I Show Up and It's the Wrong Job

I am a 19 year old college student about to start my first internship tomorrow. In January of this year I began sending resumes out to various golf courses/clubs (I am a professional golf major). I had several interviews and was offered what I thought was the 1st assistant professional position at a local country club. The job that I applied for as stated in my cover letter was the 1st assistant professional job. During my interview we discussed my experience working with junior golfers and also my working two days inside the pro shop.

Yesterday when I arrived home from school I went to the club to sign the necessary paperwork and was given my job description and schedule. I was told that I was going to be a bag attendant (a job that any high school student could do) not the job that I was expecting. The pay rate and experience that I will get from this job will not meet my necessary requirements for my college program since we are required to write various papers etc about working in the pro shop.

I did not say anything to my new boss when I saw this. I just didn't know what to do. I am supposed to start tomorrow, it is too late to look for another internship at this point but I feel that I was mislead about this position. I had several other offers for the 1st assistant pro that have since been filled and now I am a bag attendant. Should I say anything? How should I go about it. This is really my first full-time job and I don't want to get fired before I even start but I really want the other job! Please help me if you can.

I'm going to say some things that might sound a little harsh. I'm doing it so you don't make the same mistakes again and trust that all of us made mistakes as we entered into the job world. (In one interview that I'd like to forget, when the interviewer asked if I had any questions, I said, "Doesn't this job get boring?" Ummm, are you shocked I didn't get the job?)

I put three phrases in bold above. I want to address them.

The job that I applied for as stated in my cover letter was the 1st assistant professional job. Please note that this is the job you applied for and not the job they offered you. Recruiters are attempting to fill positions and they may think you are a better fit for a different position than the one you applied for. There's nothing that says they can't do that. Your mistake was assuming that because you applied for the 1st assistant professional job, that was what they were going to give you.

It's not a bad assumption, it's just that one should never assume anything in the job search.

The pay rate and experience that I will get from this job will not meet my necessary requirements. Did you get an offer letter, or was salary discussed before you accepted? It should have been. Again, if the job you applied for paid $15 an hour, did you just assume that that is what you were getting? All offers should be in writing--even for summer internship jobs. If they balk at doing that, you don't want to work there, as they are unethical. You should not turn down other offers until you have a clear offer letter in hand, which spells out your title, supervisor and pay rate. Otherwise, you end up like this!

This job won't fit the requirements for your school program. Did they know you were applying for an internship, or did they think you were applying for a summer job? Did they understand the requirements of your program? It's not uncommon for internships to require special things--as someone who has managed interns before, I've had to write special evaluations so they could get academic credit, for example.


I did not say anything to my new boss when I saw this. This, I totally understand. Sometimes we're so shocked we don't know how to respond. (This happened to me on Saturday when some random woman came up to me at a park and started talking to me. She was complaining about the child in the stroller. She then said, "It's not even my child. It's my husband's girlfriend's son." Pause. "Our relationship is complicated." Umm, yes thanks for sharing!)

Situations like this need to be addressed as soon as possible. It should have been addressed immediately, but you didn't. So, let's go from there and work on a possible solution.

Your problem is that you don't have another job to go to, so you feel stuck. But, this job won't meet your requirements either, so you need to address this. Call up your new boss and ask to come in for a meeting. Explain that you thought you were being hired for the 1st assistant position and you were so surprised to find out that you had been slotted into a different role. "I understand that you probably have that position already filled, but what can we do so that I can get that experience?"

Then work together to come up with a solution. Be flexible and not accusatory. If you start out with "You guys screwed up" you won't get anywhere. But, try to brainstorm with your boss. Make sure you are clear on your internship requirements as well.

I don't know your manager. Maybe he did this on purpose in order to get a less than pleasant job filled, but maybe it was an honest mistake. If it was an honest mistake, your manager will be willing to work with you to come to a solution. If it was done on purpose, you may be better off working for a different company, even if it doesn't involve golf.

If they officially registered with your college as someone for interns, you may be able to get your internship coordinator to help out.

Good luck. I'd use some golf phrase, but I got hit in the face with a golf club when I was in 5th grade and I've avoided it since.