Internship vs Freelancing?

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

Rising Senior here with a quick question.

I’ve been trying really hard to find a web development agency near where I live, most of the ones I emailed never replied. There are many others in my state, but most of them are more than 30min drive from my house.

Summer is coming up and I’ll be working in a lab so I won’t have much time on the weekdays to actually go to a physical workplace. However this does not correlate to what I want to major in (CS), and I really want to have an internship or some sort of work experience in web development (self-taught for 3 years now).

Regardless, I’ve started to work on my own online portfolio and will probably be taking more client work during the summer.

The question is: do colleges value internships over self-employment (own company, freelance)?

I hate to be self-absorbed but I do think I’m working on a professional level that most people my age would not be. You can check out my portfolio here (still in development): http://zhihaowang.me/

Speak to me CC, I’m looking at schools such as carnegie/cit/berkley and want to know what would better my chances! Thanks!

2

Bump // :frowning:

3

I mean it doesn’t really matter. If you can’t get an internship (for whatever reason), then freelancing is certainly better than nothing. I think internships might be considered more traditional so is considered a little more “legitimate.” But in CS this isn’t the case as much since many people freelance.

I’m not quite sure what you want to know. It is what it is. Any experience is better than none. I think all else being equal, an internship would look better (unless your not doing anything in your internship) but that doesn’t mean freelancing looks bad. You could list both equally on a resume. But it sounds like you aren’t able to get an internship, so do something else.