Does the type of internship matter?

Hi CC! I’m a high school senior wishing to land an entry-level internship/part-time job this summer before enrolling in community college. I would like to transfer to an upper-tier UC after one year and therefore would like to make my application next fall as strong as possible.

I wanted to know if the type of internship/part-time job actually mattered when UC evaluates my application? It’s rather difficult finding an entry-level position (i.e. one with no experience/college education required) within the field that I am interested in. Let’s say I want to study biology in college. Would an internship in, say, marketing look as good as an internship in biology?

Thanks!

An internship in your field of interest is always going to look better. However, that isn’t to say a marketing internship is worthless, just not as relevant.

Well, no, of course it won’t be entirely worthless, but would it be worth it compared to other things I could spend my time doing? If I had a chance do an unpaid internship in, again, for the sake of example, marketing, would it look better than having a normal part-time job?

Thanks for the reply, btw!

It’s very important to pick one that can give you a strong letter of recommendation. Somewhere that you can develop a personal relationship with your supervisor.

But the UCs don’t require letter of recommendations, so I just need something that can build a good application/resume, right?

You’d be making money in one and not the other, and the unpaid one isn’t even in your area of interest? Doesn’t sound worth it to me.

@bodangles I guess you’re right. I suppose I just assumed that it would look better to do something that would teach me skills–regardless of its irrelevance to my major–over a retail job that required no skill.

Any type of job teaches you skills.