<p>I never realised working was considered an EC, I just thought it was something you were supposed to do as a kid to pay for what you wanted?</p>
<p>Your best bet is to get a job but also do the internship. While some might say “oh your parents hooked it up” it really doesn’t matter. It is still quite impressive to be able to have the opportunity to intern at a fortune 500 company. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.</p>
<p>In my opinion, I think everything is going to help and you should do whatever you can to help separate yourself from the rest. You never know what kind of connections you could make while interning there, who knows if you work hard you could really impress some people and possibly get yourself some very impressive letters of recommendation. With every decision you make and every time you get yourself in the real world you find you are opening new doors and new opportunity, even if you don’t see it at the current time. You never know, the customer you go out of your way for one day might just be the person who’s interviewing you or offering you a job. Plus, it’s almost disgusting talking to some 20 year olds who have never had a job… they just have no clue how the world works or what life entitles.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, I think you are being far too critical of him getting it through family connections. Many jobs are received through different connections, if you weren’t to utilize connections throughout your life I feel it would be quite assinine. The OP has the opportunity to be interning at a fortune 500 company and you are belittling it by stating its only because of family connetions. I think you are being a bit too harsh on the subject and looking over the value of being able to intern there at all. It doesn’t matter how it was obtained, what matter is the OP will have experience in that field now. I’ll tell you what, I’d take the person with experience due to family connection (who is also a good student) over the student with no experience at all.</p>
<p>But all this talk about internships, its time for me to go interview for an internship as a chemist … :D</p>