Should I call to complain?
Hi,
I'm currently a Graphic Design student who's graduating in a couple of months. I have to find an internship by the end of the month in order to graduate. I was hoping to snag an internship with a gaming company, here in Montreal. Not as easy as I expected. I kept getting "No we're not taking interns at this time.", "We don't take interns." Quite odd because my internship is a 3 weeks and non-paid. It's a win-win for everyone. The best answer I got was when I called one company and the H.R. lady asks me "How did you get this number?", she yelled no and hung up the phone on me. I thought she was rude. I guess I'm young, dumb and naive thinking I could get in this industry so quickly.
I decided to venture out and start looking for a non video game industry internship, and it is still not easy. I called a good renowned company, I asked the H.R. lady if they accept interns for a graphic design position. She told me she would need to inform herself and she would call me back later. She called me back after 5 minutes, she told me no because they don't have a graphic department in-house, they outsource all their graphic works. I thanked her for calling me back.
Now, this morning I was browsing through Job Search Engines, like job boom, wow jobs, etc.... just to see which places I could call. I stumbled upon a job posting from the company I called yesterday. I clicked the job posting and it read "****** ********* of Canada is seeking a Graphic Designer for their Montreal office." I found that job posting on multiple job search engines. This really upsets me because the lady told me no they outsource. Should I call back to complain?
Thanks
I'm currently a Graphic Design student who's graduating in a couple of months. I have to find an internship by the end of the month in order to graduate. I was hoping to snag an internship with a gaming company, here in Montreal. Not as easy as I expected. I kept getting "No we're not taking interns at this time.", "We don't take interns." Quite odd because my internship is a 3 weeks and non-paid. It's a win-win for everyone. The best answer I got was when I called one company and the H.R. lady asks me "How did you get this number?", she yelled no and hung up the phone on me. I thought she was rude. I guess I'm young, dumb and naive thinking I could get in this industry so quickly.
I decided to venture out and start looking for a non video game industry internship, and it is still not easy. I called a good renowned company, I asked the H.R. lady if they accept interns for a graphic design position. She told me she would need to inform herself and she would call me back later. She called me back after 5 minutes, she told me no because they don't have a graphic department in-house, they outsource all their graphic works. I thanked her for calling me back.
Now, this morning I was browsing through Job Search Engines, like job boom, wow jobs, etc.... just to see which places I could call. I stumbled upon a job posting from the company I called yesterday. I clicked the job posting and it read "****** ********* of Canada is seeking a Graphic Designer for their Montreal office." I found that job posting on multiple job search engines. This really upsets me because the lady told me no they outsource. Should I call back to complain?
Thanks
Replies
Now one thing I think is important: your assumption that internships are generally a win win is simply a falsehood. An inter is often a net-loss, especially an internship as short as 3 weeks. You will spend much more time asking questions and bothering productive employees than you will producing anything of value.
You think of it as free labor, but really you're receiving free education. Most studios simply do not have time to babysit students. This may seem harsh but it is the reality of the situation, unless your skill and experience level permits you to drop right into a studio and start producing artwork up to the standards of the production house, you're a net loss. Even experienced, veteran artists are going to take a few weeks to get up to speed working at a new studio.
I never thought of it that way. Also, it's not like I'm incompetent either. I guess it would fall into the category as being naive. I expected to call and hear "Yes come in and show us your portfolio while hold hands and sing together" I had it play differently in my head. Thankfully I did not closed-minded.
no seriously, it depends on what you're hoping the outcome will be. if you're calling them to get them to admit that they have an opening for this position you have to ask yourself why the HR would hide that fact.
I don't know what could be gained by calling them out on it, other than reinforcing your own suspicions.
Other than that i hope you land on your feet and get a good start in this industry
Any number of reasons, some of which may be entirely legitimately, for instance: "Yes we have a full team of designers on site but interns are useless", that may be the entirely honest answer, but its much more likely to cause the caller to flip his shit. If you're considering calling them back up and bitching at them for lying to you, you can sort of see why they would want to avoid these situations.
Also, do you know for a fact that the advertised position was even an on-site position? Or even the same office/branch of the company?
Really, the best advice I can give you: Keep your head down and keep working. Business is business, once you start taking it personally all you're going to do is upset yourself and possibly burn a lot of bridges.
Forget about complaining and assume it was a mistake or a misunderstanding because that is probably what it was.
Apply again through whatever directions are specified in their job postings and don't mention that you called previously.
Yes, also this.
I would have preferred if they told me "No, we don't accept interns at this time." than lying to me.
Yes, it was advertised on their onsite office. The posting said "****** ********* of Canada is seeking a Graphic Designer for their Montreal office." They only have one office in Montreal.
Should I have my friend or the school call? Just to see if they tell them something different...
Why?
You understand the difference between accepting internships and looking to hire onsite staff right?
Again, what they told you could have been totally accurate, they do not have onsite designers, but are looking to hire one.
Assuming the worst case and getting all worked up about it is totally unproductive.
Some companies tend not to take on interns purely because they don't have the time to invest, it's kinda sad. Additionally, if they are developers who work under a publisher then it's likely that they won't allow it - this is what I've experienced anyway. If its a three week placement then it's likely that you spend the first week settling in, the second week learning the pipeline and the third week is your leaving party. You're far more likely to find it more welcoming in traditional graphic design.
Also I think you PM'd me a while back. I've actually moved to Montreal now. If I can help in any way then just let me know!
As mentioned, there could be legit reasons. Maybe this is the first in house graphic designer they're hiring for, maybe it's someone that is going to manage outsource art, who knows. Even if they have in house artists, they must not be looking for interns.
Get used to dealing with this type of stuff. You're going to get the run around during s job search, and most companies probably will not even respond back to your applications. Many people don't want you calling about jobs or showing up anyway, which is probably why that lady was pissed.
If an internship is required by your school, they really should be helping you with this. FYI, a lot of companies don't even have interns as it is a drain. They will get nothing out of having you there for 3 weeks.
I don't think they're hiring their first in house graphic designer because my friend who graduated just texted me, she was look an internship by searching Job search engines the same company was looking to hire Graphic Designers around November. She told me she never called them.
Maybe it's the best to move on and search for something else and not get worked up over this. My problem is I take too much things at heart.
I have to find my own internship because they us it's like finding a real job. Which I can understand. They told us they do this know because they had been burned by students in the past because a few have never showed up to the internship and two students had been arrested while interning.
Imyj, I remember you. You gave me really great advice back in December or January. You helped me out a lot and thank you for that.
I'll take this a learning experience.
-Never expect things to come easy
-Don't be naive
-Don't take thing at heart when people say no
-Learn when to move on
Companies and especially game companies and their employees are working under a lot of stress, a bit too much during some periods, which often leads to a bit of anger release and confusion at times.
So if not now then later you would probably have to get used to it.
You will either get a job or get arrested, but at least you will go out with style.
I would say just drop it and move on, if something seems like a dead end just drop it and try working on applying for something else, time is precious! Good luck
Since 3 weeks is pretty much useless, you could lower your expectations a bit. Perhaps you should just take whatever you can get and get it over with.
I do hope you got/will get the opportunity to do a proper internship somewhere.
i googled that and found out the place.
ahaha!
emailing them now since they outsource their work
Personally, I totally think you should call and complain, make a big stink, etc, because that way they'll know exactly who to avoid hiring in the future.
They don't owe you anything, and while an unpaid internship is beneficial to you, it costs them a significant amount of money (hardware, software licenses, etc are easily thousands of dollars) and as an unpaid intern, US law states you cannot provide them anything of actual value (and I'm sure CA has even more employee-friendly laws to avoid abuse than the US does).
You're kind of going off the rails here when you shouldn't be. You need to learn some humility and understand that just because you think you're right or feel that someone has wronged you in a professional environment, you need to approach it with tact and professionalism.
I don't know where you get the entitlement part? I'm just upset because I got lied to. This is my first time seeking my first "grown up"(I currently work at retail store)job, this is huge for me. I wasn't really expecting this. I would have preferred to have been told "we don't take interns". Again, this a whole new experience for me.
I've moved on and have been looking else where. I've gotten two call backs and I hope to land one.
Also, shouldn't they have a network in place to HELP YOU find a internship? I know many private places don't want to spend the cash, but in Montreal, you could, generally speaking, get into contact with someone from your local Gov't position related to educations and call them out on that?
I'm not trying to start a 'burn the school down' fiesta here, nor should you, especially since I don't know what you signed or agreed to, but it feels like you're being put into a corner from your school and under stress, are taking it out on an issue currently that is (most likely) stressing your further, from a company acting like any other company acts, posting job positions that most likely got filled up ages ago and are too lazy in updating their current information, and most likely HR haven't forwarded the interns the job listing manifesto (good luck if they do that in a week or two, let alone a month).
I would try and find ways to minimize any mental damages from here out, stressing yourself on this position isn't worth it (for now).
One of the teachers told me it's the School Board or Government, I can't remember which, who decided you need to intern.
The teachers told us they don't really like disclosing their contacts because of being burned by students in the past. Not Showing up, Stoned, Arrested, etc... They also say it's because you have to find your own job in the real world.
One of the teachers does have a contact who's searching for a u.i.(mobile games) person to take as an intern and then to hire. He won't disclose it to me until next week because we start the "Career Devp" module. In the mean time I continue searching, calling and emailing. This whole process has been discouraging, although I hope to find something. I hope one of those two call backs ends up paying off.
What I did do was put together a cover letter explaining what I wanted the internship for, what I hoped to get out of it and that I already had some experience to a degree. I got responses from all of them and got an internship which is now my subsequent job.
I just think your approaching it wrong, it sounds to me like you're treating an internship as though it were a job, I've never heard of someone applying through HR for an internship before. You would probably fair a lot better if you did some research, found out who runs or manages the graphics team and write up a letter direct to them, and be clear that you're a student interested in getting some real world experience and list your skills.
You should stress how interested you would be to 'work with you and your team', trust me, giving it a bit of a personal touch toward that specific place would be a good step toward giving them that key good first impression.
I call bullshit on that. While, yes, you do have to find your own job, part of going to college is getting that network that already exists from teachers and former students. Any half-decent college has career/intern placement facilities.
Sounds like you are going to a shitty school with equally lazy teachers.