Questions To Ask Yourself Before Taking An Internship

By Judy Lee ‘17

1. How does this fit my career path?

“Judy,” you may say, “of course it has to be relevant if I applied for it in the first place.”

This is a legitimate question. If this is correct for you, great! However, I personally apply to internships in flurries—I narrow down from opportunities that are guaranteed to me rather than possibilities. In my case, this will sometimes result in an internship offer that may not necessarily have to do with my career path.

For example, I want to enter the realm of Public Relations (still figuring out industry, but leaning toward corporate entertainment). When I get a social media internship offer, how does it exactly contribute? Of course, it can be tangentially helpful in honing in skills relevant to my field. HOWEVER, if I’ve already done two others, chances are that it won’t be much of a transformative experience as compared to an agency offer (considering I haven’t interned at an agency).

2. Is the wage worth the experience?

It’s tough for millennials because we must deal with the “unpaid internship”—a surprisingly recent concept. Although unpaid might be offset by a great company reputation or experience, you really need to assess the tradeoff.

Here’s how I feel about it: I had an unpaid internship my freshman year of college and it made sense. I had nothing else on my resume of worth, so I didn’t really have a competitive edge for bargaining anyway. Later, it turned into a paid internship. That investment gave me new experiences AND got me paid.

However, if you’ve already had 2-3 internships, unpaid is kind of absurd. You’ve obviously proven to have had some success in obtaining other jobs in the industry, so you have more room to bargain. Does name matter more than money?  Up to you.

3. How long will this internship take?

Make sure you read your contract CAREFULLY. This is a obvious one, but sometimes getting caught up in the excitement and skimming may slap you in the face later. Especially for summer internships, USC starts earlier than UCs. If the company wants a 12-week program starting on June 7th, chances are it will cut into your fall schedule of classes. Is this okay with you? Make sure you know.

4. Is this something I can handle right now?

If you’re taking on an internship while simultaneously going to school (and perhaps even juggling work), be objective about it. This was something I failed to do last spring. My internship caused me to be 15-20 minutes late to a relatively small computer science class and it screwed me over. My grade wasn’t terrible, but the feeling of walking in and understanding nothing on Tuesdays and Thursdays because I didn’t get the basics down that was taught in the first part of class put a damper on my confidence and willingness to learn.

There will always be on-campus opportunities for resume boosters, so don’t go seeking an internship that requires 20 hours a week when you don’t have 20 hours a week to spare. Invest that time in breaks, self-teaching new skills, and other things that will make you even more competitive next time.

5.  Will this open doors for me?

Kind of ties back into fitting into your career path. Sometimes, you meet the interviewer and/or tour the place and don’t really see much interaction between the employees there. Of course, multiple factors can affect this. However, if you don’t feel a fit and know you will be simply a coffee-fetcher/paper-shredder, it probably won’t open many doors for you. In other circumstances, perhaps it would. Again, up to you to assess but an important question to remember.

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