WaitingGirl

I'm a freshman planning to major in Computer Science at a top engineering school (if not the top). I recently was offered a software engineering summer internship with 25 dollars/hour (=4K a month) at medium-sized company (established 12 years ago) with a strong start-up culture. It's building new products this summer, so I will definitely learn a ton if I accept the offer.

I'm flying to Palo Alto to interview with a Big-Name Company (think Facebook, Google, etc.) for a QA internship position. Apparently this company will pay me more if I get the offer (around 6K a month).

I've already extended the deadline to respond to this medium-sized company to the date after my interview in Palo Alto. But still, I'm in a big dilemma. I'm not particularly passionate about QA, and I like to work on hard-core coding and product building. However, how can you resist a 6K/month offer from a big-name company in Silicon Valley?

Any input? Advice? Thanks in advance.

sciencenerd

I think what you actually did matters more than the name. People will be initially impressed that you did work at a top company. But they will ask what you did and when you say QA idk how impressive that will be.

However, take my advice with a grain of salt as I don't have much experience in software.

WaitingGirl

Thanks for the input.

sumzup

You're a freshman; you have so much time to intern at a big-name company. I would personally opt for the actual software engineering position. You'll get a lot more relevant experience, and you can always do a real software internship at a big-name company later.

Trust me, as a CS major in a well-reputed school, you won't be hurting from lack of job offers later on. Our field is doing ridiculously well right now.

WaitingGirl

Thank you!

notaznguy

Take the big name company and more $$$. The big name company obviously will help you get your foot in the door for future opportunities. Just because you did a QA internship doesn't mean you'll be doing QA your entire life. Good grief, do you really need to ask people this question? It seems pretty common sense.

mitchklong

6K a month seems really high for an internship. Keep in mind interns always start at the bottom, so dont expect to be doing any major development work no mater where you go.

The bottom line is any experience will look good on your resume. If you have a desire to work FT at either company, that would be my first driver. Also dont be afraid to ask them what they have to offer for younger people in thier company/community you should look at this as an opportunity to have some fun with that money. GL.

Christian2

Hi WaitingGirl, I hope you are for real. It is unheard of for a freshman without even taking much computer or other relevant classes to get an internship that offers $4000/mo and $6000 is even harder to believe. Congratulations if that is indeed the case. But I do have doubts about this.

kashc2

I also hope this is real. I have never heard of a freshman getting an internship paying that much money. You must have some real good knowledge or some solid experience when you were in HS. But if this is all true, I would take the mid-size company. You have your whole life to earn great money. That being said, you need to get as much experience as possible to do that. I interned at a small-mid size firm with income <50mil and gained so much experience from them and accomplished so much for them that I got so many interviews and a few offers from top companies in their respected industries.

nolookingca

Not all 'QA' positions are created equal. Nobody is paying you 6K to press buttons. Therefore, you'd probably be building testing tools or simulations. It's not actual product development, but it is development.