A years internship......your suggestions/experience?

seamus

I am mightily tempted to do a year's internship in Sun Microsystems at the end of the Summer. But it poses a few problems:

I probably won't come back to college, because I'll be too used to having money in my pocket.
If it turns out to not be what I thought it was I'll have to stay there anyway, cos I can't go back to college.
If I do go back to college, I'll be finishing a year later then planned.
If I don't go back to college, I'll only have a BSc(Gen) degree, as opposed to a BSc(Hons) degree.

The main question is, which is more valuable - A BSc.(Gen) + 1 year's experience, or a BSc.(Hons) on it's own?

Anyone done/doing internships?

rander00

Whats the money like if you do that job, just out of interest??

seamus

No idea what the money's like. Anything more than 10K a year would be a step up for me

Not going for it anyway, because I know there's no way I'd come back to college.

daveirl

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Rew

I did 6 months as part of my degree and it was well worth it, my friend did 6 months in SUn and got a lot out of it. The more experience you have getting out of college the better.

If you would never go back then you have probably made the right choice.

If you arn't sure of what you have learned or how to apply your learning to technoligies then you have made the wrong choice. A bit of experience (esp from the likes of Sun) goes a long way.

daveirl

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seamus

Originally posted by daveirl
Does your course not have a placement program as part of it at all?

If that's for me, then nope Bit of a pain alright

p

Just defer you course for a year.

Most course allow people to take a year out no problem.

Though I would DEFINATELY go back and finish your degree. You'll always regret it otherwise. Besides college is fun!

g'luck,

- Kevin

daveirl

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seamus

Afaik, no other course has a work placement within the course, but I think maybe Comp. Sci. (denom.) have to do an internship over the summer or something, but people (like me) who entered Comp.Sci. through Science don't have to

daveirl

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rob1891

I'm doing an internship with Sun right now, like yourself I took a year out of UCD Science. First off don't worry if you don't like it, you can leave come September, Computer Science is the worst organised department on_the_planet, so your deferral probably won't be sorted out the right side of Christmas (plus you don't need to help them with it either, just don't register, send them a letter Septemberish, it won't be a problem, they are far from germanic ... I sent mine end of August, called late November asking after it and they'd friggin lost all trace, I insisted I'd sent it and that was that).

As regards the internship itself. For the most part you can make as much or as little of it as you want (you have to piss them off royally to get fired as the cost of keeping you is .... deskspace mostly!). The group I'm are far to busy to put the time into an intern really, so the first 4/5 months I spent LONGING for college (omg, what am I saying!), but that time can be spent doing your own thing, the resources they have are enormous if you are into the geek thing. Though I there have been these moment, I am well aware of the value of my time spent here, it has definitely been worth it, and most days you are kept busy with the odd challenging task, other interns more so than I (go for Desktop Sysadmin or Functional Testing (FAIQED or something like that) ... actually let me know all the different groups and I can let you know what's good and what's best!).

I wouldn't use it as a substitute for your final year. The money is not that great, most are flying though their pay, 8.8035 an hour to be exact, you won't miss much on your return The experience in Sun _and_ a good 2.1 BSc Hons is what you should be aiming for. I've been told ex interns have found college a doddle on their return and they are known for their prompt handing-in of assignments & general togetherness

One final thing, Sun don't do references, they will confirm that you worked there between whatever dates, but that is all. That kinda pissed me off when I heard but that is the way it is (of course they still go on your CV and you will get all the mileage out of it anyway).

Rob

Man U babe

Originally posted by seamus
Afaik, no other course has a work placement within the course

BAFS peeps do have work placement in 3rd year, don't think anyone else does though. We certainly don't.