Yes, I think they are trying to exploit the system. They are supposed to be teaching you and helping you, not belittling you. Even if you were a full-fledged employee, telling you that the person who was there before you was better is a useless comment. It's just rude and mean, not constructive at all. This HR person sounds like she needs new career path herself!

Did they offer you *any* constructive feedback? Constructive feedback would be specific behaviors you could change. Instead of 'you don't show initiative,' they should be saying 'before you ask Joe how to do something, you should spend 15 minutes trying to figure it out yourself using Google or company resources like etc etc.'

I am glad you are working to get out of there. I'm in IT and not 'OMG, yay IT' either, but there are some huge advantages to IT as a career path.