<p>Hi everybody. I've recently been offered a summer internship position at a major pharmaceutical company and I am wondering if taking this position will affect my chances at a good grad school negatively. I have been doing continuous research with a well known PI for over a year now (including summer) and am expecting a publication in April or May. Also, I will be jumping back into academic research at my school as soon as the summer is over. I am a junior chemistry major now and I am hoping to get into a top graduate school for chemistry. Is there any chance this internship will help me in any way? Thanks.</p>
<p>This won’t hurt you. If anything it will help you because you have experience both in academia and industry which you can talk about.</p>
<p>Industry experience will complement your research experience. I think you’ll have enough research experience since you’ll be continuing your work after the summer.</p>
<p>I am in a very similar situation as a sophomore engineering major and have chosen to go with the major pharmaceutical company. I will be in an R&D division, so still doing research, just in an industrial setting.</p>
<p>Also consider that you may discover in graduate school that you’d rather take your degree to doing industry research anyway. The pharma internship (especially if it is still research) won’t hurt your chances but WILL help them in getting non-academic research positions.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input everyone. I dont reall know any details about the position yet but I know it is in the analytical department…not sure if any research is going on there. But I’m leaning towards taking it anyway.</p>