A college senior who scored a prestigious Tesla internship is scrambling to make new professional plans after the automaker revoked her offer less than three weeks before she was supposed to start.
Brook Gura, 21, was looking forward to spending her summer as a recruiting intern in Tesla’s human resources department, she told Business Insider this week. The senior at the University of Texas at Austin said she spent about three weeks interviewing with the company earlier this year before signing a contract with Tesla on February 29. Business Insider viewed part of Gura’s offer letter from Tesla.
“It was exciting. I was looking for a big corporate internship,” Gura said. “And it was close by. I wouldn’t have had to relocate.”
Gura, who said she turned down internship offers at other companies in favor of Tesla, was particularly stoked about the compensation — $26 an hour, she told BI.
The 12-week internship was scheduled to start on May 20. Gura said she was told she would get more information about picking up a company laptop the first week of May.
When Tesla announced layoffs last month affecting 10% of the company’s workforce, Gura said she wasn’t initially worried.
“Interns are relatively cheap compared to full-time employees,” she said. “I figured if they were trying to cut down, I might even be working more.”
But as Gura was studying for finals on Tuesday, she said she got a call from an unknown phone number. A couple of hours later, she received an email from a Tesla recruiter asking her to call back.
Gura said she immediately panicked and went online to see if the company had done more layoffs. That’s when she saw a LinkedIn post from another intern who had lost their offer.
By the time she called the recruiter back, Gura said she was fairly certain she knew what was coming. The “pretty short” conversation, however, still took her by surprise.
“They just explained the company was making cuts that were going to start impacting interns, and that meant me,” Gura said. “There wasn’t any room for negotiating.”
Gura said she initially started panicking over how she’d spend her last summer before she graduates in December.
“I was upset. This was not the only internship offer I had. I picked Tesla out of other organizations,” she said.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Gura made her own LinkedIn post on Wednesday, asking her professional network for support and opportunities. Other would-be interns have posted about losing their Tesla internships, as well. Gura said several interns have connected in the aftermath of the cuts and are offering support to one another. She feels lucky compared to other interns who had already paid for flights and housing.
Gura said she’s trying to stay positive and look to the future.
“Taking the time to think about this, I have learned that rejection is redirection,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “While I am incredibly disappointed that I will not have the summer I intended to have, I know that this moment will only help me grow stronger as a professional.”
But she can’t help but feel disappointed by the whole experience.
“What bummed me out the most is I didn’t even have the chance to showcase my skills,” Gura said.
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