<p>I’m a rising freshman at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern, and although I know it’s not really necessary, I’m interested in pursuing some sort of summer internship or job next summer as a rising sophomore. However, my family wants to go on a 2 week vacation shortly after I get out of classes from the end of June to the middle of July (I get out in middle of June not May because I’m on the quarter system). Would this destroy any chance of landing some sort of job or internship in the summer, or would an employer allow for a 2 week vacation towards the beginning of an internship? </p>
<p>Also, I do know that my brother, who is currently a rising sophomore, had a online job this summer and was able to get more than 2 weeks off for vacation from the middle of July to August. </p>
<p>Perhaps they would be more accepting of you leaving the internship early rather than coming in late and missing the first weeks.
Is your family flexible enough to take a vacation after your internship and the 2 weeks before you go back to school?</p>
<p>It’s a cruise so that wouldn’t be possible unfortunately 
</p>
<p>Bumpp</p>
<p>Honestly I think it is too long. Your break is probably only 8-10 weeks to begin with right?</p>
<p>Nooooo my break is a full length summer it just ends later and starts later. I finish freshman year June 12th, and I start sophomore year September 23rd I believe. </p>
<p>This is a problem for lots of families. And yours may decide that family comes first and that the vacation is more important than an internship you don’t even have yet.</p>
<p>You will only be finishing your freshman year. I would say you shouldn’t worry about it, but work hard to get some kind of internship or resume-worthy job for the next summer. Having said that, I don’t know what most Medill kids do these days. When I was there we all just went home and waited tables since we knew we wouldn’t be making any money when we graduated.:)</p>
<p>I have run few summer internships. They usually start mid Jun to first week or two of Aug, usually by end of Jun they are in full swing. If it is a structured internship they wouldn’t want you to take 2 weeks off. On the other hand, you are only a freshman, so having an internship is not going to be as important, especially if you do not need the money.</p>
<p>Our kids didn’t get internships after freshman year, but more power to you if you are able to. It is tougher getting internships when you have dates you are unavailable, but if you’re up front about it, sometimes it works. S was able to do research when a rising JR where he took a month off (all of July). He turned down an internship of 12 weeks at local electric company who felt him taking a month off was unreasonable. When he was a rising SR. he worked at NASA and was able to take 2 weeks off as long as he completed 10 weeks of internship. He just started earlier and they worked it out. </p>
<p>I’d say start searching for your summer internship as early as possible (now is not too soon) and be very candid about your dates and limitations so there are no hard feelings and surprises.</p>
<p>@oldfort Thank you for giving me a brutally honest answer. So I know it would be difficult to acquire an internship with a 2 week vacation, but would I be able to work with a 1 week vacation around the end of June/start of July?
Additionally, are there internships that start in July and end in September? I feel like there should be internships like that in order to appeal to college students like me that have a different school schedule than most other students, but I could very well be wrong. Thanks in advance</p>
<p>@sally305 I can’t really tell if your response was meant to be sarcastic, but you put a smiley face at the end of ti so I’m going to assume that it is. What do you do these days, now that you’re a proud Medill graduate? :)</p>
<p>I’ve gone to the dark side…marketing. :)</p>
<p>@HImom Thank you for your response, for it has given me a glimmer of hope. From your experience, do you know whether other employers have a similar system to that of NASA, or are you not sure of it? The way NASA handled the situation strikes me as the most sensible. After all, the quarter system at Northwestern has us finishing classes around the time most internships are supposed to commence. This doesn’t seem fair to me because we don’t get to catch a break before tackling something as demanding and important as an internship. However, from what I’ve read, it appears that the way NASA handled the situation for your children is uncommon. </p>
<p>@sally305 Ahh interesting. So were you an IMC (Integrated Marketing Comm.) major during your glory days at Medill? Or did you go into marketing with a degree in Journalism? See, I’m having an internal dilemma right now trying to decide whether I want to major in Journalism or IMC. Double majoring came to my mind, but I realized how rigorous my course load would be if I were to do that. I’m also wondering whether it’s possible for me to graduate with a degree in Journalism, and then go into something related to public relations, communications, or marketing. Maybe as a former Medillian, you’d have some pertinent insight? </p>
<p>Gerry, I’ll send you a PM. </p>
<p>Unless you are working for a family business, it is kind of hard to have your internship and a vacation the way you want it.</p>
<p>OTOH, if you are planning to work on an unpaid internship, I suspect it might be possible to set your own schedule.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/career-services/offering/recruit-medill-journalism-interns.html”>http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/career-services/offering/recruit-medill-journalism-interns.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“mailto:medillcareerservices@northwestern.edu”>medillcareerservices@northwestern.edu</a> - you should contact your school to see if there are some companies that allow you to do it your way.</p>
<p>OP - it is a real internship, you are required to be there for the duration. They’ll take someone else if you couldn’t be there for full time because the internship is so short. We always scheduled family vacation end of May or the first week of Jun. If your parents want you to go on vacation with them then they’ll need to plan it end of Aug because of your schedule.</p>
<p>@sally305 Please do kind sir! :)</p>
<p>@texaspg so unpaid internships are much more flexible than paid internships, I take it? Are unpaid internships more similar to job shadowing? </p>