Repercussions of being unable to do internships?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hello, </p>

<p>I cannot do internships because unlike most college students I do not have the luxury of having a support unit, and am completely reliant on myself. I work full time, live on my own and am afraid that if I don't do any internships because of my situation that my chances of finding a job are going to be very low once I graduate with my ECE degree.</p>

<p>How true do you think that is?</p>

<p>Also,I work in a warehouse and and it is unionized, I have to pay union dues and I also get my health benefits through this job/union.</p>

2

<p>Are there any positions within your employer that are related to your major? Could you possibly transfer within the company? Your higher-ups might be very pleased to have someone with your skill set on staff.</p>

3

<p>Unlikely, the warehouse I work for distributes restaurant supplies. The company has 4 hubs, NJ, Florida, California, and Chicago. The Chicago warehouse is practically completely automated except for people grabbing the merchandise off of the conveyor belt. I don’t see how they would utilize an ECE major outside of management, which I have no experience with. </p>

4

<p>Worth at least inquiring, no? You never know what might come up down the road.</p>

5

<p>I honestly don’t understand your predicament. You can’t intern because you don’t have a support unit? Do you mean having parents pay for your life?</p>

<p>Here is the thing. Internships are really important. Extremely important honestly. </p>

<p>So what is your situation? You work full time and go to school…full time? Can you not get healthcare through your university? Are you afraid to take on loans?</p>

<p>Engineering school is an investment. I may be wrong, but I feel your first job really matters. What gets you that first job depends on how well you did at this job (engineering school) and the experience you have picked up (internships and/or school projects and tech clubs). </p>

<p>You may want to consider taking out enough loans to support yourself the last year and making sure you get a internship that summer. One is way better than none. You can also sign up for Obamacare, finish out, and have the experience that recruiters are looking for.</p>

6

<p>That’s a bit unfair to expect people to ditch their primary source of income to MAYBE get an internship. What if it’s unpaid?</p>

<p>But then I cringe at loans; they remind me of a terrible system.</p>

<p>Do what you must, which at this point means getting a degree.</p>

7

<p>First: What engineering internship is unpaid? Every one I have done have been around $4,000/mth. One I am in the running for right now is $5,000/mth… and that is in North Carolina.</p>

<p>Second: No one said he needs to be unemployed to SEARCH and APPLY for an internship. But he would need to leave for the last summer and on IF he received an offer for an internship… Employers look favorably on internships, plain an simple. They also lead into employment after the internship. </p>

<p>This is just my personal opinion from many interviews and talking to a lot of recruiters. Not having one will put you behind. What will you have to really even talk about in the interview that is even applicable…you need experience.</p>

<p>Also, loans may make you cringe, but this is an investment for your life…the rest of you life. Taking loans out for the last part of a year can be easily handled on an ECE salary. </p>

8

<p>I applaud you for your hard work thus far. Many students (including myself) do not understand what it is like to have to support oneself throughout college.</p>

<p>Most engineering internships are paid, and you should be able to find an internship that will pay you more than you are earning at your current position. While it is advantageous to have completed internships in college, I would imagine an employer would understand if due to your financial situation you were not able to.</p>

9

<p>I understand that I would get paid for the internship, my fear is from thinking ahead after the internship. If I wanted to do an internship every summer, I’d have to quit my job and/or ask to go on a temporary leave(which I think would never happen), my fear is not being able to find another job in time to pay my bills after the internship has ended. </p>

<p>So, yeah I guess my only choice is follow Chucktown’s logic and do an internship my last summer of undergrad and take out a loan to be able to pay for the rest of the year, despite my extreme aversion to loans/debt.</p>

<p>Maybe I’m complaining here but I think the system is completely against people who don’t have anyone to lean on financially, and its very hard for poor people to actually climb the economic ladder </p>

10

<p>That’s true across the board for anyone seeking a bachelor’s degree, OP. Be thankful that your degree will at least lead to gainful employment. Debt is a very scary thing, and too many people are way too cavalier about taking it on, but you need to be careful not to go to the opposite extreme. Some debt is often necessary (SBAs, mortgages, car loans)–just be sure to calculate the long-term costs. Chucktown’s advice seems very measured and reasonable.</p>

11

<p>Be careful with the advice that suggests taking out loans to pay for a year of school. Yes, a salary would be able to pay for it, but that’s only if you actually do gain employment afterward. The simple fact that an internship is so important to finding a job suggests that the market isn’t exactly good for job seekers.</p>

<p>Find something you could put on your resume that looks a lot like meaningful engineering work, even if that would be only a partial truth, and find a good way to talk through it. Research work, CS projects (if you want to go for CS), professional organizations, etc, make for good examples for this. It’s very much a distasteful practice, but it’s the best way to get what you want without having to put your finances on the line.</p>

12

<p>“The simple fact that an internship is so important to finding a job suggests that the market isn’t exactly good for job seekers.” - I’d say it suggests that employers prefer students that have had professional experience. Perhaps OP is getting some of those real world experiences on the job, even if not yet engineering related. </p>

13

<p>Of course they want people who have already had professional experience. But the fact that they can be selective enough does say something for the state of the job market. Two months on the job would serve the same purpose as an internship if they didn’t have to be that selective.
Not that I’m saying the job market is awful, but more so that it’s more favorable for employers than students looking for a job.</p>

14

<p>That brings up a good question. Does anybody have an idea of what % of engineering students have had Internship/co-op experience prior to senior year? </p>

<p>Thirty years ago it seemed low. I had engineering summer jobs, but a lot of my classmates did not… I’ve assumed today it is much higher… ie employers would de-prioritize the few candidates w/o internships. I may be wrong - my observation of my kids/ friends covers only a few schools (and one of them has required co-op). </p>

15

<p>I don’t have an exact number, but I know it is substantial, and likely a substantial majority. I can’t think of any of my friends during undergrad who didn’t have at least one internship/co-op. That is anecdotal, I know, but I trust it.</p>

16

<p>Here’s one datapoint from the high end - Clarkson (which has mostly STEM students ranked ! #1 on internship/co-op % - in one report <a href=“http://www.clarkson.edu/internships/internships.html”>http://www.clarkson.edu/internships/internships.html&lt;/a&gt; ) .,.,</p>

<p>“Eighty-six percent of Clarkson students complete internships and co-ops before graduating. That’s more than double the internship rate of other national universities (30 percent).” </p>

<p>The 30% university average would include all majors. I presume Engineering average is higher. but I have no data to support that. </p>

17

<p>Practically everyone I know who isn’t planning on grad school (they’re doing research in the summer instead) has some kind of internship before senior year. Though I will add that I don’t have a representative example from all engineering majors. I have no idea how many Civil Engineering majors from my school got internships for instance. </p>

<p>However, I think it’s probably easier to get a full time job than an internship, just based on the numbers. There are fewer internships and more people competing for them. </p>

<p>That said, I don’t quite understand the road blocks the TC is putting up. Unless his job pays pretty well I don’t understand the huge issue with leaving it for an internship. Minimum wage jobs are relatively plentiful, once the internship is over he could find another. Even if his job is hard to replace, even at $4 or $5 an hour less it seems like it would be worth taking an internship. </p>

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<p>My company says they’re trying to grab top talent but can’t compete with Amazon and Google and the like. I don’t think they’re doing so bad though. A lot of the people I work with are substantially smarter than me, enough so that I wonder how I ended up here. But I don’t think a single one of them would have taken this job if Google or Amazon was an option. They aspire for better just like students do, but I think they accept that they can’t get the best , and that one step down will work just fine. Everyone has be critical of themselves and their value and be realistic. I went to a good school but one with practically 0 location bonus for my majors. No one I know was complaining about the job market. </p>

18

<p>Quote<strong><em>(Vladenschlutte)
That said, I don’t quite understand the road blocks the TC is putting up. Unless his job pays pretty well I don’t understand the huge issue with leaving it for an internship. Minimum wage jobs are relatively plentiful, once the internship is over he could find another. Even if his job is hard to replace, even at $4 or $5 an hour less it seems like it would be worth taking an internship.
End Quote</em></strong></p>

<p>except who the heck makes minimum wage and can fully support themselves; from housing/utilities to food and insurance? I make $16/hr with paid sick time and leave, which comes in really handy during the school year. I’ve been working this job since I was 18 and graduated high school (at a lower income obviously). </p>

<p>Honestly, the fact that you think I’m making minimum wage and living on my own completely leads me to believe you’ve never tried to budget on that income and that you have little experience paying all your bills on a low income, $4-5 dollar pay cut IS HUGE at these levels of income, amounting to $200 less per check before taxes which is very substantial when you’re 2 week paycheck is a little over $1000 dollars. You seem to be thinking way to far into the future and not enough into the present.</p>

<p>But fine, I leave me job and take a BIG pay cut, what happens? I’d have to down size where I live, which would screw over my roommate, not only that it would be DURING the semester if I was going to do internships before my senior year, and this all assuming I find another job.</p>

<p>I don’t know if you ever moved during the school the semester but its a PITA. While in my first year of CC I had to move because my entire apartment complex was facing eviction due to bad fire codes, and it was the most terrible thing ever.</p>

<p>But yeah this isn’t a hard decision at all, no possible repercussions</p>

<p>and its not like I can even save money during my internship because I can’t screw over my roommate and say I’m not paying my half of the rent since I’m not there possibly. </p>

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<p>Going from a $20/hr job to $15/hr job isn’t that drastic of a change because so long as you aren’t living outside your needs you can still pay for everything fairly comfortably and just sacrifice spending cash, but to go from say $13.25 to $8.25, another $5 pay decrease is going from being able to barely afford everything and have some spending cash to having poverty levels of income and not being able to pay for the necessities. </p>

<h2>you’re comment towards me, it is just so…infuriating</h2>

<p>yeah I could go live off of minimum wage if I was to work two jobs and that would workout with school so well</p>

19

<p>In all likelihood you’re going to make more than $16 an hour at your internship. If you made $28/hr during your internship for 3 months, and going back you could only find something for $12, even if you were working full time you net the same. And also, come on with this “I’m not going to screw over my roommate” crap, you’d sublease the apartment. </p>

20

<p>Yeah… it would be foolish to just pay for an empty apartment. </p>