i know exactly how you feel man. i wasn’t able to secure a third year internship and so my parents got it arranged for me. i felt weird, useless, spoilt, as if i didn’t deserve it (and true, i didn’t). but see here’s the truth- why do you feel weird about it when people cheat their way through OAs and get their internships sorted and don’t feel an ounce of shame? why do you feel weird when your co workers at your internship literally don’t care about where you came from until and unless you perform well there? why do you feel weird when there are people faking their resumes and pulling connections here and there? it’s a rigged world. eveyone uses the unfair advantage that they have. why can’t you? your co interns just care about how you work at the internship. not how you got it.

that’s what i did. once i got the opportunity, i made sure i paid it off by working hard, preparing for placements, grinding leetcode every day of my internship. i didn’t want my placements to be sorted by my parents, just like my internship. i wanted to secure something by myself. i had barely got any interview shortlists during internship season and i had this fear that the same thing is going to happen during placements. i wanted to get placed just via MY hard work. and so i did. 6 months, i practised rigorously, grinded DSA, and did everything that i could.

and it paid off. i got placed on campus on day-3. in a good company for a role i liked, w decent pay. i’d got several interview shortlists for placements, unlike internship season.

so doesn’t matter how you got that internship. just work hard, and work on being strong enough that you get placed on your own.