<p>So I got my first internship interview coming up soon for an electrical engineering summer internship.</p>
<p>The internship is with Lockheed Martin and the position sounds like something I would enjoy doing. I'm guessing I will learn more about the position at the interview. At the risk of sounding like an ingrate, although I'm happy about the interview and the prospect of getting an offer I wouldn't say it's my dream position. There are other positions which I would prefer to get even though I would be very happy with this one.</p>
<p>My concern is that I would like to keep my options open for any future offers that I may get from other companies. They want to interview me at the end of January and I think the way things usually go is that if people perform well enough on these interviews then they usually get an offer soon after which they have to accept or decline within a short time frame. This is an onsite interview, and the site isn't close to my college so they would be paying to fly me there so I assume that there won't be any more interviews after this interview. Is it possible to get a fairly long time to accept/decline an offer if they offer me the position this early? I mean there's still quite a bit of time until summer. My concern is that a better opportunity might come along later and that I will end up regretting accepting this position. Is it possible to decline a position after accepting it without burning bridges? Our school has a career fair in early February so I was hoping of getting a more favorable offer following that event.</p>
<p>Also on a separate note is it odd if the company has the first interview onsite? That seems very odd to me. I interviewed with them last year on campus so maybe they were using my previous year's interview results to screen me. I also had a phone interview with them for a full time position (that was when I wasn't sure whether or not I would be going to grad school or not). So perhaps they used my previous interviews from a long time ago for prescreening?</p>
<p>Also isn't it odd that they would not offer relocation to the site? Is that something I can try negotiating?</p>
<p>For the record my main reasons for wanting to wait for something better are that as much as the position interests me I do not see myself working in the defense industry after school. A small part of that is for moral reasons and a big part of that is because I heard that the hours are long and I'm afraid that my dual citizenship would limit my opportunities within the company further down the line. I think I would also prefer to work on consumer goods. On the other hand the position seems to be in designing hardware which sounds awesome since a lot interns I don't think do a lot of designing and it also focuses on an area I enjoy (RF) so I think I could gain some valuable experience that I could take with me even if I decide not to go into the defense industry further down the road. I think they would also provide me with secret clearance, which perhaps holds a certain market value (???), but then again I probably wouldn't want to go into defense after school anyway so maybe it's not worth mentioning.</p>
<p>Do companies making consumer goods like intel, Qualcomm, apple, etc. look down on defense internships at all?</p>
<p>You’re lucky you have an interview. All of the EE companies are interviewing in January for summer internships. Be happy someone in EE is willing to train you and give you experience. Any work helps any application because it shows that you can work in the industry without any major problems. Lockheed Martin is a good company and has locations throughout the world. They work as contractors and subcontractors with other large defense and commercial companies. </p>
<p>Here’s the thing: Qualcomm likes local grads. Apple goes on campus and recruits from specific schools. Google also looks for specific students at elite universities and goes on those campuses. Unless you go to a very elite university, I would suspect that you are trying to bite the hand that feeds you. </p>
<p>I definitely am grateful for the opportunity. However as I said before I don’t have much interest in working for the defense industry afterwards which is why I would prefer to find an internship elsewhere. Wouldn’t it make sense for me to try to get an internship that’s more inline with my long term goals since internships often times lead to full time offers?So wouldn’t it make sense for me to try to prolong a decision to commit to an internship as much as possible without irritating the potential employer? Especially since our school has a career fair coming up soon I think I could make a better informed decision later in the year so I could weigh all my options after I were to (hopefully) get more offers after the fair.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say my university is very elite but Qualcomm, Apple, and Google have all recruited from here in the past, and Qualcomm does have a branch not too far from here, as does apple. I actually don’t have much interest in google since I think that’s mainly a software company.</p>
<p>Isaac2, Congratulations on being selected for onsite interview! You are not an ingrate for wanting to keep your options open. Yes, it is possible to extend the timeline for accepting/declining an offer. Yes, you will burn bridges if you accept a position and then withdraw later, especially if it’s on short notice. It is best if you negotiate an extension on your decision. Do not feel bad about a company paying your travel expenses for an onsite interview. You are giving up your time to meet with the interviewers. Yes, it is odd that the first interview is onsite without a lower cost screening interview. I think the company may be using your previous year’s interview to select you for the onsite visit.</p>
<p>At this point, if you can afford the time, you should interview with Lockheed. You will gain a better understanding of the type of work you will be doing, the people who work there, etc. At minimum, you will gain practice interviewing and be better prepared for later interviews with your “dream” companies. Work experience in your field of study will be seen as a positive by consumer companies. Good luck!!!</p>
<p>You are not an ingrate for wanting a longer time frame to make a decision, if you are given an offer. There are a couple of things to consider here.</p>
<ol>
<li>What is your school’s policy on offer timeframes? At mine, companies were not allowed to recruit on campus if they gave “exploding” offers (i.e. saying you have 48 hours to decide); rather, they were given a timeframe in which they can set offer expiration dates, and they usually stuck to that. Lockeed, as a reputable company, is not likely to give you an exploding offer, and if they give you one that expires in early February, the polite response is to thank them and ask for an extra week so you could make an informed decision. Hiring interns is costly, and as much as you burn bridges by reneging on an accepted offer, they don’t want to run that risk by not giving you adequate time to decide.</li>
<li>It isn’t entirely uncommon to have the interview situation you have - if they are not doing an official recruitment period at your school, it is more costly to fly someone out to you than it is for you to fly to them (they lose productivity while traveling, but if their people aren’t going anywhere, no productivity is lost). You obviously passed their phone screen, so I wouldn’t worry about it.</li>
<li>Regarding relocation, I wouldn’t worry about that until an offer comes. They may assume that you know relocation is part of the packages; they may want you to work at a local site; they may have you do work remotely and fly you to their site when needed. </li>
</ol>
<p>Congrats on the interview and good luck with your search!</p>