I got fired from my internship because my boss set me up to fail. Is there anything I can do?

Question

I'm a college student & I just found out I got fired from an internship that I needed to complete in order to fulfill the program requirements for my graduation.

I believe my supervisor set me up to fail. They gave me a task to do but gave me no direction whatsoever, instead asking another employee to show me the ropes. So I followed the employee's instructions (which weren't very good) & asked them questions when I needed to clarify some things.

This was over a three-day period & not once did the supervisor give me any kind of feedback as to how I was doing, or offer me any kind of guidance or direction whatsoever. When I asked them directly for advice on how to go about doing the assigned task, all I got was a nonanswer that failed to address the subject of my question.

I just feel like the supervisior withheld information I needed to succeed. I'm thinking about emailing some officials at my school, but am not sure what to say. Any advice?

Answer 1

Tell the school that you were laid off from the position, is there anything else you can do to meet the requirements? First ask your manager why you were fired so you can tell the school when they ask.

Answer 2

Yws email immediately

Dont have that crap

Use my advice

SCREW WITH ME AND I'LL ACREW WITH YOU

Ring his wife and tell her he's cheating on her

Answer 3

Ask if they will place you elsewhere.

Answer 4

Go to your school officials and put your case before them.

Don't say your boss set you up to fail (you really have no idea if this is true) but only report the facts - you were given a difficult assignment, given very little oversight and help, couldn't do the assignment due to these problems and got dismissed for that but you don't really feel most people would've been able to do that assignment with very little help or oversight - so what can you do now?

See if they can help you with a solution, maybe they can, maybe not but see what they say. Look for a solution to the situation you are in now, don't cast blame on your former boss or anyone as this won't help.

Answer 5

It's up to the EMPLOYEE to ask for help if they need it. It's not the boss's job to ask you if you need help. He/she did not set you up to fail, you accomplished that yourself.

Answer 6

As an intern, you are there to learn so they can be in a position to hire you back after graduation. They should be mentoring you and supervising every thing you do. I would say they broke their agreement they had with the college by putting you in this type of situation. Maybe it was a test to see how you would handle it, but they should not fire you for it. I would talk to my academic advisor asap.

Answer 7

I sincerely doubt they set you up to fail. No one has the time to actively and purposefully sabotage a college student. It does seem like communication was poor, though.

You should go to your internship adviser and ask if you can be placed in another internship. Your adviser should also contact the company and get some feedback from them that could help you going forward.

Answer 8

Making excuses isn't going to help you. Why would he set you up to fail?

Answer 9

Your school can't do anything about it..

Answer 10

If the internship is required for graduation, the school will ask the employer to evaluate you. They will likely also ask you to evaluate the internship.

The school generally will not continue to place students in situations that do not have favorable outcomes.

It seems odd that the employer wouldn't have reached out to your academic advisor/program supervisor when it became clear that your performance was sub-par especially if they wish to continue having interns in the future.

As someone who has had many interns over the years, your story sounds pretty fake to me.

What was this three-day task you were assigned? Odd that you didn't say.

My advice? Communicate. Go speak with your person at your school, let them know your side of the story, and ask them to contact the employer. Once your adviser has all the information they can figure out how best to proceed.