Hello,

First year EE student and first time poster here. I am finishing up my first semester of EE studies and am really enjoying it. I was also recently offered an internship with a company. The internship I was offered leaned more heavily towards the monitoring and maintenance of production machines then my interest of circuit design (mostly geared towards audio signal processing). I realize I'm in my first year and need to start somewhere and that any opportunity is an opportunity to learn but I am wondering if I may be shooting myself in the foot by not heading in the direction I am interested in right from the get go. Also, I really don't want my comments to sound disparaging since I believe everyone plays a critical role in a company but it's not something I am personally interested in. So I'm looking for any opinions and feedback. Thank you.

 

Be thankful for the early opportunity to see what a real job is all about. You really have no idea what your path will be at this point, so exploring the production end of engineering will enlighten you to the reality of EE.

 

I think that experience will be useful to you in ways that you cannot at the moment imagine. You should strive to the kind of engineer that designs products that are easy to monitor and maintain. Doing that will save your customers and your company a boatload of resources.

 

Thanks guys for the words of wisdom. I will definitely approach this decision with an open mind.

 

Few first year students get any real-world experience at all, so anything is better than nothing (especially if it is a paid internship).

You will also have an opportunity to see how things work on a production floor and lots of opportunities to talk to the people that work there, which will give you insight into real-world issues that affect good design practices (and that many engineers never seem to grasp because they are too isolated from how circuits and systems are actually built).

It's also a way to open the door to other opportunities within that company, a way to start building a network of contacts, a way to be building a resume with real-world experience reflected on it, a way to build up a list of references outside of academia, and a way to get better informed on the various jobs, and differences between them, in the EE field so that you can make more informed choices down the road.

Go in there with the attitude that if you are going to be a monitor of production machines, that you are going to learn everything you can about monitoring productions machines and strive to become one of the best production machine monitors they have ever seen. That WILL get noticed.

 

One of my major peeves at the Hercules Incorporated chemical refinery that I worked at was that every year they would bring in a couple of Georgia Tech interns. Very bright students and then assigned them to tasks that had absolutely nothing to do with their field of study, much less engineering. Drudge work such as updating forestry field maps or filing books on the shelves of the engineering library or mostly just sitting at a desk for 8 hours with nothing at all to do. The money they paid them was excellent but the experience gained was worthless. Be sure before you accept an internship that they do in fact intend to use you in a manner that is beneficial to both parties in your field of study.

 

One of my major peeves at the Hercules Incorporated chemical refinery that I worked at was that every year they would bring in a couple of Georgia Tech interns. Very bright students and then assigned them to tasks that had absolutely nothing to do with their field of study, much less engineering. Drudge work such as updating forestry field maps or filing books on the shelves of the engineering library or mostly just sitting at a desk for 8 hours with nothing at all to do. The money they paid them was excellent but the experience gained was worthless. Be sure before you accept an internship that they do in fact intend to use you in a manner that is beneficial to both parties in your field of study.

A fellow student and I had anti-parallel co-op experiences that highlight this.

He was hired by Martin-Marietta at $16/hr and did nothing but scut work. I was hired by NBS (became NIST while I was there) at something like $6.50/hr and did dame little scut work. Instead I was immediately involved with figuring out how to overhaul an important cryostat, was responsible for the design and fabrication of two measurement systems, and was lead author on one paper and co-author on another. They quickly realized (before I did) that I was really good at figuring out how to collect the data, but when it came to analyzing it I was very inefficient because that just wasn't me. So they figured out that what worked well was to have me involved in bringing a measurement system and process on line and collect the first few data sets, but then get me the hell off of it and onto something else once it became routine. Fortunately, we had another co-op student that was of the opposite temperament, so that approach worked out very well.

The guy at Martin didn't go back for another term. I went back for two other terms and worked as an independent contractor on two projects after I graduated.

 

So I'm looking for any opinions and feedback.

What's the alternative?

 

What's the alternative?

To forgo the offer and look for one more in line with what I'm interested in.

 

Thanks again all for the different perspectives. It's helps shed some light for me.

 

To forgo the offer and look for one more in line with what I'm interested in.

If you are pretty sure you can find one, go for it. Given two roughly equal choices, always go with the one that is more aligned with your interests.

Then again, as the saying goes, a bird in the hand....

Also, keep in mind that if you accept this one and then find a more suitable one, most places will understand you then turning them down, or even quitting once you start. If that looks like it's going to be the case, just contact them as soon as you know that's what you would like to do. Explain the situation and ask them whether they are really relying on you starting the internship as agreed. If they are, then you want to think twice about bailing on them. But, most likely, they will be fine with it -- they can probably find another intern, even on very short notice. While some companies do look at interns as being nothing more than cheap slave labor, most are aware of the spirit of an internship and they really would rather see you explore one that is more tightly aligned with your objectives.

 

If you are pretty sure you can find one, go for it. Given two roughly equal choices, always go with the one that is more aligned with your interests.

Then again, as the saying goes, a bird in the hand....

Also, keep in mind that if you accept this one and then find a more suitable one, most places will understand you then turning them down, or even quitting once you start. If that looks like it's going to be the case, just contact them as soon as you know that's what you would like to do. Explain the situation and ask them whether they are really relying on you starting the internship as agreed. If they are, then you want to think twice about bailing on them. But, most likely, they will be fine with it -- they can probably find another intern, even on very short notice. While some companies do look at interns as being nothing more than cheap slave labor, most are aware of the spirit of an internship and they really would rather see you explore one that is more tightly aligned with your objectives.

I think I'm going to use a variant of this approach and move forward with the offer but apply to ones that look interesting. If I get one, great, if not then I still have the original which is also great. So win-win. Thanks everyone.