In the early hours of a brisk autumn’s day, I awaken to the chime of a LinkedIn notification. Wasting no time wiping the sleep from my eyes, I unlock my phone and quickly comment “Great insight, value,” on my connection’s latest internship update. Shit. This one’s got more engagement than mine.
This is how I imagine some of you are. The whole “let’s see Paul Allen’s internship” mentality does nothing for anybody. It’s easy to get pulled into thinking you need the perfect, polished summer experience — even if that means fighting over unpaid internships that sound better on paper than they feel in real life.
What needs to be realized is that there’s real value in working a crummy job. Not everything has to be a LinkedIn headline; not every experience has to come with a name-brand company and a four-sentence description of your “impact.” Sometimes, real growth happens behind a register, in a kitchen, at a summer camp or in a role that doesn’t fit neatly into a resume.
Last summer I worked at a movie theater. It wasn’t glamorous. I dealt with people from all walks of life — the impatient, the kind, the entitled, the exhausted, the old and the young. But the job taught me more about society, responsibility and patience than any flashy internship ever could.
I mean, there’s something special about 30 people screaming at you for a refund. There’s something fundamentally grounding about working with other people who are just as strange, just as tired — just as human as you are. You don’t get that kind of experience filing paperwork for a consulting firm or sitting in on meetings about “strategy.”
At the theater, I learned how to deal with people. I learned how to show up early, stay late, fix problems without being asked and work with a hodgepodge of personalities. The interpersonal lessons I took away from this job have proven more valuable than any ostentatious endeavor I’ve undertaken.
Working a crummy job forces you to build grit. You don’t just “communicate across teams” or “problem-solve under pressure” because it looks good on a resume — you do it because if you don’t, the whole place falls apart. And nobody’s handing out awards for it. You just get better, quietly, without a LinkedIn announcement or a vain sense of superiority.
And the soft skills you build working in a mediocre role actually stick. They matter long after the summer ends — a heck of a lot more than some “impact project” you barely touched. Success isn’t about big names and social media updates. That narrow view of success can cause us to miss out on opportunities that offer real-world lessons and help us grow into not only better workers but also better people.
There’s definitely a time and place for internships focused on career development, but don’t write off jobs just because they don’t fit the pretentious college student mold. You’re young. Do it for the experience — the kind that shapes your work ethic, builds character and teaches you how to interact with everyday people. The world isn’t built on prestige; it’s built on people who know how to show up, take responsibility and get things done — no matter what job they’re doing.
