I am a graduate student in engineering/computer science. This summer I am working at a big, well-known company. Everyone I talk to tells me what a great opportunity it is and how lucky I am to be working at this company. The pay and benefits are very good for an internship. But I hate the work I am doing, and when I look around at the full-time engineers, their work looks terribly boring. I am not a good fit at this company because I am not very aggressive or competitive. Everyone here has the attitude that the only things worth doing or even talking about are things that will make money for the company. Before coming here, I have been a very good student and felt like I knew a lot and was good at it. But here my manager and the other engineers talk down to me and make me feel like I don’t know the first thing about computers. The only people I like talking to are the administrative assistants.
Fortunately there is only one month left in my internship, but I am really scared that I will never fit in anywhere in this field. Also, my graduate research has been unsuccessful so far and I don’t know if it’s worth suffering through several more years of this if I don’t like the work I will be doing. I was never good at anything except classes, and in school I was never exceptional in any particular subject more than others. Should I quit grad school? How do I find my “passion” if I even have one? What if I am doomed to be miserable in any kind of work I ever do?