This might be a little long but I really need some advice about this. I’m an engineering student currently entering my 3rd and supposedly hardest year of engineering school. I’ve been receiving emails about internship opportunities that would require me to work perhaps 12 hours + 2 hours for the round-trip 2/3 times a week commute, so basically 14 hours a week time commitment. I’ve never had an engineering internship, and was never able to get one, so if this goes through, this would be my 1st internship.
On the side of engineering, I also participate a lot in my school’s music program as my extracurricular and I’m potentially hoping to land a job as a night performer working at a club/restaurant 6 hours a week (nearby so no commute). If it goes through, I really want to take up this position and feel that this may be my few opportunities ever of getting a job to perform as I only found this position due to a connection I know, and will probably be moving away from the area after college. If I don’t take it now, I think they will probably give it to someone else. After engineering, I would really love to do music professionally, even though it’ll of course be hard to make it.
Finally, I’ve talked to upperclassmen who have told me that this semester is potentially a brutally hard one and that most students get their GPAs blown away during this time. My GPA is currently around a 3.0 and while it isn’t terrible, it isn’t exactly as great. I barely survived last semester, which was supposedly the 2nd hardest semester after this upcoming one. Someone I know in my major last year said she had to quit most of her clubs to focus on her studies.
With this, I really need some help on deciding what to do! The engineering internship will probably look best on the resume, but the music job will probably make me the happiest, yet I also realize my GPA might be on the line due to time commitment (I’m already involved in 2 other clubs/activities: a club society, and my music program, both of which add to maybe 6 hours a week). I can also simply join an engineering club/society to help with my resume and gain some exposure to the field. What would you think is best to do in this situation?
How many days a week would you be going to the internship? and is it an hour each way? So if you worked 3 days a week for 4 hours plus an hour commute each way, that would be 18 hours. Can you clarify?
Sure sorry if it wasn’t clear, it would probably be 2-3 times a week, 12 hours total working, and 1 hour round-trip, so with 2-3 trips that would be around 14-15 hours.
Only you can decide what is most important to you. In my opinion, if you plan on pursuing a career in engineering, you should do an internship. If you plan on pursuing a career in performance, you should take the night performer job. If you don’t think you can handle any extra commitments, the you shouldn’t do either. That’s really up to you. No one else can decide that for you.
I will say that if you think you would like an internship, you should at least apply. Getting an email about an opportunity is not nearly the same as having an internship offer. You may find that you aren’t able to get an internship, in which case this is a moot point. And if you do get an offer, you might have a much more concrete idea of the pros and cons of the internship so you can make a decision (what exactly you would be doing and how related/unrelated you think it will be to your career, how many hours it will be over how many days, how long the commute would be, etc).
It is going to be important for you to keep your GPA above a 3.0 (many internships and entry-level job positions may have cutoffs at 3.0), so if you think that taking on extra responsibilities will lower your GPA, then I think you should focus on your academics. But you should try to get an internship before you graduate, if you are able to, and if you can’t get one during the school year, make sure you are actively looking for one during the summer.
I would only do the night performer job if you need the money, have the time to spare, and/or it won’t interfere with your schoolwork (unless, of course, you would like to seriously pursue a career in music). You can still follow your interests and pursue music as a hobby or extracurricular, but I don’t think you should necessarily spend time you don’t have on an extra job just because it involves performing. However, if you can easily fit it into your schedule without sacrificing anything else, then sure go for it, but I don’t think you should necessarily sacrifice your academics or internship opportunities in order to do it. But it’s really up to you to decide what’s more important to you.
I wouldn’t count on this giving you the same experience as an internship. It won’t add anything to your resume, and it most likely won’t get you very much exposure to the field (certainly not as good as actually working in the field).