I recently completed my internship as a Machine Learning intern at a healthcare startup in Jaipur. The internship lasted about 10 months, and while I was initially excited about the opportunity, I was unfortunately laid off. Out of six interns hired from my college, five were offered full-time positions, but I was told that I lacked the research-oriented skills they were looking for. I had been trying to prove my versatility by expressing interest in other roles, but it seemed to backfire. During the layoff discussion, I pleaded with the director, explaining my personal circumstances as the sole earner for my family, which includes two parents with serious medical conditions. He was understanding and suggested I come back the following Monday to discuss another opportunity that might be available. The week following my layoff was incredibly stressful. A senior colleague assured me that there could be roles in platform engineering or DevOps for me, given my experience with model deployment and database management during my internship. However, I felt uncertain about my future after being let go from the ML team. Today, another senior mentioned that the director had instructed him to help me get training for backend development and DevOps roles, which gave me a glimmer of hope. I’ve been actively looking for support within the organization, and many colleagues have been encouraging. I have a meeting with the director on June 15, 2026, to discuss my future, and I’m trying to remain optimistic. I’m just not sure if I did the right thing by pleading for my job, but I genuinely need this opportunity to support my family.