To Intern or Not To Intern? Share your experiences.
bcx: I think it depends on what you want to do.  If you want to work at a company there is no better way to get an in, then to do an internship that that company and show that you are really good and add value.  This applies to both young startups and large companies.At the same time there are some nice advantages to interning at a large company with an established internship program.  1) You'll meet other interns who are really good developers from all over the country, so if you want to launch a startup in the future you'll have a good talent pool. 2) You'll learn more about the corporate culture and procedures of larger companies, which will give you insight into the types of things to look out for when your young startup becomes a larger company. 3) You'll have a better idea for sure whether you want to do startups or corporate jobs in the future.It doesn't sound like you interned at a company with an established internship program, as most companies with good internship programs use them as a recruiting and pre-screening process for hiring full time employees, so they try to give you something engaging to do.Of course on the other hand interning at a small startup might give you more of an opportunity to release code to the world really early in the process.  But you'll definitely have less potential other interns to hang out with, and may have to work as hard as the founders to be respected.