Thinking of quitting a small animal rotating internship... but I don't want to work in small animal anyway?
TL;DR What happens if I quit my internship? How detrimental would it be for someone interested in fish and wildlife? Would no one hire me or consider me for fellowship/residency programs because I only made it through 6 months of the program?
I'm currently in a small animal rotating internship and it is absolutely the worst thing I've ever done (second to going to vet school, not because it was too difficult but because I clearly should have just gone for a MSc/PhD instead). I am solely interested in fish and wildlife, zoo, and exotics (with a big lean towards free-ranging fish and wildlife or aquaculture, and I think I only like zoo and exotics because it's not dog/cat/horse). When I graduated, there weren't any jobs around that interested me other than biologist work, so I thought why not do an internship with my friends and that way in case I do decide I want to pursue a wildlife residency or something, or if I want to make some money picking up relief shifts during a PhD, I will have that experience (awful reasoning, I know). I applied outside of the Match and don't actually know much about the VIRMP in general because I never intended on going that route.
Turns out it's even worse than I imagined and I would rather quit to be a barista (unsure if I have a non-compete) until my lease is up when I can relocate. And at this point, it has turned me off from all further internship or residency programs, but I could maybe get over that because at least I would never have to work ER again. I know some of the residencies I would be interested in say "one year experience, rotating internship preferred" but is that a slam dunk that I will not be considered because I leave my internship? Some are applications through VIRMP and others are not. It's not that I *could not* complete the internship, it's that the emotional and physical toll is not something I want to continue putting myself through, especially if I don't want to specialize to be a surgeon/cardiologist/internist/etc.
And yes, multiple doctors (not only interns) have tried talking to management to initiate change in the program. In response, we get passive aggressive emails.