Being fired three weeks into internship
Hello Everyone.
I wanted to ask everyone for their advice and perspective because this was something I wasn't expecting to happen.
Back in November, I accepted this offer for a summer internship in this firm for one of their offices in an Illinois County. This was going to be my third internship before I graduate by the end of this year. When summer arrives, I'm ecstatic and excited to start the internship and everything seemed normal at first. I was getting a long with the engineers in the office and I was learning a lot from them and enjoying my time and experience with them.
In my previous internships and for a job in my community college before, during work I was allowed to use ear buds when working on tasks such as something on the computer or helping organize something in the workplace. On my first week in this third internship, I asked if I was allowed to use earbuds when working on training modules before I can start doing real fieldwork or assignments and one of the engineers said yes I can .To me, it felt like my previous internship experiences prior when I used earbuds for office work or for field assignments. But despite that, I still got my work done and I was ready to learn and correct any mistakes I made.
When I use my earbuds during work, I usually had one earbud in and the other ear open so I can hear and listen in case I'm needed to work something else. It wasn't until my third week, I was told by one of the engineers in the office he wanted to have a talk with me near the end of my shift. He then told me to be mindful of my earbuds but I didn't mean any offense or whatsoever using them. After he told me that, the next day, I didn't have them on at all. While waiting for more work to arrive for me to work on, I was told to look into these power point presentations about different sections in municipality engineering and I asked if I could use earbuds while note taking and I was told "no, put yourself in the engineers shoes". I got my assignments and work for that day done.
Then the next day, I was called into the office by the office manager and she told me "You're a bright and kind young man but this isn't working out" and given the tone, I asked her if I was being fired and she gave me a nod. I asked her what the reason was and she said "Its the earbud's and we need someone who we can trust" even though a week before one of the engineers told me they trust me when I was working on an assignment for them. I thanked the engineers present in the office for their time while I was there and they walked with me to my car to collect the equipment they let me borrow and for me to use for field assignments. I asked what caused it and one of them replied "It's not just one thing. A lot of things and some people aren't cut out to work in this industry".
I found this whole situation odd as I'm always open to any feedback or advice and if there is an issue, I was willing to change or correct what I was doing wrong. I wasn't given a warning or a sit down regarding my performance and that talk the engineer gave me felt more like a nudge than a warning.
I was interning for the municipality sector and later on I saw in the office I got let go from, they had an opening for a municipal engineer. It honestly stung seeing that. I wanted to ask everyone for their perspective and any advice they can give.
Thank you for taking the time to read.