Quality of Internships

Yesterday I was offered a summer executive internship position at a major retail corporation. I'll be the only intern at a local store's location and from what they were telling me, one of five interns in the area.

The internship is a ten week program where I'll be trained and given a mentor who I will shadow. The first half is dedicated to what it takes to run a business as well as a general overview of the different departments (HR, finance, business management, etc). The second half will give me more details on my mentor's specific fields and I will lead a team of 30-40 employees while under supervision. I'll be working about 40 hours/week and earning $17.50/hour.

The internship sounds good to me because I'm currently trying to figure out which business field would be best for me and this internship will give me hands-on experience in many of them. It's also close by and the fact that it's paid is cool.

I also know that there can be a stigma with working at a major retail chain. This is likely my last summer internship I'll have before I apply for a real full-time job so I want to have a quality one that looks good to employers. As a side note, I also had an internship last summer. Since I was offered this position so early, I don't have the chance to test the waters for other possible internships. It's not an elite internship (think banking or something like that), but it sounds like a good program and not something an employer would look down on.

What do you guys think?

scared money dont make no money

WorldGoneMad said:

 
scared money dont make no money

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This is in reference to what exactly? Me taking the job or me possibly turning it down and trying to get an "elite" internship?

I'm 95% sure I'll go ahead and take the job. They gave me a week to think it over and so I wanted to get some opinions on it.

Make sure that the internship has a possibility towards leading into a full-time role.

If this is the last summer before you start applying for full-time jobs, then you should've already had some sort of idea what you want to get into. Usually you're supposed to have some sort of idea where you want to go in a specific field after your sophomore year.

The process of actually gaining any sort of substantial work experience during undergrad is very long and takes a lot of time. That's why I say you should already know what you want to do if you're going to be applying for jobs post-undergrad.

My advice would be to take the internship, but keep an eye out for something that will def. lead to a full-time role. If not, then network as much as you can and try to open doors yourself.

Good luck.

P.S. PM me if you want anymore info about internships and the process towards finding a full-time job.

At least you're getting paid. Some people still think its cool to have unpaid internships.

I know one person who had a internship with Nordstroms in the summer just like you. She is now working there after college. Do it. I work in a small internship for a SMB enginerring company and there is no future in working for a small company as an intern. Much better to get into a large corporation to intern. You are going to be paid way more than you would get at any other company and when its time to graduate you will have guaranteed money.

Hank Scorpio said:

Make sure that the internship has a possibility towards leading into a full-time role.

If this is the last summer before you start applying for full-time jobs, then you should've already had some sort of idea what you want to get into. Usually you're supposed to have some sort of idea where you want to go in a specific field after your sophomore year.

The process of actually gaining any sort of substantial work experience during undergrad is very long and takes a lot of time. That's why I say you should already know what you want to do if you're going to be applying for jobs post-undergrad.

My advice would be to take the internship, but keep an eye out for something that will def. lead to a full-time role. If not, then network as much as you can and try to open doors yourself.

Good luck.

P.S. PM me if you want anymore info about internships and the process towards finding a full-time job.

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You're right, under normal circumstances I would, but since I transferred just this semester I have an additional semester of pre-requisites before I can get started on my major classes which gives me some additional time to mull things over. I'm leaning towards marketing, but am also open to finance and business management.

I'm under the impression right now that it will give me preference, especially if the performance is there, but they already let me know off the bat that there is no guarantee.

Thanks for the response and offer, I'll shoot you a PM if I have any questions as I progress towards finding a full-time job.

4318MichaelJohnson4318 said:

I know one person who had a internship with Nordstroms in the summer just like you. She is now working there after college. Do it. I work in a small internship for a SMB enginerring company and there is no future in working for a small company as an intern. Much better to get into a large corporation to intern. You are going to be paid way more than you would get at any other company and when its time to graduate you will have guaranteed money.

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That's a good point. Like I mentioned to Hank Scorpio, once I actually start working I'll have a better idea if a future with the company is possible. Like you said, since it is large there should be potential opportunities.