How are the internships going?

Parents Forum
1

<p>There was a post on the Engineering forum about a student struggling in his/her internship being halfway through with reassurance that not finding something is also a research result.
It’s about halfway through and I was wondering how things are going from the parents’ point of view. The thing that I’ve learned from my son is that there isn’t a much guidance on doing your project and that time goes by very quickly.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/738469-summer-internship-already-halfway.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/738469-summer-internship-already-halfway.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

2

<p>I have a daughter doing a 3 week finance internship, with no pay. It is at an equity research firm. She got it through her school and it was suppose to be part of a course. The course got cancelled, but she decided to keep the internship. Her hours are 7:30 to 5pm, and one day a week she needs to got in at 7am to get packets ready for morning call. For a week and half now, she has been making copies, looking up company addresses, and sitting around doing nothing most of the time.</p>

<p>After a few days of doing nothing, I have asked her to go up to some analysts and ask to be on calls with clients, or just ask them to explain to her how they look at various numbers. </p>

<p>At the same time, I have 2 summer interns myself. They each have a project to be completed by end of this summer. They are going to be Bloomberg certified. They have visited our trading floor. They’ll be sitting with account officers. I have weekly luncheons with them. They are set up for training classes weekly. My interns are fully occupied. They are also assigned a mentor for them to go to for any questions they may have - from taking time off, setting up applications on their desk top, or even how to write emails. Of course, we are paying our interns very good money for their time.</p>

3

<p>Internship itself is going great. She likes what she is doing, likes the people, BUT she has no social life. The people with whom she works are all older - not by that much but enough at this stage of life not to be socializing with a rising junior in college. They go to lunch together and are very friendly to her, but at the end of the day and on weekends, she is by herself in an efficiency unit. Welcome to the world of work. Her supervisor has been very positive with her and I think that has helped a lot. </p>

<p>What has been heartwarming to me is that she has become so much more mature. She has not complained one time about the situation. She has said it would be nice to have someone her age to do things with, but she has been such a good sport about it. </p>

<p>As a result, I have resisted every urge to problem solve for her. I guess I am getting more mature as well. She calls most days as she travels home from work and I get much longer skypes over the weekend. She even told me she was ironing this weekend. Trust me, that is a skill set that was totally absent prior to this summer!!</p>

<p>So, all in all, it has been productive, not particularly glamourous, but certainly an experience that has helped her mature.</p>

4

<p>WNP, if it’s any consolation, that same profile of work/social life fit my D for the first six months or so of her first job after graduation. College has a built-in social life, the workplace usually doesn’t. Between being exhausted from the last semester of college, moving to a new city and starting a job while taking a month to find a permanent place to live while living in a friends’ parents’ basement “extra room” at a long commuting distance away, D just didn’t have much of a social life, especially since the students she knew locally were back at college come Fall, a year or two behind her. She’s finally been getting out and developing a social network but it’s taken most of a year.</p>

<p>And ditto what you said about the maturing process.</p>

5

<p>My S1 graduated on Friday June 19 from HS, turned 18 on June 20, and started 10 week internship at Wall Street on June 22 (mon). These dates were important, since the internship offer was made and then withheld when they realized that by the time the internship starts for everybody else (June 1), he is still in high school and not 18 yet (company policy). Then they made an exception and let him start as soon as he graduates form HS and turns 18.</p>

<p>He got this internship because he won an economics scholarship competition sponsored by the company, and then he hustled with a senior HR executive who came to the award ceremony. </p>

<p>He commutes to Manhattan from NJ.</p>

<p>So far, it’s going great. The other interns are few years older than he, but that does not seem to be a problem. He got very meaningful projects that he can clearly point to as a fruit of his labor by the time he is done with them. He already had a breakfast with COO, lunch with a senior HR exec who got him in, and was invited to a meeting of CEO and senior executives (he was the only non-executive in the room). </p>

<p>It did help that he self-studied intensely last two years in the area of economics and international finance, so he could follow a good portion of the meeting discussions and shop talks. </p>

<p>Meanwhile, he is learning how to “behave and act” in a professional setting, how to “read” people, how to “navigate” in the organization. Every night when he comes home, he goes through his interactions with various people in the organization and asks our “reading” of the situation and see whether he got the right picture or not. A lot of heavy duty discussion on organizational behavior and office politics based on the experience of me and my husband and talks about relevant parallels in his situation. It’s been a bonding experience.</p>

<p>As a parent, it’s very satisfying to see him so enthusiastic, motivated and focused. He is now trying to see if he can extend the internship beyond 10 weeks till a day before he has to head out to college (the school has a quarter system, and does not start until the third week of Sept).</p>

<p>The fact that he did not do things needed to build up his college application package while he was dancing to his own tune and pursuing his own interest in an unorthodox way did cost him HYP admission due to the lack of “demonstrable” ECs. But in the end, I think it worked out fine, given how much enthusiasm and maturity he brings to what he is passionate about.</p>

6

<p>WNP – I’m going to agree that your D’s social experience is very common at work; even though she’s probably only a few years younger than her youngest co-workers, they may just be at different places in their lives and have a more established life in their city such that they aren’t really adding to their “friend group.” That being said, if she gets along with some of the younger people at work, she should not hesitate to invite a few people to grab dinner or to go to an event in her city. Often people don’t invite because they assume that others have busy lives outside the office – they don’t realize that sometimes others are hanging out in their apartments, just like they are. She can shoot out an email to a few people along the lines of “I was considering attending this event, does anyone want to join.” There may be others who are going to the same event, or even if they can’t join that time, they may end up wanting to hang out some other time.</p>

7

<p>DS seems to be doing well after just two weeks. The first few days of his internship was spent preparing for the other interns to arrive. Last week was spent getting to know the company, learning about their business model and touring various company locations. Yesterday he was assigned his project and was pleased to be assigned to his first choice. It seems the interns and co-workers go out after work frequently and on the weekends. He’s had his first beer(and then some), gone to a karaoke bar, and stayed out all night going from club to club. The drinking age is 20 so its taking this mom a little time to get used to the idea DS going out and drinking. The biggest surprise was that his company is business casual - no suits, no ties(everyone had said that suits were necessary in Japan). Thankfully before he left, we bought some more casual work clothes in addition to two suits.</p>

8

<p>S seems happy at his internship at NASA. He says they are given a lot of flexibility & can decide now much to work or slack. He’s using any time he’s not working to study for the GREs & LSATs. Has not complained about his internship at all to date (except the landlord & how far away the decent grocery stores are). </p>

<p>D starts her (paid) internship tomorrow & is somewhat nervous. She & her boss will be figuring it out as they go, as he hired her as a favor and hadn’t really expected an intern this summer. She’s excited & it should be interesting.</p>

9

<p>Mixed bag. My daughter has had the opportunity to do a significant amount of substantive work at her unpaid internship, but there are also days when she and the other intern who shares her office have absolutely nothing to do, so they sit at their desks and surf the Internet. </p>

<p>Nevertheless, she prefers this year’s internship to last year’s, where there was more work but a lot of it was very routine office work.</p>

10

<p>My son is in his fifth week as an intern at a major pharmaceutical company and seems to be doing very well. The company has him paired with a chief scientist who sees to it that he has a regular workload (electron microscopy studies) and reports to write. My son also attends seminars that the company puts on, some scientific in nature, some put on by Human Resources on career related topics. He is pleased with the fact that he is working with some very high level/expensive equipment that he would not have the opportunity to work with up at his college, even as a junior chemical engineering major. He also is being paid reasonably well compared to the grocery deli he slaved at all last summer. All in all, the company clearly has a well thought out internship program. </p>

<p>At age 20, my son is by far the youngest person in his lab but says everyone is friendly etc. He has learned a lot about large company operations and corporate “red tape”. He commutes over 60 miles each way from our house and it is amazing to me to hear him getting ready for work at 5:30AM each day when I know 9AM classes up at school are an annoyance to him. Most days, he carpools with someone from our town who puts in very long days so my son does his 40 plus hours Monday through Thursdays and has it set up so he does not work on Fridays. So, 3 day weekends every week. Some days he drives himself to work mostly by interstate highway, no problem. All in all, a very good experience.</p>

11

<p>The Dad - agreed. I think it is always a bit of an adjustment going from the fast paced, ever available social life of college to the more mundane existence of work. </p>

<p>Another temporary benefit of this internship is that she is on an adult sleep cycle - she goes to bed at 10:30, gets up early. No wonder we are in more frequent communication, we are awake at the same time!</p>

<p>AJ - I think that is exactly what is happening. I can tell from her conversations with me that she talks a lot to her coworkers at lunch, sometimes they eat at the office, other times they go out for lunch. They seem to enjoy each other very much. I don’t think it has dawned on these people just how isolated she is. She is in a new town, she uses public transportation, and her efficiency is a little isolated - and DD would never complain about those things to others. Frankly, what she has learned from this experience will never show up on a resume, but it will be a great benefit to her as an independent person.</p>

12

<p>PS - thanks to this thread I realized yesterday she would have a 3 day weekend coming up. Offered to buy her a ticket to come home, she thanked me then asked if we would be willing to put that money towards a ticket to her college so she could visit with friends (and BF) who are on campus for the weekend. I was feeling particularly weak so I said yes. She is so excited - a reprieve from a long weekend at efficiency AND a chance to see BF on campus.</p>

13

<p>S1 is enjoying his job a great deal. His prof comes in late in the morning and stays late, so their schedules are compatible. He is working with another student, and that seems to be working out well, too. The project involves programming, some theory and applying the philosophy/social sciences stuff he has been drinking up at Chicago. </p>

<p>He is subletting a room in a graduate dorm (a new building w/A/C and is rather nice) and it sounds like it’s pretty quiet. OTOH, several of his friends are at RSI and doing research at other schools in the area, so he has a nice group of contemporaries he’s been hanging around with. There is dancing at MIT weekly, which he enjoys greatly. Next weekend he is coming home to a brief visit (hurray!), he is heading to a reunion of his math program in central MA in a couple of weeks, and he has talked about going to visit a young woman he is seeing. Like others have mentioned, we can actually reach him by phone these days!</p>

<p>He loves Boston, misses Chicago terribly, but feels he has gotten the best of both worlds with the combo of Chicago and MIT. We will get him for three weeks when his position ends 9/1. We miss him a lot, but this was an incredible opportunity with a prof he respects and admires, and the social end of things seems to be working out much better than any of us anticipated.</p>

14

<p>My d. has a fantastic internship this summer, and a great social life. Her internship (in DC) has brought her into contact with individuals across the U.S. and the world, and a very large part of the Washington, DC press corps. Virtually none of her work has been routine, as she has helped plan conferences and events taking place across the U.S., and any down time is taken up with taking down and writing up civil rights and civil liberties complaints. There have also been meetings with White House and Congressional staffers, and joint meetings with other DC organizations. Her organization has also organized time for interns to learn how best to seek jobs and internships in similar capacities during the school year. She has also had many opportunities to use her Arabic. She is the only first-year student there - most of the rest are juniors, seniors, and grad students. She has also been holding down another job at the University.</p>

<p>She is living in Alexandria with her uncle, and has learned the transit systems of DC really well. She has gone to Diana Krall and Jamie Cullum concerts (went to New York for it), and has tickets for BB King, and has many friends from school, from her internship, and from her previous foreign travels all around her (with whom she is plotting many more, and they seem to change daily.) She also joined a gym. </p>

<p>We’ll see her for two weeks in August (which will also much be taken up with dental work.)</p>

15

<p>my ds has a fabulous internship at his university. He is in week 8, doing physics research in a lab and is being paid. He lives in a senior townhouse, which for him coming from a freshman dorm is grand. I thought he might have trouble making non-work friends, but it has worked out great, he has made many friends in his townhouse and others surrounding. I thought it would be a good opportunity for him to learn work skills. He apparently has trained his boss to expect him at 11 am, but he works til 7. He described his summer in one word last night “uncomplicated”. He sent a picture of the device he is building, and it was thrilling to see what this kid can do. I offered to bring him home this weekend, but he preferred to use the money so his dad can take him back to college and he wont have to go it alone.</p>

16

<p>It’s so cool to read about everyone’s internship experiences!</p>

<p>I think this counts. My son is doing a six-week research project at the local State U. He’s only a few miles away but living on-campus. It’s unpaid except for the university-owned apartment, which he shares with a couple of other kids from his high school.</p>

<p>It was a little rough the first week, because he was somehow expecting to do something ground-breaking and entirely of his own design. I had to hammer it into his skull that, duh, it’s an internship! You’re there to learn from others who know what they’re doing. It’s unreasonable to expect to make the next great scientific breakthrough without any mentoring or previous exposure to the field.</p>

<p>Now that that has sunk in, it’s going smoothly.</p>

17

<p>In general, do internships come with some sort of housing accommodating? </p>

<p>My son is now commuting from our home in NJ to the Wall Street. Though we would have been happy even if it were an unpaid internship, it’s great that it pays him enough that after all the commuting expenses etc, he could still save enough for the whole year’s worth of spending money in college and a couple of fun vacation trips with friends. However, if he were to pay out of his pocket for housing near Manhattan, I believe it would be a negative cash flow event.</p>

<p>Next year, he may be interested in aiming for the treasury department internship in DC, or some type of other internship opportunities that may take him out of the NJ/NYC area and am wondering if we need to “finance” that in addition to the exorbitant tuition we will pay for the college.</p>

18

<p>The Treasury Department internships (or at least those within OCC) in DC pay very well. They do not come with any housing.</p>

19

<p>My bank also doesn’t pay for housing. They have arrangement with NYU, but it’s intern’s responsibility to pay for room and board. Housing in NYc is around 3-4000. Our interns after expenses still have good amt left over.</p>

20

<p>DD ended up with 2 opportunities at the last minute. The day after graduation she had no prospects but a summer at home and looking for a fall job. Then she got an offer for a summer position and a 6 month (with potential extension to 12) position.</p>

<p>She took the long term one, she rented a room in a house sight unseen via Craigslist and drove off to a new adventure.</p>

<p>The good news for her is the job is in a university lab so their are students around, her room is in a house of students and she knows a few people who live in that city so the social thing is easy.</p>

<p>I recall my first post HS job in a bank, not a high powered internship, just a teller. ZAll those old women (they had to be at least 30!) were not interesting to me, there was no real common ground, so I can understand the awkwardness of the situation for those kids working with the over 30 crowd.</p>

<p>DD is not making enough to get rich, but certainly enough to pay her own way and maybe save a little and she is very excited about the actual work and the lab situation.</p>

<p>It has been a whole two days and she is exhausted at the end of the day, especially in heels, but having a wonderful time. Her description of the first day of training, when the girl she replaced spent one day training her was like an 8 hour OChem lecture with the final the next day- way too much information to know what to do with it all yet.</p>