<p>“but at the end of the day, working a cash register at Walmart is by no means considered “more real work” than pushing paper at GE Financial. Both are menial jobs that mean relatively little in the short run.”</p>
<p>Either job can mean a lot in the longterm because they can give a person information about themselves and the world that can help them develop skills and interests that lead to a successful career (which may not be related directly to corporate life). In the short term, the cash register job is likely to have an impact on a store’s bottom line. Done well, it could boost profits; done poorly, it could reduce profits. An “internship” given as a favor – not due to the employee’s skill – is likely to have no impact on the bottom line except that their wages will decrease profit.</p>
<p>A person who gets an “internship” through family connections, isn’t likely to be held to the same standards as would a person who gets a job because a business needs employees. The person who gets an “internship” as a favor isn’t as like to have to do hard work, truly boring work or anything else that might hurt the relationship of their parents with whatever friend or relative lined up the job.</p>
<p>Still, working some kind of job --including an internship obtained via family connections – is better than doing nothing over the summer, and is rarer for HPY applicants than is taking summer courses.</p>