<p>What's everyone's experiences with internships? I'm a sophomore in college majoring in economics and would like to get one soon, but I think it's too late to get one for the end of spring, but I'm looking to get one for the summer. Where did you look for one and was it paid/unpaid? I can't devote my life to one because I need to save money to study abroad, but I would like some relevant experience before I leave to go overseas next fall.</p>
<p>I got a paid internship on Wall St. as a "Senior IT Analyst" (their title, not mine.)</p>
<p>I thought it was an internship, at least. As in I, I assumed I would be assisting a regular full-time employed IT specialist - not me being the sole employed IT coder for their intranet applications. </p>
<p>I found it online by a fluke. I think I went Monster or some similar site, it was the first place I applied and interviewed (four times for, competed with forty-some other applicants according the company's president.) and got the job.</p>
<p>It can be a little stressful since I'm in class all day and then at my internship till six and don't get home until 7, and by then I'm too wiped to do any actual studying but I think the experience is well worth it.</p>
<p>I've had two internships. The second will be turning into a graduate research assistant position this summer. First was at Fermilab in Chicago and the second at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Both were paid (the second much better than the first). I just uploaded my resume to the labs student recruitment sites and got phone calls back. Last year I interviewed/was offered internships for 4 different DOE labs and interviewed at 3 different companies before choosing which offer I wanted.</p>
<p>LANL is pretty nice!</p>
<p>I absolutely love it there. I couldn't ask for a better place to be and group of people to work for. I just absolutely love my division and the real impact some of our work could possibly have. They take really good care of their students!</p>
<p>Anybody have any experience with unpaid internships? I'm looking into a few internships for next year, but they're almost all unpaid.</p>
<p>I'm currently doing an unpaid internship at a museum. I left a paying part-time retail job for it. All of the internships that I applied for were unpaid, but it's like that in some fields. I had to make the sacrifice. For me (and for most) an unpaid internship is going to be a lot more valuable than retail. I've only been there for a couple weeks but I like it more than any job I've ever had. </p>
<p>If you can make it work, go for it.</p>
<p>the OP should visit the career center at his college ...</p>
<p>I've never done an unpaid internship. My advertising professor who is a very successful, retired exec told us this important tidbit: "A lot of you will be applying to large companies for internships. There's no reason why they shouldn't pay you. Don't ever work for free."</p>
<p>Yeah, but what about internships with non-profit organizations? Like... a charity foundation or something. Half their EMPLOYEES don't get paid, so internships won't.</p>
<p>To be honest, that's not an area I was interested in or sought after when looking for internships.</p>
<p>Regardless, I still don't work for free. There are too many expenses to work a 40-hour work week just to come home with no monetary compensation. How else will I live my current lifestyle if I volunteered? To each its own though...</p>
<p>i'm really having trouble deciding what I should do this summer.
I want to take classes, and I also need to make money. So I figured 2 classes, part-time job, sounds good - still enough time to relax as well. </p>
<p>but I also want to get an internship. I've never had one and it would be great to put on a resume since I'm applying for transfer this fall, plus I want some experience in the Business/Law field I plan to go into after graduation. So if I could get a paying internship, that would be great, but they're harder to come by - right now i've applied for an unpaid internship at the UN. And classes, a part-time job, and internship might be too much for summer vacation - although I know people who are doing all this and more during the school year. Is this a good idea?</p>
<p>My school offers a couple sessions over the summer. One three week session after the spring semester is over in mid-May, and then two longer ones through the summer. I’m not sure about your school, but a shorter course might work for the first few weeks, and then maybe one class the rest of the summer while you work/intern. Or something along those lines. Depends on how your school does summer courses. Also, it would probably help to talk with your advisor.</p>