Does it matter where I take my Summer Internship?

Question

I'm pretty close to securing a placement for this summer as a Software Engineer in one of my cities local industries (Aerospace). This was actually the first place I applied for and I received a reply almost instantly after asking for me to take Numerical and Verbal Reasoning tests and an interview with them.

I'm pretty ambitious with my goals, so I want to get the most out of this experience as I possibly can, hopefully learning and providing a good enough impact on my employer to make myself a real candidate for many employers.

Despite the fact that I live in a pretty big city moving elsewhere for my internship is almost out of the question due to other commitments, almost ruling me out for other roles in which I could apply for, some with some pretty big companies in software and games development (if you still think blue hedgehogs are big news). Now I could hold out on this perfectly good company and try to apply for the big companies in the area, even though I feel that I am at a disadvantage as my university and department are mid-to-bottom level as far as CS goes.

In short, does it matter where I get an internship? Does it really matter if I work 10 weeks at an international aerospace company compared to 8-10 weeks at a large software firm? Would you, the employer think any worse of me for working in aerospace?

To clear some things up, I don't see a long-term future in Software Engineering within the Aerospace industry. I just want to get some real-world experience and I assume that the software-side of this particular industry is very critical and deals with many interesting aspects of deadlines, quality control and occasionally mission-critical systems. In the aerospace industry this company is a multinational giant, dealing with billions of Euros of income and some pretty big military forces. Also, after talking to a number of students in the year above me at university I don't know anyone that has worked here before.

I know this strictly isn't a programming question, but it's related to a Software Engineering job and I'm sure the choice of programming languages, methodologies and other key factors do make this a valid question for this website.

Answer 1

If you want to be successful with a company, I'd say it's best for you if the activity you perform is as close to the thing that makes the company money as possible.

If you're a software developer working for a software company, you can match your activities to invoices. That's very good.

If you're a software developer working for an aerospace company, you're overhead (unless they sell your software). That's not as good.

True for both internships and final employment, in my opinion.

Take the internship if it's a good one. Realize that you're young enough where it probably won't matter. It's a great "try before you buy" opportunity for you. Do keep your eyes and brain open and make sure that the company is a good fit before you commit to employment.

software-side of this particular industry is very critical and deals with many interesting aspects of deadlines, quality control and occasionally mission-critical systems

Depends on whether you end up working on stuff like controls or ERP. The first one controls the airplane itself and is quite mission-critical; the latter is more run-of-the-mill accounting and manufacturing stuff. Depends on where Airbus deploys you.

Answer 2

I don't think it matters where you take your internship; its all about what you take away from it. Do what's right for you, getting real-world experience is really the most important thing -- team dynamics, the weight of a deadline, and solving real-world problems by applying the theory you've learned in school.

Answer 3

I don't think it matters per se. I tink you will potentially get much different experiences depending on the size of the company. Not different good or bad, just different. Both will be valuable in their own way. In my opinion the value of the experience will depend on your role and the mentors that are available. To that end I think you are more likely to have a larger role and see a wider variety of aspects of the business at a smaller company. As for mentoring, be sure that you reverse interview to see who you would be working with and see if the fit will be good.

Answer 4

I wouldn't sweat it too much, I don't think it matters so much where you get your work experience so much as that you get any work experience.

I got my internship work experience at an extremely small (3 developers) GIS company. After graduation I was able to get a position at a pretty big company (if you think companies with "blue" in their nicknames are big news).

Answer 5

As long as you are doing actual development work, I wouldn't care where you worked. That being said, I might actually think that working in aerospace would be much better than working at a standard software development organization. In Aerospace, there is very little room for errors, when compared to, for instance, business apps.

Answer 6

I'd suggest you to take up this job if it's relevant to your degree. Also, you could get some feedback from seniors at your school who have already worked there for their internship.

Answer 7

One thing you have to consider is that internships are frequently (if not always) gateways for future employment, especially when the economy is not going well (companies won't take as much risk with their candidates, and a good ex-intern is the safest bet you can make recruitment-wise).

In that perspective, I'd recommend taking your last internship as close as possible to the job you're looking for in the future. If you're planning on taking other internships in the future, then you're not as constrained, although this might pigeonhole you in some kind of domain (I have a friend who did assembly-language optimization in his first internship, and ended up doing that for his next two jobs, because whenever he started working somewhere, he'd be "the guy who knows how to do that")

Personally speaking, I've been in your situation in the past, and chose the less lucrative but better fit internship. I don't regret it at all - I gained contacts and amazing experience there that were crucial in getting me where I am now. But of course, who knows what would have happened if I'd taken the internship closer to home.

Answer 8

Around here (both Stack Overflow and the IT department I manage), the mantra for hiring is "Smart and Gets Things Done." It doesn't necessarily matter where you worked in the past, unless the company is exceptionally well known or has a rep for only hiring stars. It matters far, far more whether you have actually gotten anything done at previous jobs and internships.

Try to get a handle on whether you will actually accomplish things on this internship; if so than you can't go wrong taking it. In fact, I would suggest that the likelihood of your actually doing something meaningful will decrease as the size of the company increases.

BTW .. I would weigh the "get to accomplish things " element far above any other, including whether the company in question is software or non-software. You are better off getting programming things done for an aerospace company than testing (or taking meeting notes or getting coffee) at a game shop.

Answer 9

I think that it's important to get a variety of experiences (small company/big company, private/public, software company / not software company), to come away with an idea of where you'd like to work when you get out of school.

Answer 10

I don't think internship is a transferable certificate. Isn't the point of the internship to impress the employer during that period so that they would hire you later in a more confident manner?

Get the internship at where you will work.