Hello CC community,
I am currently working as an IT intern for a company that is a partner with Cisco Hardware and I have recently found that SpaceX holds IT internships. Would previous experience with my current internship help me land an internship at SpaceX for their IT department?
You can apply next year. My D has a friend interning at Space X this summer. So they do hire interns – can’t hurt to try!
My main question is, does previous intern experience help get another internship, if so why?
Is that a real question? You are asking why a potential employer would prefer to hire somebody who has experience over somebody who doesn’t? (yes, taking on an intern is like hiring somebody).
Fwiw, here are two reasons: first, if the previous internship was in a similar line of work/for a similar company, the person brings some experience with them- they may be more useful, more quickly to the new company.
Second, there is a lot of learning and socialization that goes on with interns/people new to the workforce. Learning about the rhythm of a workday, time management, navigating the hierarchy in the organization, what that office considers appropriate dress and deportment, etc- that’s part of the internship process also. If somebody else has already broken the back of that work, so much the better.
Previous experience helps, but SpaceX is still immensely hard to get into. I never met an intern there who hadn’t interned before, usually at another aerospace company or a top cs company.
Source: I interned at SpaceX
My kid has a friend who is interning there this summer. They did a couple years of research with a prof on campus prior to this. You certainly need some prior experience (research or internship).
Thanks, my response was trying to make it as formal as possible.
In my case, for instance though, if I were to eventually want to work for spacex, would it be best to apply for a Cisco internship, work for Cisco and then apply to spacex for it? Im going to have undergrad research under my belt, however it’s relating with hydroponic systems, I’m working on connecting with a professor in computer science.
@killerqueen21 Any internship experience will help and this is quite standard. You mentioned hydroponics which may be quite far off from the desired skillset they’re looking for. I wouldn’t focus on just one company because the odds of getting your “dream” internship is much lower than if you cast a wide net. To answer your question, it would be best to apply to both the cisco internship, spaceX internship, and many more internships too!
SpaceX may look cool on paper, but make sure it’s something you really want to get into. I wouldn’t recommend working at SpaceX from what I’ve heard, but that’s only from a small sample size. Additionally, make sure it’s something YOU actually want to do, and not something that OTHER people want you to do just because it looks cool. If you can get into SpaceX, you’ll most likely be set to work at other places. It’s probably a great place to intern, but don’t be surprised if you burn out quickly if you’re fully employed there.
Pro-tip: SpaceX really likes to recruit from college FSAE teams or anything very hands on. Good luck.
@r77r77 thabks for the advice. You’d be surprised space exploration does relate til hydroponic systems. If we are going to go into space we are going to need food grown in contained environments to help us survive. Grants already have been given at nasa. Hydroponics also relates to IT infrastructure There is a lab at MIT called city farm.
@KillerQueen21 Youre welcome. Interesting point about the hydroponics. Probably not happening for a long time (whenever we can colonize), but very important nonetheless.