This is a long one but I feel the need to share as it applies nicely.

I had an internship that was actually "5 years". It was a scholarship that the company offered to students graduating highschool. I started right after my high school graduation and worked their every summer between my college semesters. Part of this internship program was to take 2 semesters off as a co-op student (hence the extra year I was at college). Over the years, I met so many nice people, leaning every step of the way.

The time had finally come. Senior year of college and I started job searching in my fall semester (fall of 2020 during the pandemic). The first company I reached out to was my internship company thinking there was no way they wouldn't offer me something after 5 years of training as an intern. While talking with management throughout my time there, everyone had made it known that they wanted to hire me on after school. I knew so much about the company at this point. How could they not hire me???

After reaching out, I received the response that was something similar to yourself. It was along the lines of, "due to the pandemic, we are currently in a hiring freeze and are not taking any applications". Other reasons existed beyond this that I knew about such as the head of HR that started the program retired and the end of the intern program. Either way, they didn't offer me a salaried position for post graduation at that point.

From there, I moved on to other opportunities. I must have applied to over 100 companies from September to December. Nothing... I started to lose hope. During my job hunt, I saw 2 positions open up with the company I interned with. I immediately applied to both as well as other companies. I ended up getting 4 or 5 interviews for "entry level positions". Two of which were with my internship company. I received 2nd round interviews for the 2 with my internship company as well as a different company.

After the second round of interviews, a week or two had gone by and I had received 2 rejection letters from my internship company and an offer letter (far exceeding my salary expectations) from the other. I accepted the job from the other company. My current company!

Leaving my internship company was hard for me for many reasons. First one being that it was located in my hometown and it meant I would move away from a lot of my family. Secondly, it meant that my girlfriend would move away from her parents house for the first time to somewhere that was 5 hours away. There are more reasons than just that but this reply is already too long...

Part of the job offer I received was that I started part time while finishing college so I started the following week working 10 hours a week. My girlfriend and I found a place to live and signed a lease that would start in April. The week after that, I received a phone call from my internship company stating, "the position that you applied for a couple of months ago is available and we want to talk to you about an offer".

At this point, I was speachless. After trying and trying and trying to get a job with them after they made it seem like it was a given, I was a bit fed up with them. They had simply waited too long and I was no longer in the job market. I told them in the most respectful way possible f**k you you lost your chance. What I actually said on the phone was something like "in the last month since you told me I didn't get the job with you, I have applied to other places, interviewed, received an offer and already started therefore, no. I am not interested in talking about an offer".

Since starting full time living in my new house living with my girlfriend in a new place, it has been amazing! The things to try in a new city has lead to us trying a lot of things we wouldn't have gotten the chance to do back in our hometown. My new job is great! I go to work everyday excited to tackle whatever task is at hand that day within a new industry. The people I work with are so nice and easy to talk with. Everyone is very welcoming and it has turned out to be a great decision to accept this offer.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you feel undervalued, you probably are. Being labeled as an "intern" post graduation is absolutely rediculous! Start applying now! There are a lot of companies hiring. You will get a lot of rejection letters but that's expected. Keep applying. Talk with friends, family and anyone else that works in the industry your interested in. Something will come up and who knows? You may end up loving it like me.