<p>One said that he was hired with no work experience and the other said that she interned for them for 3 years. I dont think work experience is that relevant.</p>
<p>Many will find employment fine without internships/work experience. But my guess would be that those who do have experience/internships have a higher percentage of finding employment. And also probably in a shorter period of time after graduation.</p>
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However, the economy isn't doing so well and I was advised against it. It's so much harder to get a full-time job when everyone else has more work/internship experience than you.
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<p>What if you plan on going into research / medicine / academia?</p>
<p>If you want to get into research (like grad school) you should definitely try to have a considerable amount of research in undergrad. Summer's really the best time to do it since it lets you dedicate 40 hours a week to your work instead of the 9-12 hours you'd do during the school year.</p>