IB internship pulled last minute, now scrambling with nothing lined up for freshman year summer

Today I got completely blindsided by what I thought was going to be an update call about my summer plans. I have had this part-time data entry / analysis internship with a regional bank back in my home town (that was supposed to transition into a more comprehensive IB summer internship with them once classes ended, like around now)– they literally told me verbally that it was a done deal and I just needed to finish out the spring doing basic data work to prove I'm somewhat competant. It's been the most boring work you can imagine, hand spreading loads of data without being able to use any AI tools. 

Well, apparently that was all bullshit. My current supervisor basically told me they can't bring me on as an IB intern after all due to budget constraints and changing priorities. Meanwhile I'm sitting here as a freshman with absolutely nothing lined up for summer and everyone else in my finance club already has relevant internships locked down.

The whole conversation was weird and awkward. He kept talking about how competitive the market is right now and how they need to focus on more experienced candidates. Cool, so why waste my entire spring semester doing mind-numbing data entry for if you knew this wasn't going anywhere?

What really pisses me off is that I didn't pursue other opportunities because I believed them when they said this would lead to the IB role. Now I'm scrambling to find literally anything finance-related. I've been trying to network with recruiterbase, LinkedIn and reaching out to alumni in our school's database, but honestly most of the responses I'm getting are pretty lukewarm. Everyone keeps telling me that freshman year internships don't really matter, but it's hard not to feel like I'm already behind when half my class seems to have their shit figured out.

Anyone else deal with getting a role pulled last minute like this? Because right now I'm debating whether to keep grinding for a last minute finance role or just take whatever retail job I can find back home....any advice would be much appreciate

1 Comments
 

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