Taking a week off during an internship?

chrisw
Tue, 21 Jun 2016 01:30:19 +0000

If you’re in high school, summer employers are more likely to give you some flexibility (a family is not that likely to leave a 16-year-old home alone for a week… I can think of at least five reasons why not…just based on personal experience! As a result, employers get it and realize it is what it is).

True internships are less likely to be flexible - if you have 12 weeks to develop skills, skipping out on almost 10% of that time would put you at a disadvantage relative to your peers and would prevent the company from being able to make an apples-to-apples assessment about your hireability for full time employment or for a future internship.

Research jobs are likely to be flexible - typically the person doing the primary research has a relatively long timeframe, so missed effort for one week over the course of a 5-year project isn’t all that important. Regular jobs may have some flexibility or may not.

When I was a freshman in college, I secured a job at a restaurant at a beach resort, but I was going to be away for the start of the season - Memorial Day Weekend. I got a call while I was away to inform me that my services wouldn’t be needed that summer! I wound up getting a job at a different restaurant in the same area (a restaurant that had just opened) and proved my worth to them over the course of the summer. The next year, they had no problem with my missing the first week of the season AND were fully supportive of going away to Germany for a month. They even gave me a bed frame, some pots and pans, and some plates for when I moved back into school junior year.

Long story short, your mileage may vary.