Ask HN: When would be a good time to start looking for summer internships? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: When would be a good time to start looking for summer internships?

6 pointsGeneralMaximus3 comments

Last year I had to pass up on an internship because my college forced me into a compulsory summer training program (a terrible ASP.NET course). This year, though, I want to work with a real startup on a real product. Since I have never had to look for a job or internship before, I'm more than a little clueless in this area. Possibly stupid questions incoming.

- I usually see students sending out emails in February/March. Is this too early? Too late?

- When sending out my résumé, is it fine to mention technologies I am not familiar with but am going to study this semester? For example, is it all right to add a field that says "Learning this semester: Lisp"?

- What about applying for jobs that are not related to my degree? I'm an engineering student, but I also like to write. Sadly, my "portfolio" only includes my blog.

- Do early-stage startups usually even hire interns?

- Is it a good idea to apply to businesses located in a different city? In case I'm hired, I would obviously have to live in a strange city for the duration of my internship. Sounds fun and scary at the same time. What does HN think?

- When should I negotiate payments?

- How much does GPA matter?

- When writing a résumé, would failed attempts at building software count as "experience"?

Thanks for listening. My apologies if any of this has been asked before.

EDIT: formatting.

I've had a summer internship after every school year I've had in college. First to answer your questions, put whatever you want. If you're applying to jobs not related to your degree, well, it's up to you. Cater your resume don't have a one size fits all resume. Is it worth your time though? What do you ultimately want to do? Yes, some early stage startups hire interns. It's normally easier to get a job at a large company offering internships. That way, you get the corporate experience early and realize how much better it is to work for startups. If you apply out of city, consider costs maybe. Generally, it's more fun and adventurous and you're isolated so you end up learning a lot more somehow. Negotiate payments when they tell you how much you're offered. Generally, if it's your 1st internship, you have no leverage to negotiate. Failed attempts should just be considered incomplete projects. Don't list them as experience.

Now, my personal advice is this: if you know what you enjoy doing, try and be a little picky. If you settle for any internship just for the experience, you may become experienced in something you don't enjoy doing. Then, it would be rather difficult to express in your resume that though you are vastly experienced in one thing you really want to be doing something else.

Hope it helps.

December-January. Most of my interns have come from out of town (although moving to Austin for a summer is hardly a hardship). Failures definitely count as experience, although obviously you don't want to spin anything as a failure.

I agree with failures, although many employers want to know WHY something failed - and what you would do next time to avoid said failure.

It's ok to fail but it's not ok to fail and not know why and what you learned from it. Least from my experience.

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