<p>Generally a student will have at most three internships during his/her college career - summers Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior years. Let's say a CS student worked as a summer intern after Freshman year at a good company; loved the experience; and worked in his/her area of interest (systems and networking). The company wants them back next summer to work in the same area. The only downside is that the software development office is in the middle of nowhere (OK for middle aged adult but perhaps not great for younger person).</p>
<p>Should a programmer look for varied experience at another company for the next internship? Or, should they go with the known "good" experience? It's a tech company but not huge like Microsoft, Google et al that would allow for completely different work at the same company.</p>
<p>I'm thinking that DS should get the broadest experience possible with different companies during his college years so that he can make a fully informed decision upon graduation. Company 1 appears eager to turn this basically into a co-op with full time employment upon graduation.</p>
<p>The reason I bring in summer students at all is to “try before I buy”. I like to make offers to summer students that impress me. That’s about 40ish% of them. I’m much more willing to take a chance on a summer student than on a permanent hire. </p>
<p>They obviously like your S. If he likes the company and can see working there after he graduates, and will get another great experience, why not take another summer. Also as a resume reader, I take a positive view of a repeat gig at a company. That means that someone has already vetted the person, has had a chance to get rid of them, and brought them back anyway! It also demonstrates <em>some</em> loyalty on the part of the student, which is a plus. </p>
<p>If it’s in the middle of nowhere, and he’d rather work in the middle of somewhere, then he can politely decline and look for something in the middle of somewhere. </p>
<p>He is already vetted. They will probably still like him when he graduates. Other companies won’t know that though.</p>
<p>If he does repeat, it is certainly worthwhile to interview around though. Not only would he get to see different companies, but it’s really the only way for him to calibrate his market value.</p>
<p>Thanks for taking the time to respond. I appreciate the insight. My guess is that he’s going to do the repeat because he’s working for them part time over the school year and they’ve already started to increase his responsibilities. He does need to force himself though to interview with other companies for informational purposes and practice.</p>
<p>I turned down two continuing internship offers in favor of trying new companies, and I don’t regret it. I had the mindset that internships provide a nice opportunity to change jobs every year, so I wanted to take advantage of that before I got “locked-in” somewhere in a full-time career. I liked experiencing three different work environments and three different jobs, but if your son likes what he has then there’s something to be said for sticking with what you like. </p>
<p>When it came to looking for full-time jobs I didn’t see any negative repercussions from having three different companies on my resume. I just wanted to try new environments while I had the chance as an intern - I don’t think anyone would look down on that. The company that I left after sophomore year ended up contacting me out-of-the-blue during senior year to see if I wanted to come back full-time. If they like you, they’ll remember.</p>
<p>Regardless of what he decides, as ClassicRockerDad said, your son should still do interviews. I did as many interviews as I could looking for internships and it helped me see what opportunities are out there, as well as gave me invaluable experience. I was a much better candidate for full-time jobs having gone through the job-search process a couple of times.</p>