<p>Do you think it is possible for me to get an internship as a freshman in EECS? I go to UC Berkeley, and though I will have above a 3.7 GPA my first semester, I don't seem to have the "proficient knowledge of C++, Java, etc." that internships seem to require, along with their inclination to only take Juniors and Seniors.</p>
<p>Should I get a random summer job at a local business with no relation to my major to beef up my resume?</p>
<p>Or would it be better for me to take summer classes at a community college? If so, what sort of classes should I be taking?</p>
<p>Any other ideas on how to spend my summer? No suggestions for relaxing and enjoying it! I enjoy being productive. haha :)</p>
<p>Look at REUs that will take Freshman students.</p>
<p>A coworker’s son majoring in CS got a software engineering internship at IBM after his freshman year. He did have programming experience. Not sure if that mean proficient though.</p>
<p>Do you have some programming experience, perhaps from high-school? Have you taken programming courses at Berkeley?</p>
<p>On community college courses - I wouldn’t take them unless Berkeley would accept them for transfer or the courses provide knowledge that you’d want such that you don’t care about transfer credit.</p>
<p>Could you look for summer research work at Berkeley? Perhaps you could look at the research pages for professors in your departments to see if there’s anything that interests you or if they are looking for help with particular skills that you might have. These might be unpaid. I’ve seen high-school students score unpaid research work at universities by using connections.</p>