<p>I'm currently an engineering major. I'm a sophomore. I want to pursue grad school at a top institution for mechanical engineering. I am currently doing research and was wondering if I end up getting rejected from all the top schools, should I wait a year and apply again or find a job? I recently talked to my career advisor and she told me that pursuing grad school and finding a job after my undergrad are kind of 2 diff paths. She said to find a job, internship experience is desired. Will it be hard for me to find a job (assuming I got rejected from the universities I really want to go to) if I lack internship experience but have lots of research experience?</p>
<p>What’s on your resume only gets you to an interview, the rest is on you. They might not look favorably at you if you did not have internship experience but that can be easily compensated if you do well in an interview. Anyway, she is somewhat right… If you want to do graduate school then research experience is very valuable. Either way, even if you get work experience then apply to graduate school or do research experience and apply for a job it does not eliminate you. I worked, fresh out of college, at a top engineering company… I had 0 research and 0 work experience (not even an unpaid internship).</p>
<p>I got a job at a biotech company/R&D out of college. No undergrad research experience or internships. The boss and team just liked me in the interview. 
And that’s how it just plays out sometimes.</p>
<p>It all depends… Internships are worth their weight in gold, and depending on the quality of your undergraduate “research” experience, you might be better off doing internships instead. Someone with an internship will usually have a better selection of possible jobs, whereas someone without will be lucky to get one or two offers… So, I’d take the internship instead of research. Working will look good on your resume for graduate school if you decide to go back.</p>