Ask HN: Should I be looking for an internship or a job? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should I be looking for an internship or a job?

The question is should I be looking for an Fall internship or a job in the fall? I'm a CS major with mass transit access to NYC who is graduating in December of 2014. I currently am looking for an internship in the summer, hopefully not in vain as it seems to late for many companies.

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Absolutely look for an internship. What would a job offer you, other than money (which you say you need) and experience (which you absolutely will need if you ever want to get hired)?

In the business world, you are judged on one thing: WHAT DO YOU COST? How much money do I have to spend to get you?

Some people (whom you mostly do not want to work for) will only want people who cost very little. These people love interns because they are slaves.

Most others assume that really good people always know they are good and act like it. These people consider anyone who can be had cheaply as marginally competent.

You can see the attitude in some of the advice you're getting. If you're any good, why don't you open your own startup and produce something that suckers Marissa Mayer into giving you $14 million?

If you haven't done that-- and you're willing to work for free-- how good can you be? Not very, obviously, ESPECIALLY if you live in NYC, where people in power still like to refer to themselves as "Masters of the Universe" or "Big Swinging Dicks."

There is only one exception to the rule, and that is the Roger Corman rule. Roger Corman was a low-budget filmmaker who hired a ridiculously high number of good directors early in his career. The list starts alphabetically with Peter Bogdanovich and includes James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, Joe Dante, Jonathan Demme, Curtis Hanson, Ron Howard, Jonathan Kaplan, Nicolas Roeg, John Sayles, Martin Scorsese and Robert Towne. Corman's pitch was very simple; "I won't pay you squat, but I will let you make a movie, so you learn how to do it."

There are companies (JSeymourATL mentions the type) who do the same thing for technology. They'll can't get people who are destined to work for Booz, Allen-- unless they get them for the first or second job. They'll hire you, give you tons to do and work your butt off until you outgrow them.

But even then, DO NOT VOLUNTEER OR INTERN. And only go with them if you can see that you will work a lot and learn a lot. Don't take a job that drops you on password resets at a bank call center.

Remember, everything you do from now on will be judged. DO NOT, unless you work on open source, WORK FOR FREE.

I'm assuming both positions would be SDE positions correct? The requirements to get an internship would be less than trying to secure a regular position and therefore the "easier" route, plus the regular positions are usually full time so they may not consider you while you are in school whereas the internship should be more accommodating of your schedule.

I have set up my scheduled to fit into a 35ish hour work week. A full 8 hours for 3 days and about 5 hours 2 days per week. Which gets me pretty close to full time.

Pitch IT leaders with an idea that you're a college student looking for part-time/contract work in sys admin or business analyst roles. Look for small to mid-size companies, outfits you haven't heard of with less than 500 people. You'll find them more flexible, welcoming, and easier to work with than Big Firms.

The question for me is whether you're in it for the earning or the learning? See this for more: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/04/is-it-time-for....

If I were you, I'd be launching my startup. But then you'd be me, and you wouldn't know what to do about the monkeys, and what would be the point of anything, then?

Id rather have the security of having some sort of job placement or something that puts me leaps and bounds above other job applicants to any company I wish to work for. There's always time for side projects on the weekend.

This is one of the perfect times to try something on your own (the other being when you have sufficient funds to fall back on) when you have little to no obligations. Even if you fail, it will look good on your resume assuming you actually try. You'll learn more than in any single position and will have a story to tell during your interviews.You have the rest of your life to work for a company.

But with the mindset you seem to be portraying, you may not be the best candidate to try something like this.

Well between rent and car insurance I need some money, as I don't want to go an ask for help from my parents(I'm 22).

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