Taking an internship is the right thing to do, right?

[justkeepswimming]

I need (gentle) input - are we guiding dd the right way here?   :blush:  DD (junior) has two summer internship offers with a possible third in the wings, waiting on some red tape to learn the exact info on that one (but it's not as applicable to what her college major will be, so probably not a "true" contender anyway).

 

Both are full-time summer internships. One is a desk job, the other involves some overnight travel (and that is the one she is strongly leaning toward at this moment). Both are paying internships, but I imagine it's not much (can't they pay interns less than minimum wage, if they pay them at all? She hasn't clarified how much either of these pay yet, we're just assuming that it's pebbles). Both positions were previously filled by college students (and usually are offered to college students).

 

So - goodbye plans to take a summer college class, work her regular summer job (a "fun" part-time job), hang out with friends or her boyfriend... not to mention that (selfishly) dh and I will miss her so much (since it's the "last" summer at home before her summer of heading off to college). :/

 

She's also got college applications and scholarships and, and, and... this summer too, right? (I'm sort of sticking my head in the sand with college paperwork/plans right now - just trying to get this school year steadied and schedule ACT/SAT/etc and coordinate the other 1,453,783 things my older two kids have on their agendas each week...).

 

She has to decide quickly. She plans to get a degree in engineering and everyone - EVERY.ONE - keeps drilling her with how important internships are for when potential employers are considering hiring her.

 

So, is this just the beginning of what is to come?  but if she starts now, surely she would be expected to work another the summer before she leaves for college, and another every summer thereafter to just keep up with the other Engineering Joneses?

 

She NEEDS to take one of the offers, right? To not do so would be just plain stupid. Right?

 

(for the record, she WANTS to do this. I'm just lamenting the loss of her young, carefree days a little bit, I suppose, because she hasn't had many. She's been working SO hard these past few years & I guess I was hoping she could have one last summer to goof off a little bit before she's a "real" grown-up... She WANTS to take one of the offers, but doesn't fully comprehend what it's like to actually WORK 8+ hours a day every single day for very little pay. Especially while her friends are planning a fun, carefree summer...) :mellow:

[MomatHWTK]

Making connections, IMO, is the number one factor in determining who gets a job after graduation.  Choose the internship that will lead to the best network and take it. 

 

ETA:  I thought you meant jr in college (didn't read the whole thing.)  I don't know what to do about younger interns.  Hope opportunities come later? 

[Starr]

Will the actual work be resume worthy?

[bettyandbob]

Not all internships provide good work experience, but they should provide references. References known in th field that will help make the contact to the next, hopefully better position. So, if the internship will provide her with good contact for other jobs it is good.

 

Take comfort. Your dd wanting to do this and analyzing the value is showing a high level of maturity. You did a good job getting her to this point. Once she decides on the position to take you can figure out timing on a nice family vacation.

[Harriet Vane]

Internships are a great option for furthering career goals. Just make sure it will actually pay back towards references and career goals. For this, your dd should have an actual "job" description of the internship.

 

Also try to set a schedule that will allow her some time at home if possible. In other words, try not to schedule the internship back-to-back with school ending/starting.

 

All that said, I would place high value on an internship over the fun job or goofing off with friends (though there is nothing wrong with either one).

[hornblower]

I probably wouldn't worry about it if she hasn't even started her college yet. The summers between yr 3&4 and 2&3 are more important.

 

I would seriously consider one more summer of fun, esp if it earns more money.

 

The only big advantage I see is if she's in a real engineering firm and gets to see the work/conditions/stress levels, she might have clearer idea about the field. Better to find out now why kind of work will appeal. My dd has had a summer job 2 yrs running in a field which she was sort of being pushed into by her interests (all her colleagues are either vet techs, vet tech students, pre-vet, or vets LOL) and discovered that while she likes the summer job, she doesn't want that as a career.

[justasque]

Yes, internships are good.  Because of my high school internship, I had a resume that helped me get better internships/co-op jobs and campus jobs while in college.  All of that meant I graduated with a full resume of experience in my (engineering) field, which put me far ahead compared to peers who had worked the standard teen/student jobs (fast food, lifeguard, college cafeteria, etc.).  Each job is a stepping stone to the next one, and starting to build that resume early really helps.  

It's also useful to get some experience in your major before/while working on your degree, because it can help you to decide on which direction you'll take in your studies within the major, and whether you want to stick with that major or change to something else (before you've spent 4-5 years and $$$ on the degree).

[Orthodox6]

As a parent, I would discourage the internship with travel because of her age. My guess is that she would be traveling with regular staff which would have potential unpleasant events at worst case.

There's no standard definition of what an "internship" is.  The top of the line internship is often the engineering internship, which are vital to starting a career, advanced training, networking, and can function as a semester-long job interview, and are actually paid well enough to fund subsequent semesters of school.  However, the low end of the internship scale is simply drudgery, where the student isn't paid any wages or benefits, and often has very menial tasks, and little chance of networking, and no training.

 

So, I would look very closely at what type of internship this is, and see if I could talk to some of the previous interns before recommending it.

 

And, I wouldn't fear-monger about overnight travel, but I'm curious about the mechanics of a high school student travelling overnight for work.  She's not old enough to rent her own hotel room or car, so how does that work out?

[justkeepswimming]

Thank you for the input - very helpful at giving us the "important facts" to focus on! 

 

She has a few emails in for more information, so will likely decide by Monday what to do...

 

I'm simultaneously proud/happy of her choosing to do this and utterly bummed that she's choosing to do this. All these conflicting emotions at one time!  :willy_nilly:  It's tricky to parent these older teens! :p

 

[Muttichen]

Four of my dc have done full-time internships the summer between 11th and 12th grade and it has been very good for them.  They've gotten great experience and recommendations and some have even published papers (they interned in a lab).  They all wrote about the internship for one of their college essays.  Also, they had the opportunity of working there each following summer as long as they wanted to.

 

The 9-5 schedule was hard to get used to, but it's not like they had no free time.  They still hung out wiht their friends on the evenings and weekends.

[justkeepswimming]

UPDATE: She opted to take the desk-job internship (knock me over with a feather! I was so surprised!) and it pays quite a bit more than we expected, so... she will actually be able to save quite a bit over the summer! It's all good news! :)