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When is the best time to apply for internships?

What are the pros and cons for a college student to spend time on travel instead of summer internships or even a semester off?

  • For those who passed on gap year, there'll never be a better time in life for this kind of thing. It might be the last time it's even possible. The costs of taking time to backpack around the world only increase. Still, there are costs. How important are summer internships when applying for jobs? What about leaving college for a term (given you have the credits, still graduating as scheduled)? Looking forward to answers that consider this in both career and personal development.

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    NOTE: Majority of these advices have been given thinking in mind that the question is asked by an Indian student. Hi, First of all thanks for raising this question. I am an IIT-Delhi alumnus and have been through the internships-during-summer process a couple of times: once, at the University of Glasgow, UK and the other at DRDO, New Delhi. As both my internships had been technical(rather than cultural), I could not fulfill the very same desire of travelling earlier and somehow, my destiny made me opt out of campus placements and now incidentally, I'm a professional traveller. I'm presuming you are undergoing engineering right now, and for that, I would like to add that internships play a pivotal part in getting you job. Internships in big reputed companies are seen as a spike in your CV. If your career goal lies in going for the technical line(IT/CS), getting an internship in prominent IT companies polishes your skills, enriches your knowledge and makes you organization-friendly. The chances of getting a PPO is also great. Even some other technical internships at R&D firms are of immense weightage when it comes to getting recruited by prominent technical companies like Intel. At IITs, the best internships are always seen to be in some consulting/finance companies as those companies come on the day 1 of the placements and are open for most of the departments, besides offering a fat package: however, if you have one good internship at a prominent firm coupled with another spike, it can assure you a seat in interviews of Day 1 companies. When it comes to travelling, I would like to say that rather than travelling for long 2 months, find out time during your studies. Weekends in colleges are mostly free to breakaway and explore nearby places. For distant places, there always are extended weekends coinciding with national holidays where you can go to any place you wish. Also try to exploit the winter vacation to cover majority of places in india. Winter by far is the best time to cover the entire south India. Travelling does appeal to some companies in your resume: but it should not come at the cost of your academics. Remember companies are hiring you for doing their job: not for travelling, so until and unless you justify that travelling is something that you are passionate about and still you are balanced enough to manage everything, the ball is in your court. Taking a semester off is unwise as it would unnecessarily add several questions in the interviewer's mind about the prospective stay of yours in the job. The best way to go about this is apply for a foreign internship abroad during your first or second year. Tell them that you would work only for one month and a half and thereafter, get a three months visa and spend your rest of the time travelling. Tips for cost cutting for India trip: 1. When you are travelling across the country, make use of your social network: you can find people through your social network across each city who could host you for a day or two: just for sleeping at night. 2. Travel solo, be hardy and take rickety modes of transport: that would expose you to the real India - the common man - and enchant you. 3. Street food rocks. You could befriend cooks and hear their stories.

Harsh Snehanshu at Quora Visit the source

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The only Con to taking time off is if you are the kind of person who doesn't go back to school.  I have known plenty of friends who have taken time off school and then life has gotten in the way and they never returned to finish their degree.  This can be a real problem as just about any remotely interesting job requires a bachelors degree at the minimum. The biggest Pro to taking time off to travel is that you will have a better sense of perspective than the majority of your peers who have never seen the world - it will inform your studies and your work and your work will come off as significantly more insightful and mature.  When you are young you are able to take more risks, spend more time traveling, and you are ok in what would later be uncomfortable situations.  As much as I love traveling and roughing it, I am now at the point in my life where I need to have a bathroom in my hotel and am unwilling to share a bathroom at the end of the hall in a hostel.

Selim Jamil

The world is changing.   Here, in the UK, there is a saying about financial products 'past performance is not an indicator fo future performance'.   So I can only report what has happened, not what will. I have 2 sons.   The first did a 4 year course at University straight from school.   Came out with his degree and then faltered slightly.   He took several months to find a job partly because his expectations had been challenged during his final year and he had to rethink his career path.   Never took a gap year of any kind. The 2nd son did a 3 year degree THEN he took his gap year and went round the world (literally).   Before he left he applied to do a Masters, had a telephone intervew in Australia ( I got the impression that the Tutor who wanted to speak to him was actually impressed that he was in Australia) and came back with a place for his Masters;.   At the end of that year he applied to do a PhD, got accepted, negotiated a 3 month delay to his start and disappeared off to India.   He's just finished his PhD and taken a job. Did either do better than the other?   No, in the end they have both good good jobs and I think their skills will carry them through the job market. The point I'm trying to make is that whilst travelling is great experience for life it isn't a prerequiste to life.   In my own case I never went to University.   I got a job and progressed and travelled in my vacation time (taking my family once I had one!).   I've always prioritised travel over some other discretionary spending and I've been able to visit some very interesting places.   It's taken me a few years to get to some places and both sons beat me to Japan!   Internship versus travel need not be an either or in the long run. As you will have gathered I have no experience of internships; I never did one, neither did my sons.   Where they are part of a University course I have no reason to doubt their value.   I am, however, sceptical about their benefits to you when the internship is a private arrangement.   I can't get away from the feeling that in some cases companies use interns as menials rather than giving them proper job experience. If you do decide to take an internship make sure there are proper goals for you to achieve and skills to learn.   Ask about previous interns and ask to speak with them. For me, the fact that you are asking aboout travel versus an internship suggests you want to travel.   If that's the case go for it.   You can get an internship some other time. By the way good employers are looking for well rounded people.   Sure they want skills but they also want people who can manage themselves and one thing travel teaches is how to manage yourself in the face of adversity - travel never quite goes to plan and neither does life in employment.

Graham Harrison

Why not try both! Travel and Internship. Here are https://campusdiaries.com/node/29897 Hope it helps :) :)

Suchitra Miriyala

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