Got let go during an off-cycle internship & struggling with how to process it

I’m looking for some perspective on a situation that’s been bothering me more than I expected.

I recently completed several internships in finance (M&A/PE). My last off-cycle didn’t end well... My contract was terminated early for a mix of “conduct and performance.” What confuses me is that my mid-internship review was decent, so the feedback didn’t really match the final decision.

In reality, I think the early termination came down to two things:

  1. my presence on social media, and
  2. the fact that they found out I had a full-time offer lined up elsewhere (outside of finance).

To be transparent, I already knew I wasn’t planning to stay in high finance long term (the lifestyle wasn’t for me and I didn’t enjoy the day-to-day work). But getting fired still hit harder than expected. There’s a sense of embarrassment and frustration that’s been tough to shake, especially knowing that the people involved are doing fine while I’m left with this lingering feeling.

Has anyone been through something similar? How did you deal with the mix of shame and frustration? And did you also find yourself worrying about what the analysts, associates, or even the people who made the decision (compliance/MDs) thought of you afterwards?

9 Comments
 

Hikariz

It's educational content (they simply didn't appreciate the fact that I was a "public" figure)

How did they even know? Were you telling everyone like a blabber mouth? 

 

I had the stupid idea to be honest at the beginning of my internship and telling to compliance by myself. At the beginning they told me they were not super fan but nothing forbidden was done. To avoid any conflicts I decided by myself to desactivate the account but reactivated it 4 months later 'cause in my head I wasn't causing any troube and I was missing it a little bit. Compliance was subscribed and they flagged it at that moment

 

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