To Intern or Not To Intern? Share your experiences.
JimmyL: I interned at a large company - there's a good chance you have one of their products in your pocket right now - a few summers ago, and a had a really great experience. I ended up being able to do much more than my initial position promised, and the other members of my team were all about mentoring and helping me grow. Like many things we do, it's somewhat of a crapshoot - but if you work hard, act like you're a full-time employee (and demand to be treated like one), and contribute, you should hopefully end up with a good experience.Something to look out for is also the number of interns that the company has; I would say that more is better. Not only will you have a peer group of fellow young ambitious people to network with, but if there's a large intern population then it's likely that the company has spent some time and effort devising programs for internship mentors, giving them time to do that in their plans, etc. - whereas if they're not used to having interns, they may just throw you at shitty work and hope you figure things out and be the squeaky wheel as needed.Also +1 to wmf about connections. If you have a successful internship (and this is especially the case with large companies), you're very likely to be offered a position to come back when you graduate, or at least have a serious leg up on the competition. They know you, you're trained in company procedures, and you're in the system already, so it's cheaper to hire and on-board you as opposed to some random they picked up. Even if you don't want to, you'll make some good connections to the managers in your area (as well as others, if you make an effort) who will provide valuable references for future employment, as well as networking jump-off points.