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Ask HN: which internship to take?

6 points by ghiculescu ↗ HN
I'm a university student (in Australia) and my uni runs an internships program with local IT companies. I've got two offers and am having trouble deciding between them.

One company is a large multinational. They have a corporate culture; uniforms for all, monthly compulsory drinks & awards sessions, conferences, etc. They couldn't tell me which team I'd be in (so could only say I'd use java or .net). Team sizes are 6-8 and there's about 80 people all up. 

Company two is government funded but relatively independent. About 30 people, office space looks relaxed and colorful. Had a definite job description. One of my uni friends works part time there. Pay is a few thousand less than company 1 and they didn't mention and similar perks. 

Both jobs are full time. 

At this point I really can't decide which way to go. This is my first internship so any advice is appreciated. Cheers!

6 comments

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Jun8
At this early stage in your career 'd say you should maximize exposure rather than try to optimize for some trait of the company (relaxed, colorful company, etc.), so I'd say go with the first one. Maybe your internship won't be as fun as teh otehr one but (i) it'll be a resume buster, (ii) you may want use them to jump over to another country later, and (iii) you'll meet more people.

Getting older, you'll find that you'll find yourself inadvertently switching from breadth first to depth first search for happiness/fulfillment in life, so better cast the net wide while you're young.

hrasm
At this point in your career path, I would say that both offer an experience from which you will be able to judge the kind of environment more suitable for you.

[When I was in Company One kind of place, I didn't learn much.]

latch
From my own personal experience, I would avoid the first offer. I'd say there's more chance that everything you'll learn at the first place will be how not to do things. It is actually a great way to learn, but it's also very draining.
namank
You said you want to go to 2, so go to 2.
ewan
In what seems like an eternity ago I had a similar decision to make - choosing between a very large (100k+ employees; non-IT focus) organisation and what today would probably have been called a startup (~10 people across 2 continents; IT product development & sales)

I chose (your) option 1, partly because I figured they were a good company to have on my cv whatever the outcome, and partly because they offered a few k more a year. Frankly I think you should try to ignore the money aspect, but when a few k is a sizeable percentage of your total salary, I know this is difficult to do.

10+ years later I've lived in 3 countries, flown business a lot more often then I would probably have paid for myself, and enjoyed the sort of perks you seem to like the look of in option 1. I've done some interesting technology based work along the way, but I've also done a lot of administrativa.

In my case, it was important that the organisation kept trading for the duration of my year's internship, or I wouldn't have recieved the course credit. If this is applicable to you, it is something to consider in your choice. Remember both organisations (their Australian office at least) could have risks in this regard.

Good luck!

petervandijck
Company two. I don't understand why you hesitate. Is it the pay?