<p>I’m really excited about this summer, except I have to make a really big decision that will impact how well it goes.</p>
<p>So I interned at Microsoft last summer and had a blast, learned a lot, met amazing people and learned so much about the company. I was asked to come back and intern again this summer, which suprised me and now I don’t know if I should accept.</p>
<p>Before you say of course I should, I was planning on relaxing the summer before college and hanging out with friends/traveling. If I interned again this summer, it would cut out a lot of that because the internship requires you to work 40 hours a week, m-f.</p>
<p>So the question I have is, will you guys work full-time this summer, or is it good to take it easy the summer before college? </p>
<p>Its a tough decision because the thing is I’ve already interned there and I don’t even think I want to major in computer science so maybe I shouldn’t. Am I being lazy and missing out on a great opportunity by choosing to sleep in the summer days instead of waking up at 6AM every morning?
The extra money would be nice but I could easily get a small part-time job and save some money.</p>
<p>My mom thinks I’m being lazy but how important do you think it is to relax the summer before college?</p>
<p>chill dude, its your summer before college. If you already did the internship, it would just be the same routine. Try something new, do other things, and yeah its ok to sleep in this summer because you are going to have a lot of nights without sleep at Yale in the fall.</p>
<p>You got into Yale my friend. Now granted you can’t predict success in life but that’s one hell of a foundation you got established there; relax.</p>
<p>A lot of kids arrive at the top school exhausted by getting into the schools in the first place. Don’t be one of them.</p>
<p>It doesn’t mean you should spend your days vedging about, just that you should enjoy yourself and relaaax. Not everyone has that option, count yourself lucky.</p>
<p>An internship might be the right way. Or if you’re really into that whole self-abuse thing it could be to spend your days watching Maury, the View, Judge Judy, Doctor Phil, the Tyra Banks show, Oprah, and Doctor Phil again. Whatever it is, be sure to enjoy yourself so you enter Yale fresh and ready.</p>
<p>I say chill, as long as you will do something–some travel, some volunteering, maybe. In the long term, you’ll be glad you did. As you say, you’ve done the internship. (I’m assuming you don’t need the pay.)
If you worked hard enough to get into Yale, I think you’re probably not very lazy.</p>
<p>Eh…I really do recommend getting a job, even if it’s part-time. You’re going to want work experience later on, and spending a summer vegging out is not exactly seen as “productive” by prospective employers. Just work at the mall or a coffee shop for 4-5 hours a day…trust me, it’ll be worth it later on.</p>
<p>I’m sorry but a coffee shop job doesn’t make employers wet themselves at the prospect either. I think you have a pretty solid resume basis with that internship (nd the whole Yale thing). But that’s just me. :)</p>
<p>Employers are going to be more interested in what you did during the last couple of summers of college than they will be in what you did between high school and college. If anybody asks you, tell them you did a lot of reading to get better prepared for college (not a bad idea, by the way).</p>
<p><em>sigh</em>…people on this forum. Not every job you have has to be “prestigious”…employers LIKE it when you demonstrate that you can handle an 8-hour-a-day job, even if it’s in a coffee shop. It really does make future jobs easier to get, trust me. A non-prestigious job is still very helpful. I’m pretty convinced that my work experience helped me land cool opportunities this summer.</p>
<p>Would you mind telling us about your cool opportunities, mochamaven? That would be helpful for students still deciding between Yale and other schools.</p>
<p>You’re being ridiculous. Nobody said anything about job prestige on this thread. The OP asked if he should work or relax this summer after two grueling years of working to get into Yale in the first place.</p>
<p>The general advice given was that he should/could relax for a summer. Period. Not “…if you don’t get a prestigious job”. * You * came into the thread and said that he should find a summer part-time job to be “seen as productive by prospective employers”. And as a guy who’s worked every summer since being in college for two years I replied that employers for future summer internships/jobs and the likes won’t care whether or not he served tacos at the mall or simply did not work for that one summer between HS and college.</p>
<p>NOT when he already has the work experience of a full-time internship at Microsoft the previous summer. You thinking that future employers are going to pick up a resume from a Yale student with a full-time Microsoft internship and go “gee…I don’t think he’s worked at enough malls and coffeeshop to have real-work experience” is just freaking silly.</p>
<p>I think you’re the one misviewing the work market here from your own experience instead of applying logic. The advice had nothing to do with work Prestige :rolleyes: …just whether or not he could afford a summer to chill before Yale.</p>
<p>I think mochamaven is correct in saying that if you want to be as competitive as possible for internships while you are at Yale, then any experience is good experience. It all adds up to a picture of someone who takes their opportunities and is not afraid to work, and it gives you something to say to the “what did you do last summer?” question which certainly as a freshman I have been asked when applying for internships for this summer. </p>
<p>This is particularly the case if you want one of the internships that are specifically for Yale students because then you are competing against other people who have worked just as hard as you to get into Yale, who just like you have Yale on their resume, and who likely have done other internships/jobs just like you have.</p>
<p>I worked during the summer, but mainly because I needed to earn money. If earning money is less of a concern for you, I would say my ideal situation would be to work (or volunteer) at the beginning of summer and chill toward the end so that you begin Yale refreshed, have had some time to see friends before you go, etc, but you have still done something constructive with the break.</p>