<p>My S called yesterday and told me that he was offered an internship. The problem is that it’s a year long internship (from August to August). He’s a junior engineering student. He’s really wrestling with this decision so I decided to ask CC and see what others thought of this.</p>
<p>He went to the career fair and had two interviews there and sent his resume to another dozen or so. He heard that someone else received an offer from the other company so he thinks that company has made a decision although he’s going to call their HR and see. He has not been contacted by any of the other companies.</p>
<p>He’s trying to decide weather or not to consider this offer. The company seems stable (makes equipment for the military and others). The department that he would be in is small so he feels that he would have a lot of interesting projects and hopefully more responsibility than at a bigger facility. He doesn’t seem that concerned about missing a year of school as many of his friends will be there for 5 years but he will miss some of the people that he is friends with.</p>
<p>The pay is quite good, he would make over $40,000 for the year. He doesn’t know what benefits he would have but I told him that the internship would have to offer health care or he would not be able to take it as our insurance would not cover him if he’s not in school full time. I don’t worry about him not going back to school. He’s very focused and committed and he would have to finish his degree to get a job.</p>
<p>The big reason he is considering this offer is that he doesn’t know what the economy will bring, that the work seems really interesting and the company is intriguing. He’s afraid that if he doesn’t accept this offer there will not be other offers. He had an internship last summer that he thought he would have again this summer but they have discontinued their internship program. Most of the companies that he is interested in and are in his field are manufacturing companies in the midwest.</p>
<p>Can anyone think of any other things for my son to consider? What are the pro and cons of taking a year long internship? </p>
<p>Also we have another child in college who has considerable need based aid. Would her brother making a large amount of money affect her financial aid?</p>
<p>I don’t know the answers to your questions, but I think your son deserves hearty congratulations for the offer he has received. Should he decide to take it, I think it will be a valuable addition to his resume after he graduates and seeks ft employment - an argument in favor of taking the job. But I don’t know how to weigh the various pros and cons.</p>
<p>Is this opportunity within commuting distance of his current school? Could he do it part-time and obtain any credit for it as some sort of independent study?</p>
<p>I think it sounds good. I don’t know what the outlook for engineering is, but in this environment I’m encouraging my daughter to take longer to graduate (she attends a state school so tuition etc are not a big deal in comparison with private schools) and get more internships so she’s better equipped and connected when she graduates. Once a student graduates, there are no more internship opportunities. One of our friend’s daughters ran into this. she was a runner-up for a J&J internship in her junior year; she inquired again after graduating and they would have taken her if she hadn’t already graduated. Now for the past year or so she has been working in a temporary marketing position at a diagnostics laboratory.</p>
<p>It sounds like a wonderful offer. A coworker told me that companies prefer a half a year or more for internships so that they can get something back from their investment in training. Doing a summer internship means the company is lucky if they can get some productivity out of an intern.</p>
<p>You could see if the company is willing to pay for part-time schooling or maybe a year or two of college fulltime with summers at the company. It sounds like a great opportunity and it would give him a leg up with experience in the job market.</p>
<p>Health insurance, as you pointed out, would be a must. As far as your other child, his brothers earnings would not affect anything however with only one in college your EFC would probably go up so in that sense it would affect your younger child’s aid.<br>
Are there any issues with the school he is currently attending? Do they have a policy which would allow for the leave? Would leaving and returning jeopardize his housing options in any way?<br>
Is he receiving any scholarships that would not be renewable after the leave?
Are there costs associated with the internship? Transportation? Clothing? Housing? Would he be living at home during this time and are you good with that?
40k sounds like a lot but that is a pretax figure and if he is going to have to add on costs for transportation, housing, clothing, etc. it isn’t really 40K.</p>
<p>I am having difficulty seeing the downside to this situation. Seems like a wonderful opportunity that will be great for his future. So long as he can take the year off and come back at it, may be perfect.</p>
<p>Well, if it were my S I’d discourage him from accepting this one and suggest he keep pursuing other opportunities. I think he’s better off focusing on school right now and getting that done with. Internships in the summer and part time internships (within reason) during the school year are fine but I don’t think he should take a year off of school for one. </p>
<p>Some potential issues -
Deciding that he’s doing ‘fine’ where he’s at and never resuming school and foregoing his degree. This can happen when they get used to the money, sometimes leverage themselves to that level (apartment, car, etc.), and don’t really want to go back to the college lifestyle. This assumes the company he’d be interning at would offer him a permanent position without the need for the degree.
Losing momentum on his studies - i.e. a break in an engineering degree can cause one to forget a certain amount of material.
This delays his entry into the workforce by a year and he’ll lose income as a result. It’s somewhat counterbalanced by the $40k paid internship but that’s actually low, at least for CS majors.</p>
<p>I think he should stick with school and work in the internships in the summer. Many companies expect to provide internships only during the summer or part time during the year so the student can continue their studies.</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone’s advice. It sounds like most think that this would be a great opportunity. He does have an out of state scholarship but that would not be affected. His school is very supportive of co-ops and internships, it would be no problem as far as that goes. I think that he would have enough friends still around that housing would not be a problem, many engineering students take 5 years and housing is plentiful.</p>
<p>We do not know what the internship offers as far as benefits go. He said that they do offer relocation and a $3500 bonus. He would have to purchase a car but I’m sure he could do that with the bonus. The company is in a small town and my S is very frugal, so I imagine he would not expect to spend too much on housing. The company is not in the town that we live in and it’s not close to his school. Maybe he could find a roomate to share an apartment with, I really don’t know now. </p>
<p>I told my S to inquire if the company will fly him in for a weekend so he can see the plant and the town. I also told him that I would be happy to drive him there so that we can see the town and if he would be happy living there for a year. Hopefully one of those options will work.</p>
<p>ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad, what you said was how his father and I thought at first. That he would just postpone his entry into full time employment for a year. Yes, $40,000 is low for his major (material science) and I do wonder if he will have problems coming back for his senior year. </p>
<p>He’s mostly afraid that with the economy the way it is that companies will drastically reduce their summer interns. His dad told him the other day that we don’t mind if he turns this down and doesn’t get a summer internship. That finishing school is the objective and all we ask if that he tries his best.</p>
<p>The thing that would most concern me is that the company is a manufacturing operation in the MW. I would advise my kid to think hard about developing expertise in such companies as the future for them is bleak.</p>
<p>hmom makes a good point. I’ll make one more. My son at NEU has done some 6 month coops. One thing he mentioned is that some of the companies seem to use the internships/coops as a way to avoid more permanent hires. They get an intern at a much lower rate and with way fewer benefits than a permanent hire and then they dump as much work as they can on them.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Loneliness. Yes, he might need to face this eventually but heading to a small town in the midwest away fom family and friends to live on his own (or with an unknown roommate) for a year at his age might end up to be not so exciting once he actually gets there and settles in.</p></li>
<li><p>Regarding internships dwindling due to the economy - I don’t know what they’ll generally do but there may be some companies that will ‘increase’ their programs so they can get less expensive employees. Also, not all industries are as affected. Consider the defense industry as well as a number of others.</p></li>
<li><p>Not everyone ‘needs’ the internship. I do recommend them, especially for engineering majors, but they’re not required in order to land a decent job. There are plenty of students who get good jobs despite not having had an internship.</p></li>
<li><p>The job outlook when he graduates a couple of years from now will likely be quite different than the perceived one now (if one watches the news too much).</p></li>
<li><p>If he skips this one and he’s unable to get a decent internship elsewhere for the summer, maybe he can consider doing a study-abroad in the summer if he’s interested and it’s financially viable and he hasn’t done a study-abroad yet. </p></li>
<li><p>It seems kind of early to be landing internships for next summer. He still has time to find other opportunities.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Thank you to everyone who has replied. These are things I will talk to him about when the employment package arrives. </p>
<p>uscd<em>ucla</em>dad, thank you for saying that it’s a little early for summer internships. His dad thinks that he is panicking a little bit and taking the first offer that comes. My S does wonder if he delays graduating for a year that it might be an advantage as the economy might improve. </p>
<p>I do think that this company does hire from their interns. My S did say that the person who interviewed him was an intern who the company hired. His last internship he felt did hire interns as cheap labor. He does think that MSE majors have a good outlooks for jobs as there are not very many of them. I think that he has less than 25 in his class and that is typical for most schools.</p>
<p>1) If the job sucks he’s there for a year. A six month time frame is far superior.
2) The pay isn’t <em>that</em> good, but I’m not aware of your market in the Midwest.
3) Big loss of income due to the missed 6 months of full time work.</p>
<p>I’d attempt to get it reduced to a 6 month time frame.</p>
<p>FWIW: Our engineering student son has 3 internship offers in hand for next summer. I, too, am surprised at the timing, but it would seem that it is not unusual.</p>
<p>If the going rate for an engineer is 50 or 60,000, why should he work a whole year for 40,000? Wouldn’t he be better off to finish school as soon as possible to make what an engineer should make? The question is would he take this job if it’s a permanent position? If not, why spend a year there? I would have my kid finish school then find a job where she would want to live.</p>
<p>rereading my last post: I do not intend to dispute the statement that he still has time. I just mention that it is not unusual for offers to be received this early.</p>
Yes, my engineering student (CS) D also had a couple of pretty early offers but the internship offers generally seem to continue into the spring. There can be a problem when the offers are too early - the student may be reluctant to accept so early since more choices may be had later and the company may miss out on a good candidate as a result. </p>
<p>The type of engineering major, geography, and particular college will have an impact on the offers as well.</p>
<p>edited to add - mafool - I agree with you. Some offers can be there now (depending on the above) but often more opportunities will come later in the year. mafool, it sounds as if your S is in a good position - i.e. he can choose!</p>