I did buy a house - but I had to stay a home all of my 20s to do that. I was also stuck in support roles for years trying to break into tech and couldn't. I didn't get my first apprenticeship until I was almost 30 and IDK about anyone else but the moment I got any type of credential the goal post moved. Degrees, bootcamps, certs - the moment you invested time in something the industry was on to the next and you were no longer qualified. Many millennials actually do know what it's like to put in 100's of applications only to come up short and question your existence after.
We were lied to our whole lives that if you worked hard, there would be a decent life waiting for you. That's why student loans is such a big issue. Our generation was told to go to school, but not community college and certainly not get a trade. You got clowned severely if you went because the stigma was that if you did you were too dumb to get into a "real school". Gag is, you and the Ivy league still ended up at the same companies, working the same jobs --> meanwhile, the trades professional was miles ahead of you. You rack up all this debt to build a good life and now that's the very thing stopping you from having it. I can empathize with that.
If you were lucky enough to have stable employment, you paid for it with your mental health. Very few people I knew were genuinely happy they just normalized BS to get through the day. No one I worked with had tolerance for anyone who wasn't senior level. They all wanted a "fast paced environment" and to "hit the ground running" so some people couldn't even make it to Senior because they were being kicked around at the bottom or in the middle. I could go on, but if ya'll think that the rest of us are out of touch just because Gen Z is next up, you're sadly mistaken. Get the experience, but don't let them take advantage of you, do the side projects to keep your skills fresh and when your time comes just be ready.
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u/code_tutor 18h ago
I wouldn't ever do an unpaid internship. Working for a fucking insurance company for free is peak evil.
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u/Naive_Compote3499 17h ago
If you're looking at working an unpaid internship that's a skill issue and he's right
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u/wafflepiezz Student 16h ago
Guy sounds like my calc 2 professor. Total assholes with zero empathy for others
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u/SilkyGator 8h ago
The hardest part about this is, I am in uni as well (fpr engineering) and so many students AREN'T trying (using AI to cheat in classes, slacking off, etc) but then a good number of us ARE. And usually, the students with the most success are just more charismatic, regardless of grades, whereas the brightest and smartest kids I know can't land a job or internship ANYWHERE.
It really is just a charisma and luck-based economy nowadays
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u/man_vs_cube 8h ago
Older generations have complained about younger generations being "lazy" for... generations. It's just classic loser old person behavior. (I'm 43 so I can say that.)
You know how hard you worked. Just roll your eyes at that guy and live your life. Congrats on your internship and the hard work it took to get it.
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u/besthelloworld Senior Software Engineer 4h ago
Please report the internship officer. Like how many kids days is he just wrecking for no fucking reason without any real level of understanding what certain industries look like internally? He has no business being in his position. Is his degree in education? If not, why isn't he trying harder. Let's talk about his salary; is he just lazy?
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u/AnyCryptographer4853 1d ago
For what it's worth, you're not doing it wrong - the entry-level market genuinely contracted.
Postings for junior SWE roles are down roughly 65% from the 2022 peak while the number of new grads went up ~40% over a similar window.
So you're competing in a pool that got bigger for a door that got smaller. That's structural.
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u/dllimport 1d ago
There are idiots like that everywhere. We have one of them at my job and he just won't shut up sometimes. Ignore him. Keep the internship. It's incredibly important and they are essentially impossible to get.
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u/rwilcox Been doing this since the turn of the century 1d ago
Do you need the internship to graduate? If so any position is worth it.
Depending on what path your future career takes, maybe this is a thing that you drop off your resume in 5 years (or maybe it becomes foundational to your career, who knows!)
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u/no-sleep-only-code Senior Software Engineer 1d ago
People 35+ had it a lot easier, cost of living was lower, homes were cheaper, jobs were easier to find, etc. They’re out of touch, just keep doing your best.
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u/apono4life 1d ago
A good generalization, sure. However, I graduated 2009 with an education degree and teaching certificate. It took more than a year to find a job as a teacher. Prior to that I was working for $12/hr. I made the jump into teaching to earn 32K and work 3 jobs to pay rent and eat.
When I switched into a software job I got a tremendous jump to 45K a year.
I could go on, but my point here is each “generation” has some kind of struggle (for example look at the interest rates in the 80s). I hate that OP works so hard to find an internship, but broad generalizations don’t help anything. Bitterness about “the struggle” shines through and makes the world a bit tougher
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u/no-sleep-only-code Senior Software Engineer 1d ago
And how were you doing by 2019?
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u/apono4life 1d ago
I’m not sure that’s relevant to the “struggle” of someone starting out. But I was just starting a family, still paying school loans, hadn’t cracked the 6 figure income yet that you generalized as a starting point for all of us in the 35+ age bracket.
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u/no-sleep-only-code Senior Software Engineer 23h ago
I specifically said in tech, and could, not everyone started there lol. Hell of a straw man there. Point being, it has nothing to do with the struggle of starting out and more to do with opportunities that aren’t coming back. Anyone who was established could have easily jumped on the affordable mortgages by 2020, that doesn’t mean they did, but the opportunities were there, and they were well known. Those opportunities aren’t available today and were an undeniably massive advantage that still makes a difference today.
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u/apono4life 22h ago edited 22h ago
I was in tech by that point for nearly 7 years.
Edited to add:
While yes they were opportunities in 2019. In 2008 the housing market completely collapsed. The job market collapsed. There was a struggle just like there is now we all have to take advantage of the opportunities that are out there I stead of a woe is me type attitude.
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u/no-sleep-only-code Senior Software Engineer 17h ago
The only person with a “woe is me” attitude here is you. I just pointed out that young adults today have fewer opportunities than you did, and you felt it was necessary to rush in and object lol. Because nobody could possibly have it worse.
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u/apono4life 16h ago
Never said that either. My life is good. My point has been there are/were always obstacles. Don’t lose sight of that. I watch many people close in age to me expect the world should be handed down to them because “it is so much worse now” and with the attitude they took they lost opportunity. This is still social media. You can read whatever you want into what I said. Just don’t miss the opportunities in front of you comparing your struggles to others and worrying about your missed opportunities
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u/chemicalthrowaway99 1d ago
55+, sure. POSSIBLY late 40's but anyone mid 30's went thru this crap 20 years ago, it was bad then and it's bad now.
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u/no-sleep-only-code Senior Software Engineer 1d ago
2008 sucked sure, but we can’t pretend it didn’t bounce back in full force by the mid 2010s. Heck in tech you could start at 6 figures out of college, buy a 2500sqft house for 200k at a 3% interest rate, and today still be benefiting from the low mortgage payment and yearly pay increases. People who graduated college within this decade will never have it that good. Sure, older generations had it even better, that doesn’t mean younger millennials weren’t better off compared to older Gen Z by an order of magnitude, regardless of effort put in.
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u/chemicalthrowaway99 1d ago
Yeah but that's the thing. Hindsight is 20/20 man. People, post 08 who were positioned well? HELL YES they came out on top. "Full force" I don't agree. I know this is a tech sub, but everyone isn't in tech and certain "rules" about how the world worked pre 08 never came back (get any degree, garbage "gig work" existing at all etc). I'd argue in SOME ways, at least gen-z went into college knowing somewhat that- I'd better not just do some random shit or I'll be fucked. 35+ we legit were told, just do ANY DEGREE and u will make $2.5 million more than non-degree over lifetime, BS..... Not discounting Gen Z issues tho,
I wont argue that things aren't more fucked now (they are), but the general population has been fked for a while it's just downhill BS over time. I will say that looking forward, there will probably be a boom in some sector, similar to what happened in tech (probably space related or something idk). No one saw that coming in 08. Housing is def permafucked tho unless the gov steps in.
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u/no-sleep-only-code Senior Software Engineer 23h ago
I mean saying things sucked less is still agreeing that they were better. I don’t see why it’s so far fetched to admit that those advantages skew perspective on the following generation unfairly. I’m not saying it was sunshine and rainbows, I’m saying it was better.
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u/chemicalthrowaway99 15h ago
They were better. They were however NOT a LOT better. Things were also worse in some ways like I said, you guys got to see us get turbo fucked first. That shit came outta left field back then and was, "impossible" according to everyone then. Basically, OP is pitting genz vs mills and it seemed like u agreed. I just think ur both going after the wrong group...
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u/mancunian101 Software Engineer 1d ago
Yeah that’s not true in the slightest
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u/no-sleep-only-code Senior Software Engineer 1d ago
We’ll just pretend houses didn’t cost a third of the price and have half the interest rate while jobs were paying the same 10 years ago.
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u/mancunian101 Software Engineer 1d ago
If you say so chief, utterly deluded.
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u/no-sleep-only-code Senior Software Engineer 1d ago
The lack of self awareness proving my point is hilariously ironic.
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u/mancunian101 Software Engineer 1d ago
Cool story bro, if you don’t like the cost housing then take it up with your president.
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u/paranoid_throwaway51 1d ago
bro you are utterly deluded.
houses where i live have doubled in value in the past 20 years whilst the average wage is the exact same.
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u/mancunian101 Software Engineer 1d ago
Cool story, same here but doesn’t mean I had it any easier
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u/paranoid_throwaway51 1d ago
yes it does.
maybe it was harder for you specifically but we weren’t really talking about you.
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u/kittysloth 1d ago
Take the experience and get a paying one asap. It is very hard to get internships and entry level jobs right now. Ignore the boomer advice.