Newsletter Archives /Today's Career Voice - May 2009
Summer Internships: Should You Take the Money or the Internships?
Many students and soon-to-be graduates have big decisions to make. What is the best way to spend a summer or those first post-graduation months? Are the cash returns of a job or the career experience of an internship more important? It all depends on your needs and what you want.
Think about your cash flow.
Crunch your numbers and think about the resources you have available to you. What do you have, and what do you really need? If money is a major factor, a paying job might make more sense. However, there are internships, particularly for recent graduates that are paid. You may not flood your bank account with cash, but many of these internships pay the same as or more than jobs in retail or other service industries. It might be worth having a little less cash for a few months if you can gain career-changing experience and contacts through an internship.
Don’t just consider what you will or won’t earn—consider what it will cost you.
Beyond what may already be available to you and how much you will make in a job versus an internship, it’s important to think of what it will cost you to do each. Where will you have to live, and what is the cost of living there? If you are considering an internship, some small towns (especially smaller college towns) will likely have internship options where the applicant competition will be lower—and so will the cost of living. Think not just about what you may make, but about what you will have to spend. What will having fun cost? Will you need different clothes on the job? These are all key factors.
Think about your major and interests.
Your major should play a big role in what you decide to do. For example, journalism students should look for work in magazines or newspapers and students who want to practice law could apply for internships in law offices. Whatever major or your interests, there is something that will match to bolster your resume and experience. Even volunteering or joining a related student organization will give you a boost.
Don’t forget that you have the rest of your life to do more.
If you don’t make a perfect decision, it’s not the end of the world. You can always change course, start over, and try again. If you intern or work in something that seems unrelated to what you feel most interested in, keep an open mind. No matter where you are or what you are doing, there is always something important to learn. Those experiences, whether they seem to relate to your passion or not, are still relevant. You may uncover a new interest or find a new way of doing something. Even if you hate what you do for a little while, you’re still learning about what doesn’t work for you, and that is valuable.
Remember: No experience necessarily has to be a bad experience. Whatever you do, in some ways, is irrelevant—it’s the attitude you go in with that will determine what you get out of it.
