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toughIdea9215
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PathStep 5 Compassion hearts21 Forum posts2 Forum upvotes2 Current upvotes2 Age GroupAdult Last activeJuly, 2025 Member sinceFebruary 20, 2025
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Struggling with Low Professional Self-Esteem
Self-Esteem / by toughIdea9215
Last post
 March 7th, 2025
...See more Hi! I am new to 7 Cups but I joined recently because I have been dealing with a lot of different mental health issues. One thing I have been struggling a lot with is self-esteem when it comes to my professional/educational worth. I have been dealing with a lot of feelings of imposter syndrome in my job that I have right now, despite being supported by awesome leadership. The reason that I am posting to this thread is because I am also a college student and would like to take on a summer internship this summer, but I recently had a bad experience a couple of months ago with a prior internship. The boss and I did not communicate in the same style at all, and I was often scrutinized heavily for my work. I am grateful to have a boss now at my actual job who can give constructive criticism instead of just tearing me down. But the problem is that I want to grow my professional experience, which is why I want to take on a summer internship alongside my current job. I am just feeling as though every internship is going to be like the one that I had a couple of months ago with the harsh boss. Those experiences I think are why I am struggling so much with my self image professionally. I felt as though I was treated as less than. The boss definitely had a superiority complex, and for that reason he did not feel that he needed to treat anybody with any type of kindness. I hope I don’t sound like I am being too sensitive and like I can’t take feedback. This boss really actually was at a different level when it came to offering suggestions or corrections and now it just feel like my work isn’t good enough and like I am not good enough to get another internship.  Does anyone have any advice on how to heal from workplace trauma, a.k.a. unkind bosses? Or any advice on how to realize that my professional worth doesn’t come from only one situation? Because I am young and a college student, I don’t have a lot of professional experience yet, which I also think contributes to my feelings of inferiority when it comes to the professional world. I really don’t know where else to turn right now so that’s why I’m posting this here. Any advice that you may have is greatly appreciated🫶🏻
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