Summer internships, housing, car, etc.

Parents Forum
1

<p>As son is finished his second year of mechanical engineering, he's hoping to find a summer internship in his field. However, it will be out of state, as there's nothing local. We're hoping he can find something in a city where he has friends. He goes to an OOS flagship, so he has many OOS friends. </p>

<p>Hoping to get some advice, insight, from parents who have been through this.</p>

<p>While ideally, it would be nice to work for a company that provides housing, has a shuttle from housing to work site, but we don't want to rule out job options based on that criteria.</p>

<p>I'm guessing we'll need to find sublets, perhaps buy him a car or send him with mine, and I find other transportation. We'll probably have to furnish the housing.</p>

<p>Son will not keep a car to go back to school in the fall, so really not looking to buy a permanent car, but if we have to, we have to.</p>

<p>I know it sounds like a big expense, but the other options are: sit on the couch all summer, go to OOS summer school, which will cost at least 6K, or perhaps find a local summer job, like a grocery bagger. Seriously, there is no industry in our area and no job options in his field.</p>

<p>Son has excellent grades, but no work experience AT ALL. So we're willing to make this sacrifice so he can get some experience and increase his chances of finding full time employment when he graduates.</p>

<p>Thanks for any advice, tips, etc.</p>

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<p>Here’s one site: [Summer</a> Engineering Internships ? Intern Jobs ? Internships.com](<a href=“http://www.internships.com/summerinternship/engineering]Summer”>http://www.internships.com/summerinternship/engineering) I just googled, “website for engineering internships/ summer job” and there appeared to be many sites to look through. Really though, his best chance of getting something is to go to career fairs at his college and/or go to career services. Their whole job is getting jobs/internships for their students.</p>

3

<p>It probably would have been better to start looking last fall but that’s not possible now. I’d suggest looking for the internship and then worrying about the logistics when the internship shows up. Looking for an internship can be a lot of work as he would have to apply and possibly produce letters of recommendation or references and this would mean asking professors if they would be willing to do them or provide references. His resume should be up-to-date and he should probably write a specific cover letter tailored to each organization that he applies to.</p>

<p>An REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) might be simpler logistically as many of these provide housing for non-local students and the housing is colocated with the workplace. It is pretty late in the semester to be applying for REUs though.</p>

<p>Are there opportunities (as in a lot of companies) near his OOS school?</p>

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<p>Are there internship possibilities in the community where he goes to college? Getting a summer sublet in a college community is usually quite easy.</p>

5

<p>Did he apply to any REUs? Those usually include on-campus housing, so transportation and housing aren’t an issue.</p>

<p>My kids LOVED the REUs that they’ve done…learned a LOT, great experiences, still friends with others they met during the experience.</p>

<p>While ideally, it would be nice to work for a company that provides housing, has a shuttle from housing to work site, but we don’t want to rule out job options based on that criteria.</p>

<p>I don’t think any companies provide all of this…at least none that I’ve heard of.<br>
Maybe a few do this? It would seem that that would require a company to have a lot of out-of-area interns for a company to go thru the hassle of setting up housing and daily shuttles. </p>

<p>If he gets an internship in Cummings Research Park (I assume he’s looking there), he could probably sub-let from a UAH college kid iwho won’t be using his apt in the summer. There are also some motel options that have reasonable “weekly rates”…so no need to furnish, etc.</p>

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<p>I spoke to several interns at Mozilla a few years ago and they provide condo housing and transportation to the office. They also provided four days of housing, food, fun and transportation at Whistler, BC as part of the experience.</p>

<p>"If you’re working for a big-enough company (Yahoo, Google, Facebook, etc), these will tend to have shuttles from various places in the Bay Area that drive you to work. Those are awesome. "</p>

<p>[An</a> Intern’s Guide to a Summer in the Bay Area - Alexey needs a web presence](<a href=“http://alexeymk.com/an-interns-guide-to-a-summer-in-the-bay-area]An”>An Intern’s Guide to a Summer in the Bay Area | Alexey needs a web presence)</p>

7

<p>^^^</p>

<p>Yes…those companies do have those offerings. However, the OP’s son is MechE, so the kinds of companies that he’d be working with often don’t offer those amenities.</p>

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<p>I was on a long bus ride with the interns from Mozilla and not all of them were CS majors. It was a pretty cool experience talking to them and their experiences and the projects that they were working on.</p>

<p>Most software companies don’t offer these amenities either - I guess that the Bay Area is extreme in the problems with housing and transportation.</p>

<p>Back to the OP: in the Boston area, students and recent grads often rent a large house and people come and go - the usual method to find new roommates is via craigslist. Craigslist can be good for finding cheap or free furniture too (you have to move it).</p>

9

<p>I would also suggest the REU option. Don’t be surprised, though, if it’s hard to get an engineering internship as a sophomore; I know it can be done, but around here, it can be tricky. I know some really good engineering students who spent their sophomore summers working fast food or taking summer classes because they just couldn’t find those internships (or lost out to juniors who were also looking.)</p>

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<p>There are plenty of Mechanical Engineering internships in the Bay Area where companies arrange housing; some even provide it for free, others arrange for free shuttles from a cluster of apartments to the office, or some kind of relocation assistance.</p>

<p>I agree with the above advice regarding finding the internship first, then worry about the housing logistics. Many large cities have a good number of summer sublets posted on Craig’s List.</p>

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<p>REUs tend to have deadlines around the end of January. I have seen them with later deadlines like end of February and end of March but there are usually far fewer of those. I’ve even seen openings in May but these are usually due to an REU losing candidates after they agreed to do them.</p>

<p>The schools that sponsor the REUs need to go through applications, contact them and ask them if they will be accepting them, set up housing and other things and they usually need some time to do that. Also, the folks doing this are usually professors and they are typically pretty busy with courses and research.</p>

<p>End of January is a good deadline so that students can request LORs over the break when professors have more time to do them. They can also do the essays, get their transcripts and provide any other documentation. REUs generally don’t require an interview - they’re based on the submitted package.</p>

12

<p>^^^</p>

<p>Yes, REU app deadlines have likely passed, but I know that the OP knew about them earlier, so I hope that her son did apply to some. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>REUs can be the “best of both worlds” because schools really try to mix it up with research and some fun experiences. Weekdays may be work, work, work, but weekends are often filled with BBQs, hikes, outings, beach trips, etc.</p>

13

<p>On the decision of whether to do an internship or not - definitely pursue the internship. Internship experience is very important in the engineering field and is a definite factor in getting some good job offers later.</p>

<p>On the logistics - wait to see where he gets the internship. He may not need a car since he might be able to live close enough to the company that he can either walk or take public transportation or even share a ride with another intern. As far as living goes - he could rent something like a studio apartment for the summer or look into renting summer dorm space at a nearby college. He could ask people at the company if there are perhaps other summer interns who might be interested in sharing an apartment to further reduce expenses.</p>

<p>First - get the internship.
Second - deal with the logistics.</p>

14

<p>This is a crazy issue. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>He gets the internship and believes that he can work out the logistics. Just take the job. I think it makes him look bad to not believe that. I’ve had summer interns whine about this before accepting a position, and frankly, it makes them look pampered. Smart people figure this out. </p></li>
<li><p>Ask the company if any provisions are made and what students have done in the past. </p></li>
<li><p>Get a sublet near a university, or a dorm at a university with parking if he needs a car to get to work.</p></li>
<li><p>You buy an old but good, fully depreciated car for him from a private party and have it checked out by your mechanic. Old corollas and civics are practically indestructible. Have him offer to carpool other interns for a reasonable fee ($10/day) for expense sharing. This way he’s in control and gets to be a little entrepreneurial. </p></li>
<li><p>At the end of the summer, you sell the car for about the same price you paid for it. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>The total cost is the rent and utilities, the sales tax, insurance, and overhead of the car minus what he collects from other students. </p>

<p>Not to mention, what self-respecting mechE wouldn’t mind doing an oil change and changing his own brake pads for fun!</p>

15

<p>A lot of that is what new grads do.</p>

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<p>Montegut, my son worked his last two summers out of state. His sophomore summer in Chicago and his junior summer in Seattle. His sophomore summer internship arranged housing for the interns and the rent was subsidized. The company shuttled them to work. However, we let him has our old car so he can get around town. Last year his company just pay them a housing allowance and you are on your own. Again we let him has our old car for transportation. We started looking for housing earnestly in March. You can search my old post for that. I did get quite a bit of help from CC folks here and end up finding a furnished apt that allowed a three months lease. So things usually work out for the better if you spend some time in it.</p>

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<p>My son found summer housing in SF through craigslist a couple of years ago. He ended up renting a room from a USF professor whose own daughter was in Europe for a semester. He literally took the job on a Friday, flew out on Monday and went to look at the place right from the airport. The advantage of a job in a large urban area is the availability of public transportation. He just bought a monthly pass and never needed his own car.</p>

18

<p>I agree…find the internship and then work out logistics.</p>

<p>One student I know has gotten an internship in Germany. Now he has to figure out everything…transportation, housing, etc…for a foreign country…but it will get done.</p>

19

<p>My son did internships on the other side of the country. The companies he worked for had lists of landlords and plenty of housing options within walking distance - a good thing since my son didn’t drive. The second place he worked had a shuttle stop nearby - and he liked the apartment well enough that now that he’s graduated he’s living in the same apartment complex. He’d considered getting a bike, but hasn’t bothered. The internships paid for the housing or at least gave him an allowance that covered most of the cost.</p>

20

<p>I know my big engineering firm does not provide housing or transportation. I believe all summer hiring has been done for several months. I think your S will have better luck at this point of time with smaller firms, emailing alumni, asking professors and emailing or calling all your friends and relatives. Good luck.</p>