CS Internships: Startups v. big companies?

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>Hi folks,</p>

<p>I'm torn right now between a summer internship at Oracle and Ning (a social networking platform website). What do you all think? My main consideration is getting a full-time offer, not just at these two firms, but elsewhere too. I have reasonable stats otherwise (3.94 GPA @ one of them ivies, 4.00 CS) and am looking to either go to grad school (or law school) or work in CS after graduating, or potentially finance. Had a lot of interviews this season, but only got these two firms and Goldman (but I don't like the work hours there) - ideally, I'd like to work at Microsoft full-time.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Edit: Both internships offer similar pay and benefits, although Oracle will give me a car for the summer. Also, both are in platforms development, which ties in nicely with my interests (distributed algorithms).</p>

2

<p>startup all the way. you will get more career progression and responsibility, and there is a bigger upside. large companies provide the more stable/reasonable hours/safe career, but that is a choice to make when you are looking at kids, not when you are a fresh grad. if you are willing to work, go for the startup for sure, especially if it is a “real” (funded) startup.</p>