<p>I will be going into my freshmen year at CMU this fall majoring in mechanical engineering. My ultimate goal is to get my MBA and go into business. My question is about what kind of internships I should be looking for during the summer. Should I look for engineering internships - gearing me towards a more techie job out of undergraduate school, or should I look for business internships? </p>
<p>I'm not sure if the path for an MBA has me finding an engineering job out of undergraduate school and later on getting an MBA then getting a job in the business field after graduate school OR if I'm supposed to look for a business-oriented job out of undergraduate school and following the MBA course from there.</p>
<p>I'm still only in college, but I'm pretty sure the two paths you described work either way. Going into engineering or business after undergrad doesn't make it any easier or harder to go to b-school later on. Which path to choose mainly comes down to the field you'd prefer working in after undergrad. </p>
<p>So if you feel that you enjoy engineering and will want to do that after undergrad, then you should look for engineering internships. If you don't really enjoy engineering, but will still major in it, then try to look for business internships. </p>
<p>B-schools try not to give preference to applicants coming from business-related jobs, or any type of jobs for that matter. It's more a matter of the quality of people's work experience and the impact they have at their workplace.</p>
<p>It depends on what type of internships and what kind of area you're in, but it's likely that you'll have a hard time getting a business-related internship during college without that being your major for a couple reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Some internships will require specific knowledge of an area--accounting, finance, marketing. Most of the internships I've looked at required that you be pursuing a degree in Business (usually concentrating in that function) and (in some cases) Economics unless there was some random circumstance that made you overwhelmingly qualified.</p></li>
<li><p>Compeitition. If you're trying to get, say, a job in, say, operations, you're going to be competing with kids who are already studying operations. Granted, I think you'd have a good chance of getting an operations-related internship rather than marketing or accounting.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>As a result, I would recommend concentrating on getting engineering jobs during school.</p>
<p>As for what path you should take: many people will give you different reasons, particularly since employment and admissions practices are changing. When I was deciding what I should do after graduation, everyone I talked to told me that I should go right to grad school. Reality is, more and more business schools are requiring work experience. I would recommend going to work for a couple years and then applying for grad schools--you might not even have a choice by the time you graduate.</p>