| Lots of good points on here--I especially like Northstarmom and ticklemepink's comments about how the key is to find the job that leads to what you like and that teaches you the most about your career field.
My son has been fortunate to find internships that are in his field and that do pay. (In fact, this coming summer's internship pays the equivalent of a regular full-time graduating position). But he had opportunities to take other positons that paid even more, but were totally unrelated to his major. He was smart enough and fortunate enough--(should I say privileged enough?)--to be able to turn them down and wait for something better.
But I think learning that one shouldn't always jump at the first opportunity, but rather continue searching for positions in your career that offer the opportunity to be mentored properly is one of the most valuable lessons of all. About half of the people I know are in dead-end jobs precisely because they don't learn this lesson early--or at all. When they graduate, they grab whatever job they can get--or the one that pays the most--without considering its long-term value to their career development.
Yes, an internship in important--but really, it is only important if it gets you training or leads to later positions in career areas of interest to you or to "fun" jobs that one can excel at.
P.S. Although the one exception may be that if you don't know what you want to do, then any internship may help you decide I suppose.
Oh, and Catfish--thanks for the comic relief. |