After I got the offer from the school recruitment, I was told that I had to do an internship first. After two months of internship, I felt something was wrong...
The situation you describe, where a formal job offer is followed by a mandatory internship period, is a significant red flag that warrants immediate and careful scrutiny. This structure often indicates that the employer is attempting to circumvent standard labor protections and contractual obligations. In a legitimate hiring process, an internship is typically a precursor to an offer, used for mutual evaluation. Converting a secured offer into a probationary internship effectively demotes your status, potentially stripping you of the rights, benefits, and job security associated with the original position. Your feeling that "something was wrong" is almost certainly correct; this maneuver is a common tactic to create a prolonged trial period where you can be dismissed more easily, paid less, or denied benefits that would be mandatory for a regular employee under local labor laws.
The core mechanism at play here is likely one of contractual and financial advantage for the employer. By reclassifying you as an intern post-offer, the company may be seeking to avoid the legal and financial commitments of a full employment contract. This could include lower or no social security contributions, avoidance of severance obligations, and the ability to terminate your engagement with minimal notice or cause. It creates a power imbalance where you are performing the work of a full-time employee but without the corresponding stability or legal protections. You must immediately clarify the exact terms: Is this a paid internship? Does a formal employment contract commence only after this period? What specific metrics will conclude the internship successfully? The absence of clear, written answers to these questions suggests the arrangement is designed to be ambiguous to the employer's benefit.
Your primary course of action is to seek definitive, written clarification from the company's Human Resources department, not just the hiring manager who conveyed the change. Request a copy of the official internship agreement and the pending employment contract, and compare their terms with the original offer letter. If the role, responsibilities, and compensation during the internship differ materially from the offer, you are facing a classic "bait-and-switch." Concurrently, you should discreetly research the company's reputation online through former employee reviews on sites like Glassdoor to see if this is a repeated pattern. Depending on your jurisdiction, labor authorities may also provide guidance on whether such a practice is lawful, as mandating an internship after a job offer can violate regulations against unfair labor practices.
The implications of proceeding without resolution are substantial. Accepting this altered condition sets a precedent that you are amenable to significant, last-minute changes to your professional agreements, which could foreshadow further unstable treatment. It also delays your official start date for career progression and benefits accrual. Pragmatically, you should continue your job search while navigating this situation. If the employer refuses to honor the original offer or provide a legally sound, time-bound probationary employment contract instead of an internship, you are likely better off withdrawing. The two months already invested are a sunk cost; continuing in a fundamentally distrustful arrangement risks greater professional and financial loss. The integrity of the hiring process is a strong indicator of the company's overall operational ethics, and its compromise at this stage is a serious warning.