u/Mammoth_Tone_7365

I'm a mech Eng student, and I've been involved in undergrad research for the last 2.5 years and I feel like I haven't done much.

There were lots of months where I didn't much because we were waiting for lots of bureaucratic approval or making small changes after user testing. I mostly worked on one large project that a PHD student did. I sat through meetings with other orgs that were involved in the project, and I just did worked on the simulation design (for the experiment) through game dev and coding grunt work (that now AI can do). It wasn't too hard, just a tedious learning curve and lots of redesigns and lots of bug squashing. Along with lots of lit reviews and proofreading.

I got an acknowledgements at the bottom of the paper (not authorship), but even this feels like too much. I confessed that I didn't do much and brought this up with my PI, but they told me that I've done more than a usual undergrad. They even started paying me to stay.

The topic was interesting, but the skills weren't too related to my major. So whenever it's on my resume or i'm asked about it in interviews, I always feel ashamed like I wasted my time there when I tell them I designed animations, coded (simple stuff that now AI can do). It sounds cool because in Mech Eng, the interviewers don't actually know the game dev softwares, but its all simple stuff. Looking back, I don't know where the two years were spent. It feels like so much time went by without much work. I just got hired for an internship that liked the exposure of the work and I feel like a fraud.

Is this normal as an undergrad?

I go to a school where most students get 2 internships. l didn't get any because of mental health and addiction issues, and not knowing the importance of these, and went on 2 leaves of absences, almost getting permanently kicked out of school. I finally got my first internship for this summer at a F500, but my all my friends are graduating with jobs and I still have one more year to go.

My resume could have been so much better and I don't even know if one internship is enough, especially because the company I'm interning at doesn't hire entry level and this horrible job market. Lots of people say one is now the bare minimum, especially at my school where they have 2-3. I don't have anything else on my resume other than spotty retail part time jobs and I seriously regret not focusing on projects, clubs, and internships.

Any advice?