Internships are important. They expose you to the field and the people in that field. They give you real experience and a chance to see the good, bad, and ugly of your career path. They let you decide if you're making the right move, or if you should tweak your plans. They allow you to meet people who can be very helping late on - besides the coveted recommendation, they can give you advice and serve as a guiding hand. Even one good internship will do a lot for you, both on your resume and for memories that will last a lifetime! (OK I'm done with the cheesiness). So, the good, bad, and ugly of my internships from the college days.
Education intern at an aquarium
The good: made wonderful friends, got some experience in public education, developed my love of fish, learned a lot, played with dolphins!, discovered I can be a great teacher (pre-TA), worked on my public speaking skills, saw that spark of interest/amazement in children every day, took on a fear head on (I had to hold a giant millipede and stand next to hissing cockroaches for an hour...and I survived!)
The bad: dumb adults (and by dumb I mean disrespectful of the animals and of us) and children that were out of control and required us parenting them....sorry, not my job, I'm not the one who birthed them.
The ugly: unpaid (I also had a real job to get by), the aquarium was an hour away and I didn't have a car at the time...that meant getting up before 6am to make it to work before 9 (it's bad when 8am is sleeping in)
REU Intern (REU = research experience for undergraduates)
The good: got real experience working in the lab, made more wonderful friends, took a step in getting comfortable being away from the family (this was the first summer I spent away from home), eventually got a publication out of my work, made lots of contacts which led to (what I assume were) awesome recs for grad school, got dirty out in the field, GOT PAID WOOOO
The bad: Spending 24/7 in the lab at one point to finish my work (OK, 8am-6pm, but having the lights cut out on you is damn depressing)
The ugly: Again, didn't have a car at this point, so my independence was limited
Yes, sometimes internships suck, but as you can see, in a successful internship the good outweighs the bad. And if it ends up sucking....well, I still consider that a success. You now know you don't want that career and you can change gears without too much loss. Perhaps it means an extra year of school, but that's better than realizing this after working for years and then having to go back to school. So get out there, get some experience, explore, and have fun!
P.S. REUs are amazing, and they're all over the country. Check out this site; most cater to minorities in science (of both race and sex) and/or people without prior research experience. The link I posted is specifically for ocean sciences, but they come in many other flavors: chemistry, engineering, earth science, etc.
Fact of the Post: Notre Dame researchers have determined that the act of walking through a doorway decreases your ability to remember things. Gahhh that's why I forget what I'm doing when I walk into another room!
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| He's probably thinking "Who the hell is she?!" |
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