<p>My son's study abroad program offers a variety of internships, but the kinds of internships available are not in his area of study. We thought he should still pursue getting an international internship for the work experience even if it is not related to Engineering. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I think he should do it for the LIFE experience.</p>
<p>I agree. I thought an international internship offers the opportunity to work with people of another culture and experience what work is like in another country.</p>
<p>That’d be a good experience but for engineering, internship experience within his engineering discipline is very valuable for improving his knowledge of the subject, knowledge of the specific work environment, even knowledge of an employer (who might very well follow-up with a job offer), and is important for competing for jobs with other engineering grads who DO have relevant internship experience. </p>
<p>I think if possible, he should try to make sure he allocates at least one summer for relevant internship experience in his field. If he can do this non-directly-relevant internship abroad one summer and get a relevant internship the next summer sometime before graduating then it all might work well.</p>
<p>Definitely should do it. Keep in mind, many people get jobs later that are not ‘in their area of study’.</p>
<p>The biggest jump I know of is a friend who majored in anthropology, but worked on a seismic crew in the summers. He liked it, so went into geophysics after he graduated.</p>
<p>I am hoping that getting some internship experience in the fall would be a good starting point to try to get university related experience in the spring related to Engineering after my son acquires more foreign language. Then, with 2 different work related experiences, he will have something to put down when applying for a summer internship in the U.S. for next summer.</p>
<p>When it comes to language acquisition, exposure to different environments, activities, and individuals, is critical. The more different places your son has in which he is forced to use his language, the larger his vocabulary, and the greater the chance that he will master the idiomatic use of the language. I teach ESL to adults in the US. My students who work in an English-only (or nearly only) environment improve much, much faster than do those who work in another language all day. Your son should worry less about the specific area of his internships than about the need to use his developing language skills in those internships. If there are very specific advantages of being fluent in this other language in his particular career field (such as a set of specialized vocabulary), then he may want to look for opportunities to work in that field. However, he shouldn’t hold out for an internship in his field if they are hard to come by and he can get one in another area.</p>
<p>Thank you for your valuable advice. My son requested an international roommate to help with foreign language. My son is actually planning on 2 different locations in the same country junior year. The first location is more touristy (internships are in places like museums, local hospital, community service) and not geared towards Engineering. The second location is in the heart of high tech. I am hoping that with some internship experience in the first location, even if not in Engineering, would help him get some kind of work experience in the second location-even if helping a professor with research, etc. I think he needs a starting point to put something down for work experience.</p>