Hello! Currently, I am an undergrad who is about to start my Sophomore year of college. I am currently double majoring in Information Technology and Systems and Supply Chain Management. I have received a logistics internship offer for Fall 2019 from a mid-sized distribution company. I really liked the company when I went for my interviews it seemed like a good environment for me to learn about my field. However, there are some cons the biggest being the commute as it is a 50-minute drive from my school and I have to be there at least 20 hours a week. I am thinking I might have to drop some classes or give up some really good professors to make it work, as I am taking on a full schedule at school also. The pay is also only $10 which luckily I am blessed to where that doesn’t matter too much for me but I am still taking it in consideration as it seems low when considering my effort and commute. So my questions are:
Since I am only a Sophomore and will be applying to many more internships in the future should I just skip this one if I feel like it will effect my studies?
Or should I just stick with it as I know how important internships are and that this one can possibly lead me to get more internships in the future?
Thanks in advance for the advice!
I don’t see how you could easily do that and maintain a 15-credit hour load with a good GPA. When you say you’re dropping some classes, how many do you mean? I wouldn’t go below 12 credit hours or else you’re not a full-time student.
If it were a co-op, that’d be different, but for an internship, it doesn’t seem worth it – as you mentioned, you’ll have lots of other chances in the future. You don’t want to ruin your GPA or slow your progress towards graduation just for one random internship. Could you defer your internship for the summer, or do it in the spring as a co-op?
Also, you’d be making less than $10/hr by the time you factor in the time you’ll spend commuting and the gas money you’ll need.
Can you get credit for your internship?
The answer to this depends a lot on the answer to that question, as well as whether you can arrange your schedule to make this workable. For example, is it possible for you to take all your classes in the morning and then commute to your internship to work in the afternoon/early evening? Is it possible for you to drop down to 12 hours and make up for it by earning 3 credits with the internship? Is it possible for you to negotiate with the internship to work only 10 or 15 hours a week?
Internships aren’t really about the pay, but about the experience. With a major in IT and supply chain management, this internship can be really valuable - and earlier internships can often make you more competitive for later internships. So I wouldn’t totally disregard it just because you plan to apply for more internships; this is a bird in the hand.
But of course college is your first priority, so you have to ensure that it’ll work with your schedule and what you need to take to graduate. I’d just try a little effort to see if you can get it to work.