DD asking me for advice- Summer internship Vs Travel in Asia

[bellylaughs]

For once DD had actually asked my advice and I’m stumped. Shes currently in 2nd year Geography at a RG Uni. She’s torn between travelling around Thailand with her friends for a month this summer or applying for a (hopefully!) career-enhancing summer internship.

I can see the advantages to both and she has the money saved so she could afford the trip. Usually I would always say travel but these days my friends kids all seem to be doing internships and I don’t want to advise her to travel and then she regrets it when it comes to the job applications next year.

…at the end of the day it’s obviously her decision but I’d like to add my advice since she asked! Any mumsnet knowledge would be very helpful.

Internship. Followed by work or volunteering in an area of work she might want. Shame she didn’t do third year abroad. That ticks lots of boxes! Travel is a luxury and employers don’t care what you did in Thailand. Probably nothing worth putting on your cv. So depends what work you want and how much you want it. Humanities students are two a penny so getting a better cv matters in my view.

Ds has just secured a summer internship. The closing date was mid Jan but they said if they have enough applicants it would probably close early. It was a 4 or 5 stage process. They are hard to get and do look good on a CV and he has been told it is a good way to show your skills for their graduate scheme with an incredible starting salary. This is a paid internship with a direct career path and he started the process very early October.

It is 8 weeks long which still leaves at least a month of summer free. I suppose it depends on how competitive the industry is that your DD wishes to go into and whether she has any relevant experience she can bring to the table. Will she have time to travel after her degree and before her graduate job starts? Don't most graduate jobs start in September?

(Good point. The formal law schemes are only 1 week or two weeks, but other schemes in other sectors might well be 8 weeks. In a away the law ones are just like a one week long interview from which future trainees are recruited, rather than you actually learn something or do the job. Other industry sectors can be very different)

No. Loads of grad jobs do not start in September! It’s not school! The whole summer off after a degree might be possible and it’s not a given. Loads of grads don’t get grad level jobs either. Spending 3 months having fun after graduating is a luxury many cannot afford.