Are internships necessary?
Since you have a job, a lot of reasons for doing an internship vanish. However (speaking as a computer scientist, ie someone in a different field), in my experience, internships are essentially a long interview. Nobody really expects interns to get much of anything useful done, though it’s always good when they do (ie, doing more than warming your chair puts you ahead of most other interns). The companies are willing to pay interns the salary in order to get a chance to evaluate how good of a candidate they are for a full time position, so I think that the “cheap/free labor” is more like “expensive non-labor,” especially when you factor in the time of full time employees required to get interns on the right track. The situation may be very different in your field, but I found a lot of value in interning in several different companies, establishing connections, and having a much better idea of whether I’d like to work in a particular place or not. If you’re happy with your current job,
If you are currently doing work that applies to your field, I don’t think you need to supplement that with an internship (unless there is some curricular requirement and your current job won’t meet that requirement). I think that internships are a valuable experience and I give my interns real responsibilities. My college internships definitely helped me get future jobs, both in terms of experience, and contacts/networking/references. I doubt your university is getting a kickback, but they do look a lot better to prospective students and their parents when they can say that X% of students had an internship (and I guess technically, you’re bringing down that percentage). Plus it makes them look good when they can show an impressive list of recognizable companies that their students have interned for. The idea that you won’t excel beyond entry level without an internship is rubbish. You excel beyond entry level because of your drive, job performance, and more. An internship might help yo
Imo the purpose of internships is to get work experience you could never normally get any other way. If your resume doesn’t have a big hole in it or you already have the job you want there is really no reason as you’ve already accomplished the goal that the internship is supposed to help get you to. However, unpaid internships can pay off if they are prestigious or if you can make valuable contacts within your field. It just really depends whether those are things you need, most college students do, but there are plenty that don’t.
I edited that first paragraph to the point that it doesn’t make sense anymore. What I meant to say is: If you are currently doing work that applies to your field, I don’t think you need to supplement that with an internship (unless there is some curricular requirement and your current job won’t meet that requirement). I do generally think that internships are a valuable experience though – for example, I give my interns real responsibilities to help them learn practical skills for the job function they’re interested in. My own college internships definitely helped me get future jobs, both in terms of experience, and contacts/networking/references. Sorry, I guess I’m more tired than I thought.
