Ask HN: Are internships mainly for college grads?

5 points by 0xdefec8 17 years ago | 9 comments

I hit my 3 year first-post-college-job anniversary a few months ago, and I want out of my industry because it bores me to tears (storage, fwiw). Not sure what's next, but I've had a lot of fun lately playing around with Python (it's C/C++ at work). I'm thinking maybe a hip, young web biz is a better fit for me, but I have nothing on my resume remotely related.

I know some common advice might be to build something in Python and show it to a potential employer, but I don't think anything I've coded thus far is substantial enough to impress anyone.

So I was wondering, would an internship doing something web-ish/pythony be an option? Even with 3 years work experience? I'd rather not live off savings, so living expenses would be nice...but is this taking a step backwards? Should I do something instead like work harder writing a neato python app? It's just tough finding the hours to build something cool in my free time after burning out at work all day.

Sincerely, -BoredInMassachusetts

gmazzola 17 years ago |

Internships are generally for University students, but it's not a completely strict rule. I worked with a going-on-thirty intern, a graduate student with a wife and a kid! You'll definitely get some odd looks as a non-student, but there's nothing stopping you.

However, given that, I would shy away from the intern route. It is a step backwards in terms of respect and resumé building, and you have enough seniority to set your goals higher than an intern.

I would seek out a full-time job doing some interesting work. Amazon might be a good pick: they have a lot of interesting problems there, and they're looking for solid talent. I had an interview with them for an internship a while back, but ultimately declined the offer for a better position.

Also, don't reject anything that's non-webbish. I know the Web 2.0 / AJAX / Social shopping cart siren is appealing, but there are a lot of cool problems being solved in big established companies too.

noaharc 17 years ago |

Why don't you want to live off savings? Taking 2 months to make something impressive seems like money well spent, to me.

0xdefec8 17 years ago | |

That's actually an option I hadn't considered...taking time off to work on something myself, as opposed to an internship. I know a lot of people around here can operate on 5 hours of sleep and pick up their personal project immediately after 10+ hours of working for the man, but I just don't have the energy reserves for it. I will consider doing that, thank you.

thegoleffect 17 years ago |

What kinds of things would you like to work on instead of storage?

0xdefec8 17 years ago | |

Not sure on specifics honestly, but it would probably be a web based business (facebook, reddit, amazon) and use python. But maybe it's naive to narrow my search by what language they use.

thegoleffect 17 years ago | | |

Why does it have to be web-based?