I’m a 4th year Ph.D student in an Experimental Psychology program. Feel free to check one of my older posts regarding development throughout graduate school. Let’s just say that it’s not good.
Fortunately, I’ve applied to just under 60 jobs and internships with the assistance of vocational rehabilitation as well (since I’m now considered a disabled worker). I have a couple of interviews but the notable one where I got a conditional offer was an internship over the summer from June to August 5th (this end date will be important). All a conditional offer means is that I’ll get the position as long as nothing questionable shows up in my background at all. I don’t have anything on my record other than some speeding tickets (points have since fallen off since that was over 3 years ago) and a fender bender I got in my home state where I was determined to be at fault (same level of offense as a speeding ticket) so I should be fine.
The PI is interested in some of the same research topics as me so I’m confident we’ll find overlap as well. There’s only one major issue though. I can graduate by August 1st, but the program only wants students who are currently enrolled in their programs at the moment. This is somewhat frustrating as the four days the internship goes over means I have to graduate in December instead even though I could realistically wrap up my dissertation this summer (and even if my graduation is extended, I still want to finish it during the summer and that’s something my advisor wants). For those wondering, I’ve collected data for my dissertation so all I need to do at this point is analyze the data and wrote the results.
The main things I want out of this internship are the following:
1.) A solid reference from the PI of this lab for the future.
2.) Trying to see if I can either get a postdoc or maybe a full time position there as a scientist afterwards.
3.) Experience that can build up my resume and CV.
I recently reached the final stage interview for a regional campus affiliated with a major state university system too, which is another reason why I’m torn at the moment. The union protections are incredible too. Even though teaching is not ideal for me, I do think I can stabilize myself and experience less rejection sensitive dysphoria if that ends up being my only commitment. I also have another second stage interview for a research associate compliance analyst position too and yet another second stage interview for a research associate position at a regional campus in my home state.
It’s an extremely tough call as if I don’t get something lined up after August 5th if I take this internship, then I’m effectively in limbo until I graduate in December. I’d still be completing job applications and whatnot but my responsibilities would be way less compared to this past academic year.
I’m looking for advice. What would you do if you were in my situation? Any perspective is welcome.
Pick up the phone.
Explain the timing issue, ask if the end date can be moved to July 30th and that you’d be willing to forgo the holiday weekend in order to “make up the time” if they don’t want you starting a week earlier.
This may be a nothingburger and the dates could be totally random. So PICK UP THE PHONE and ask.
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Agree that you need to communicate with the internship sponsor so that you will know whether or not any flexibility with dates is possible.
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I’ll do that ASAP then. I forgot to put this in my original post but should note this too. I was hesistant to ask because I feared that asking would mean my offer getting revoked or something in this case.
They did tell me that they’ll be sending digital paperwork over to me soon so I’ll contact whoever is listed on there.
If inflexible, could the internship be extended until December ?
Asking for a reasonable accommodation (starting earlier? Working a holiday weekend?) is likely not grounds for revoking an offer!
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That was going to be the other question I am going to ask them as well once I get the contact info I need sometime today.
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I hope not. I’ve just had multiple slip ups where I open my mouth about something as I’m job hunting and whatever conditional offer I had would get revoked on the spot. Most notable one was when I was slated to work a summer job in my teens (I recently turned 30) and was told I’d have to sign an agreement where I couldn’t take time off for 3 months. Obama administration later made that illegal. I mentioned that I was going to be out later that summer for a 5 week program where I took a college course on a campus. It was a program meant to help autistic individuals adjust to campus living (and is nationally recognized).
I think there’s a difference between a 5 week absence from a summer job as a teenager, vs. asking for an end date 5 days earlier for a doctoral candidate.
But you won’t know until you ask. Take a respectful, thoughtful, “can we figure out a workaround?” tone and you should be fine.
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How does this sound?
[Greeting]
I just had a few more questions:
1.) Are the start and end dates for the internship flexible at all? I ask this because I’m ABD and collected all data for my dissertation. I originally wanted to graduate by August 1st at the soonest or December 1st at the latest since my advisor ([name]) thought those were reasonable dates. However, I saw that the internship wanted currently enrolled students only (until the end date of August 5th) so I realize that taking this may mean graduating later on my end, which would be fine if the dates aren’t flexible. I don’t have a defense date set yet either so it is no big deal if I don’t make the soonest date (August 1st).
2.) If the dates aren’t flexible, is there a possibility of extending the internship until I graduate from [current university] officially? Or, would there be a way to potentially continue working at [company] in some capacity until I graduate?
It sounds great but you need to start and end with “I’m really excited about this opportunity and know something terrific will come out of our collaboration”. (use a different variation of this at the end). People often bend over backwards if they feel your enthusiasm… they are less likely to do so if they sense entitlement or a blase attitude on your part.
So write down an enthusiastic and grateful opener! Good luck.
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Great advice. However, consider starting the conversation with “I accept the internship offer” before asking the questions if you will indeed accept regardless of the dates.
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The phone call I had yesterday asked if I accepted the offer (which I did) so that base is covered.
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Update: I was just told that a change in matriculation status over the summer would NOT affect my eligibility in the slightest so I have nothing to worry about from the sounds of things.
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