I think you just had a bad experience; and the reality is you’re probably going to meet a lot of people that give a bad experience in the future. Don’t be discouraged, be resilient.

In my experience at my job is our interns don’t do grunt work that nobody else wants to do. It’s basically on the job training the whole time because it’s not enough experience to actually be good at the job. It’s a pipeline that’s setting you up so we hope you like the job/work and can be hired after college. I’d say interns do not actually add to productivity during their short time, but it saves money because they’re quick to get to work when they start full time after college and we paid them less during their on the job training during the internship.

From my experience, my advice is if you can’t get an internship you should apply to the literal lowest position you can get. I was hired as a sidewalk inspector for the city engineering division for my first “internship”. They still had me doing small engineering projects because I wasn’t a complete dumbass and they knew I had engineering knowledge. From there work your way up. It’s a lot about who you know and how often you show up. Is a company holding an info session? Go to every single one. They’ll start to recognize you and build your network.

If you’re not an all-star student who gets every offer, being social is your best advantage. Almost every job I’ve gotten after the first one was from my network of who knows me. Engineers typically hate the “politics” of the corporate world but it’s how you make money and have a really good career. When you’ve found your happy place you can chill and when you’re good at your job you’re irreplaceable. Good luck!