I'm asking because I didn't like my job for a list of reasons, my team and I are only here for 2 more weeks (we're part of a 6 week program run by our city - SYEP, specifically speaking), and I don't want to burn bridges with my boss so I can get one more recommendation for a future job. She, herself, likes me as an employee, but I did not like this job.

She said we can be honest in our reflections, but I don't know to what extent, and I don't want to be rude. It's not like I can cuss this job out on it, right?

So, should I just lie and say I had a great time here and I learned a lot, or how honest should I be?

edit: accidental spam wrong thread my apologies. Embarrassing 

You may have picked up valuable skills in the job and they can transition into other jobs. It is a way to gain experience and to get a little money in your pocket. It can also help with making contacts and that can help you in the future. But,if you are going to say anything negative,and I urge you to think carefully on this,make it constructive and suggest ways to remedy a problem. Do not bad mouth people there,and do not bad mouth the program in general.

You can be professional and truthful at the same time.

Organize the reflections piece into three parts for their reading benefit.

The first part is what you enjoyed. You liked this, that or something. There has to be at least one positive you can pull from the program or from your experience that gives you happiness or joy. Nothing, and I mean literally nothing (Well, I can think of a few things) is that horrible that all of it is horrendous. List the positive things, go into detail about what you enjoyed, and leave it at that.

The second part is not criticism, but "Room for Improvement." You can say you did not like certain aspects of the job but follow that up with why you didn't like them and how you would change things to make the experience better. You have to give them the negatives or they can't improve the program. You're also learning written communication where you can speak openly and straight-forward about shortcomings of a program without cussing or attacking people. Don't go after any people. Be objective, don't let feelings come into it, and be straight forward.

Lastly, to end on a positive, talk about what you learned and what your next steps in your career are and how this program fits those steps. Thank them for having you and say you're available to talk if there were any follow-up questions from the boss or manager. Leave your contact info.

It should be that easy. I'm confused in that you apparently hate it but you want to still be involved with the same group that's running it.

I tell you what: Post your review here and I'll comment on what you can improve or change so you're not offensive, if you're worried about that. Don't use profanity since profanity is for people with weak vocabularies and no creativity. But be honest about the things you disliked. I'm in management and I want to know when things are bad so I can improve them.

Ghostbear is right.
Be honest but make it into constructive criticism that can be used to improve the program should it be re-implemented or so she knows what not to do in the next program.

Ghostbear1111 : This is an excellent guideline for me - I will definitely get back to you about this. I'm just still with the job for the pay and recommendation, since my boss loves me as an employee. Apologies for the confusion.

Hi! Have you already completed the review? It seems like the other people that posted have given you great tips and hints already, so I would just like to add that if you wanted to post your reflection on Vizzed for us to review it before you send it in, you can try placing the review in User Tags so that only people registered with Vizzed can see it (in case you're concerned that your team somehow decides to Google your reflection and ends up seeing your original drafts here). lol To place your text in User Tags, just use this format:

[ user ]Replace Text Here with Reflection[ /user ]

After you remove the spaces inside the [ and ] symbols, your text will be enclosed inside the User Tags.

This is what the text looks like when the tag is working:


If you need more information about Tags, please refer to this thread: https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=93324

Good luck and hope everything is going well for you!