Should I finish out my summer internship if I’ve decided I no longer want a career in finance?
I am in between my second and third year of my undergraduate business degree, and I’m working a summer internship in my home city. I have decided I have zero interest in finance, or any white collar career in general. I am seeking advice on what you would do if you were in my position - 2 weeks into a 10 week internship.
Some background:
Last summer, I worked a well paid finance internship in London, and was absolutely miserable during it. Having zero family or friends there, I attributed my misery to being in London - I told myself I would never move to London because I could not be happy there; I will stay in Ireland and bob’s your uncle. I was also getting worked like a dog in that internship so it was easy to turn down their return offer, take an offer in Dublin and think I’ve dodged a bullet. Not to sound crass but the boss loved me - he even took me, my boyfriend and my best friend out for dinner at his private club when we visited London in the middle of the year, and explained that returning interns with them almost always get job offers when they graduate.
Well the week before starting this Dublin internship I’ve had lined up since October, I was told I wasn’t going to be paid - yes my fault for assuming I was, but I’m in the middle of my degree and decided it would be good to have Irish experience on my CV so I picked up a weekend job and started anyways. Everybody in the company is completely sound, I’m not being hazed whatsoever, the hours are lax, my tasks make complete sense to me, and I’m getting valuable experience for my CV. But being in this comfy position has made me realise that it was never London or my former company that was the problem; I was distracted by those facets and am only now realising that the reason I was miserable was because I have zero interest in any sort of career like this whatsoever.
Just some things about me I’m surprised I overlooked when going down this path: I hate corporate lingo and Microsoft Teams, I hate Excel and sitting at a computer, I refuse to use AI for even data extraction, I struggled with intro to accounting and intro to finance, and probably would never even attempt a QFA exam down the road unless my employer forced me to. I’m politically a socialist and am non-materialist - just a bit schizophrenic about money due to my parents losing everything in the 2008 crash, so I grew up feeling the need to make a lot of money. I think also just being surrounded by people in white collar careers made me think that that was what I should be going for, and I failed to consider other career options; plus, I’ve performed well thus far. I think if I continued to pursue this, with my grades and experience I could probably land a job but would take lots of effort and I would never move upward.
What would you do if you were in my position - finish it out all the way, cut it short by a number of weeks, or just walk out the door tomorrow? I don’t want finance to be my plan Z let alone my plan B at this point. Also no NDA or contract so nothing’s stopping me. The alternative is going all in for an aviation career btw - already done my private pilot’s licence and medicals are all good.
Posted May 6, 2026, 11:28 PM UTC