My son is a sophomore, majoring in Computer Science and wants to concentrate on AI related work. He started looking for summer internships in March (I know, it was late) & has currently landed with 2 offers:
#1 - A small company which does AI related work. The examples of some work they said he will be engaged in is interesting and my son is excited about that. They have offered him 10 week of internship for a stipend of $3000. He will WFH.
#2 - A medium sized company which also has software/AI component but they offered that position to a grad student. However, they liked my son and the CEO spoke to him today and offered him a PM role with a mentor. The job is also for 10 weeks & they are paying him $30/hour and he will work directly under the CEO on corporate level projects. He will have to go to work 3 times/week (45 mins drive) & they also do some fun activities for the interns which my son seems to be excited about.
Which one do you suggest he should pick? He has to make a decision today.
$3000 for 10 weeks? Or did I misunderstand? The number one job is vastly under paying him. Is that even minimum wage? For that reason alone I would choose the other.
#2 (assuming an 8-hour workday for 10 weeks). Plus considerable facetime with the boss,seemingly more $$$ and he gets to engage in fun activities with like-minded interns? Sounds worth the 3-days in office to me.
From your limited description, it sounds like the first role involves actual coding, whereas the second role sounds like helping the CEO with various projects. The first position sounds like it will be more impactful in terms of getting an internship for next year and for getting the entry-level CS position.
The second role sounds better if this mid-sized company is where he would like to end up after graduation, as he will have contacts at multiple levels in the organization.
Unless the difference in money is important at this time, it shouldn’t influence the decision.
Regardless of the other considerations, I’d pick the one where he works in the office. That’s really important for kids to get used to. But the rest of #2 sounds better too.
Yes, its $3000 for all of 10 weeks! I know its not much but they are small company and like a start-up. Though I think the experience of real life AI work should make up for the low pay.
Yes, money should not be a big thing for him at this point. However, he is 19yo and the big difference in the pay (4 times the #1) is totally impacting his decision.
I agree…I want him to go to office and he also is keen to be at work as grown-ups…& wish he got to do AI work in this other company too…but well.
Does your son consider himself (or wants to be) a hardcore, hands-on programmer who builds products? Does he want to gain a deeper understanding of AI?
Then he should take job #1. It’ll provide him valuable experience, whereas job #2 is a project management role where he will likely not actually do any AI work himself. As a techie, I would definitely take the first job. Startups can’t afford to pay much, and some even just offer unpaid internships. The experience gained is more valuable than the money earned.
As a sophomore you are learning stuff. Don’t worry about mid-size vs small company, because you are likely not looking for employment there. That serious assessment needs to be done for junior internship. Your said your student is interested in AI. He should take #1. This is a no-brainer. #2 is far away from where he wants to go.
It all depends on what the job is, and we don’t know enough offering this advice. Ideally he should be in a position to judge, and he shouldn’t even ask you for advice :-). For example, if openai offered an internship two summers ago, my kid would have taken it even if it is unpaid. It depends on the firm.
@neela1 - he just told me about the 2nd offer this morning as the CEO called him directly. I told him he should make the decision as these are the kind of decisions he will have to make as a grown up. So, he is going to make his decision but I wanted to also know some other opinions as I can see benefit in both of these situations (#1 technical, #2 social).
I have taught my children the concept of being “long-term greedy”. In other words, during your early years you invest in yourself by improving knowledge, skills, and contacts. These will likely payoff in later years in terms of promotions, income, and career fulfillment.
That is why many people are recommending position #1. It is developing the skills that are useful in a career in AI.
Does he have the option to go in to the office once in a while? Or is the company fully remote?
I get that WFH is not ideal for a 19 year old, but that seems to be the only downside of job 1 IMO. Many companies have gone fully remote since the pandemic, so this can happen again in a future job.