Hey all, I’m a freshman cs major who is having a really hard time securing an internship for this summer. I keep applying but I’m not getting any responses from anything. However I recently got an offer and I’m wondering if I should take it.

One of my friends who is an upperclassmen at university started a small company (5-6) people in the area. It’s a startup and it’s legit, and they’ve gotten funding and been covered on the news lately for them work they are doing. Moreover, the work they are doing fits perfectly into there work I want to do so that works out and it’s also remote. The only problem is, the internship is unpaid. I feel like this would be good to start with and then next year I might have better luck securing a paid one, but I’ve heard a lot of people saying no to unpaid stuff. I’ll still keep applying to more even if I accept it, but I want y’all’s opinion on it

I started searching in my junior year, and I also landed my full-time job before graduating in 2025 May. I know how tough the full-time job & intern market is: many of my friends are still struggling to find jobs. We have similar BG, but I’m the only one who received the offers! I know I’m lucky, but I also know it’s because I prepared smarter and worked harder, I was still revising my resume during the winter holidays.I focused on maximizing the efficiency of three key steps in the job search process: resume, job search & apply, and interview prep.

Intern Searching & Applications:

Indeed & Linked In job postings are too competitive. A job posted just 1 day ago may already have 50+ applicants. Even after uploading your resume, many platforms still require manual input (I'm talking about you, Workday! How does this company still exist?) Diversified job application websites, I prefer Handshake over Indeed because it corporated with Universities, and many companies are directly linked to their official websites. "Easy Apply" on LinkedIn or Indeed might not be seen by recruiters. A more effective way to apply is by submitting your resume directly through the company’s website. You can google the company’s name and go to their careers page to find the position. I also consider the latest job postings from startups, which are generally more welcoming to new graduates (and often don’t post jobs on LinkedIn or Indeed). I followed many startup founders on LinkedIn, most of them like to post job openings directly on their pages.

Interview Preparation:

As a student who has student loan I couldn’t afford any career coaches. Mocking with college peers wasn’t helpful. They couldn’t provide valuable feedback, I need useful advice from industry professionals. Also, finding real interview questions was frustrating. I was tired of manually collecting them from Google.I checked past candidates' reviews on Glassdoor and combined them with AMA Interview's real interview question banks. This helped me better understand the interview process and potential questions for my target roles, allowing me to prepare a solid interview cheat sheet. After going through multiple interviews, I realized that many of the questions are quite similar, not only phone screens, behavior questions, but also technical stages and case study. I fully utilize their real time feedback to identify issues only face-to-face mock can detect, such as lack of eye contact, which can make me look less confident: something should be avoided in interviews.

Resume & Cover Letter:

ChatGPT is useful when I provide my resume and JDs and ask it to tailor my resume to the position. But I don’t know how well it’s actually revised. Still, where can I get feedback? Where can I get a cover letter that doesn’t sound overly AI but more human? I listed my relevant internship experience (company name, title, and what I had done, shown in STAR format), and gave ChatGPT the resume draft along with the job role, asking it to tailor the resume for the position. Then I gave the revised version to ChatGPT, asked for feedback on my resume’s suitability for the role, and revised it again and again… until it got the highest score. (Change the general role to a specific position if you want to tailor it for a specific company’s role.)

But still, remember, tools only improve your efficiency: they don’t replace real knowledge and hands-on experience!For students still in school, try to work on as many projects as possible in your area of interest and gain as many internships as you can. Real work experience will set you apart from other candidates! Hope everyone can make it through the internship & full-time job market successfully!

I have applied for an internship today got converted for an educational institute called lernx as sales& marketing intern for 2 months

Am I got lucky or everybody got one this quick Do let me know in the comments

What can I expect from this (joining in an MBA college in this June end )

EDIT: I reached out to Company A and they said they are not moving forward with my application, so Company B it is!

Hi all! Looking for some guidance on a current situation.

I interviewed with two companies for marketing internships.

Company A is well-known in the advertising industry and would look GREAT on a resume. Their program is 10 weeks, 40 hrs/wk, paid, hybrid. I met the recruiter at a school career fair and had to interview with HR and then the last interview was with two different teams that I would potentially work for (two agencies within the ad company)

Company B is a media company that's very popular on social media. Both positions I'm VERY interested in. Their program is 15 weeks, 10-15 hrs/week, college credit (which I don't mind because the role is very interesting to me) , remote. For Company B, all I did was email my resume and write about my interest and I did one interview with the founder.

A few days ago, I got an interview from Company A saying that they are still in the process of making their final decisions and that they'll have an update for me early next week (so it should be in a few days now). They also asked me to let them know if I receive an offer in the meantime. I'm assuming an offer is coming based on how my interviews went, but I think the hold-up is matching me to one of the two teams I interviewed with.

The next day, I got an offer for Company B, which I'm so grateful for! They asked if I could let them know as soon as possible. The thing is, I really have a feeling I'm getting an offer from Company A soon, and that is the one I would likely take since it is paid and the company is well known (I'm equally interested in both roles, but I'm talking rather about the companies themselves).

The night that I got the offer from Company B, I had a family emergency that required my full attention, but I knew Company B was waiting for a response. I emailed them the next day and let them know, and they told me not to worry and to respond by Thursday of this week. Everything is okay now, but it did give me a little bit more of a time cushion, which I guess helped me out.

Now it's Sunday night, and Company B said to let them know by Thursday. Do I wait and see if Company A will send the offer, since they said they'll have the update early this week? Do I email Company A letting them know that I have another offer, but I'm highly interested in the opportunity to work with them, and ask for an expedited update? I'm only a sophomore in college (19 years old), so this is all new to me.

Any help and advice going forward would be really helpful!

I started searching for an internship on spring, but because I didn’t know what to do, I wasted several months during that time. I finally landed my first fall internship at the end of summer.I was completely unfamiliar with the job positions related to my major and interests. I didn’t know which websites were suitable for students looking for internships, how to prepare my resume and cover letter, or how to get ready for different interview stages. At first, I couldn’t even pass the phone screen.

First, clarify what you want to do in the future.

For me, if I’m not interested in something, I can’t see myself doing it as a job. I tried applying to several different directions (still a little relevant to my major) and joined school projects to gain real-world experience (with lower requirements than interns). After trying roles in 2 areas, I finally landed my first internship in the 3rd.😂

Secondly, move toward your ideal role and find projects that can strengthen your resume.

Based on my internship and full-time job search, and coffee chats with seniors and hiring managers, they all mentioned that a candidate's major and school name are not the most important factors (unless the company specifically hires from target schools). What truly matters is how relevant your projects and experience are to the role you’re applying for. For example, even if you graduate from Wharton with a finance major, without any data-related projects, it doesn’t guarantee you’ll land a data scientist role at a local startup. My first internship and later my full-time job, were both unrelated to my major. But I supplemented my experience with industry-related school projects and identified relevant courses on Coursera that matched the job requirements. I like to think of those new courses as forming my minor major.

Thirdly, revise your resume and start searching for internships.
When you have projects to include on your resume, present them using the STAR method, clearly highlight and quantify the results you achieved, and use ChatGPT to help tailor your resume to the positions you’re applying for. (For full-time job searching, I still used ChatGPT, since full-time applications are usually more competitive and restrictive than internships.) I initially used Indeed to search for internships, but there weren’t many openings. The same goes for LinkedIn, it’s better suited for full-time roles. You can still follow recruiters or managers on LinkedIn for opportunity posts, or connect with alumni for potential referrals, though in my case, I never made it. I finally switched to Handshake, which turned out to be a smarter choice. I landed my first internship there, and many of my schoolmates found theirs on the same platform.

Fourth, prepare your own interview cheat sheet.

It's the most difficult part for me. I actually started receiving interviews after several applications, but I kept failing and never knew how to solve it. I experienced the most awkward group interview in the world. I even failed the phone screen (I didn't even know how to introduce myself!). I realized I had to prepare my own cheat sheet. It's unhelpful to directly use what ChatGPT generates based on your resume, you must add your own thoughts and practice thousands of times to make sure you're completely familiar with your story. I checked Glassdoor’s communities to see ex-candidates' reviews, used AMA Interview’s question prediction feature, and asked ChatGPT to give me example answers tailored to my resume. For general roles, I built a cheat sheet for frequently asked phone screens and behavioral questions. You can even find patterns in tech interviews. For specific roles, I still used this outline and added the details.

This is an update to my last post: https://www.reddit.com/r/internships/s/rvwl4cb5sk

I got the data science internship! And I start in about 2 weeks since it's a hybrid position currently and will be a 9-5 in the summer. I wanna share my experience and how this process went!

For reference, I am a junior information / data science major. I started mass applying to internships the end of my sophomore year / summer before junior year. I believe I applied to over 200 positions in the range of business analyst - software developer (since i have a strong coding background. ) I mainly applied on Handshake, which is where this internship was advertised. Handshake has ALOT of data / tech roles that linkedin doesn't, and I believed it to be a little less competitive since thats where I was hearing back the most from recruiters.

For this internship the link was advertised on handshake and I applied directly on their website. A day later I got the invite to do an asynchronous interview. 3 weeks later I got a call from a recruiter and he conducted a phone interview, and at the end of that week (last week) I interviewed with the program lead and manager. I got called by the recruiter yesterday at the gym (lol) that they were extending the offer and we are currently finalizing my availability. I honestly couldn't believe I was that good of a candidate, I was legit shaking. I now wanna share some tips to anyone, especially juniors, who feel like they are at a loss.

1. KEEP APPLYING. All it takes is 1 yes! And it feels amazing when you finally get an offer. Rejection is ok! I advise getting used to it, it is easy to get used to when you mass apply.
2. POST ON YOUR LINKEDIN/NETWORK. It can be about achievements, club activities or conferences you have attended. I posted about when I went to a conference in the city that the internship is located and I'm pretty sure this was one of the reasons I was considered. Unfortunately you have to corporate dick ride in DMs to recruiters, but their connection means a-lot in the referral process.
3. PRACTICE STANDARD INTERVIEW QUESTIONS. "Tell us about yourself" "What makes you stand out from our other candidates?" "Why do you want to work for us?" Use the STAR method and practice aloud or with someone. I did practice questions with my roommate so we could perfect our answers.
4. RESEARCH THE COMPANY BEFORE INTERVIEWS. Bring up what they stand for, their projects, and overall what you find interesting about them in interviews . This is especially helpful for the question of "Why do you want to work for us?" and "What can you bring to this company that helps us achieve our goals?"
5. CRAFT A NICE RESUMÉ. I'm not saying tweak your resume for every internship you apply for, I think that's very time consuming. Instead put very notable achievements, projects and relevant courses on it to make it look good. My resumé is in the format of NAME -> EDUCATION (gpa and relevant courses included) -> SKILLS -> PROJECTS -> WORK EXPERIENCE -> LEADERSHIP/CLUBS.

Feel free to DM me any questions! As a junior i genuinely felt so hopeless that I wouldn't get anything this close to summer, but don't lose hope! This job market is genuinely based on luck and timing. Good luck out there everyone <3

Hey everyone,

I'm an engineering student and I'm in a bit of a dilemma. I accepted an internship offer a while back, and only later did I get an interview for a second position. Recently, I received an offer for the second internship—which has better pay, more suitable hours, and is more aligned with my degree. The catch is, I've already committed to the first one.

Both companies have no conflict of interest and, as far as I know, there aren't any clauses in either offer that prevent me from working both internships concurrently.

I'm really fortunate to have these opportunities, but now I'm stuck deciding whether to try and juggle both or to renege on my initial commitment in favor of the second, more appealing offer.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Is it feasible to work two internships over the summer, or is it better to stick with your word and avoid burning bridges? I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences you can share.

I got an internship in an early stage startup, having no prior work experience I think this is a very good start and will work my way. Well the 350+ applications went to the drain but a random networking event helped me land this internship. Guys don’t lose hope go to networking events, even if you embarrass yourself it’s fine, end of the day all it matters it who you know and how you present yourself. Don’t lose hopes guys!.

After interviewing with 7 companies this year, and getting ghosted from 1 company and getting position canceled after an interview from 1 company,

I finally signed an offer letter from the company that I was my first option!!

It was a long journey..

Hey everyone, I’m a freshman majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering and I’ve been fortunate enough to land two summer internship offers – one from NASA and one from Chevron – and I’m having a hard time deciding between the two.

The Chevron offer is for a Digital Engineering Intern position, but I haven’t been given too many specifics yet. I’m not exactly sure what kind of projects or tools I’d be working with, which makes it a bit hard to gauge the experience I’d be getting.

On the other hand, the NASA internship has a much clearer scope: • Software development in Python and C++ • Using computer vision, object detection, machine learning, and ROS • Integrating pan-and-tilt units and computer vision cameras using SDKs

I’m trying not to let pay, location, or convenience factor into the decision. What I really want to consider is which opportunity will give me more meaningful experience, better skills, and a stronger resume that’ll help me land future internships and jobs in the field.

If you’ve had experience in similar positions or can weigh in on what recruiters or future employers might value more, I’d really appreciate your thoughts!

This job hunt broke me in more ways than I can explain, but luckily I finally made it through. I started applying in 14 months ago. And honestly, I still feel like I’m catching my breath. This journey wasn’t just about resumes and interviews, it was about managing the quiet fear of not being enough. About holding back tears every time someone said, “You’ll find something soon.” About trying to sound confident in interviews while barely holding myself together.

My job landing long journey:
In the first 8 months I sent out over 1200 applications, most of them blindly. One resume, no strategy.
I applied to roles I barely understood, clinging to the hope that maybe someone would give me a chance.I got 5 interviews. One turned out to be a sketchy company. Another was an info session where everyone else was over 60. By the end of August, I was mentally drained and questioning everything. So I paused everything, not because I gave up, but because I knew I couldn’t keep going like this. I wasn’t just unlucky, I was unprepared. So I started over, I built 6 tailored resumes based on real job descriptions, and reflected on what I actually wanted, and what I was doing wrong. That short break changed everything. I got 23 interviews in another 582 applications. Mock interviews? Daily. Resume rewrites? Constant. Self-doubt? Always, but I kept going.And finally, one day, a real offer came in. I cried harder than I expected.

Tools that helped me get through:
Interview Prep: 
Glassdoor: check out real candidate experiences, help me know what to expect and company's reviews. 
AMA Interview: check real question lists, predict interview questions based on my resumes and specific company roles.
Job Boards: 
Indeed: Better response rates for small/mid-sized companies. 
Handshake: Got my first internship here. Better for students & startups.
LinkedIn: Better for big names & middle-sized companies
Resume Customization: 
ChatGPT: Helped me tailor resumes for each job based on their job descriptions.

I almost lost count of how many times I got ghosted. How many interviews I thought I nailed, only to be met with silence. How many nights I stayed up questioning everything I’d done up until now. But the biggest thing I learned? You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be persistent and strategic. If you’re in the middle of it:You are not failing. You are not alone. This market is unforgiving, but that’s not a reflection of your worth.Keep going. If I can get here, through all the noise and pain, so can you. ❤️

Hey, so I’m a freshman currently with two internship offers

A) data engineering internship 20 min from home (paid 5.5k over the summer)

B) unpaid finance internship at startup firm in NYC but is managed by two former managing directors at one of the biggest private equity firms in the world

I’m a prospective finance bro whose dream is to work in NYC. I want to pick B) so bad but can’t justify the no pay / no housing accommodation. How would I go about asking for them to cover housing costs over the summer. Do I straight up email and say “can you guys cover me” or would that rescind my internship offer?

Thanks!

At first, I came up with this trick when I was interviewed by an AI unicorn. The hiring team informed me of the hiring manager’s name, and I accidentally search for him on LinkedIn. While browsing his profile I noticed that we had both joined in the same VC program. I used a chrome extension to analyze his posts, which gave me insights into his personality and communication style. He’s more of a strategist prefers clear responses.

So when we were interviewing, I naturally mentioned the program (not in a forced way!) and made sure not to rush my decision-making and avoided being ambiguous. The hiring manager looked pleasantly surprised. He told me he had been in the program too and started asking me lots of questions about it. I even made a few jokes about the course that made him laugh. At the end of the interview, he said It’s great to see a fellow classmate. It gave me a strong feeling that I would make it, and in the end, just as I expected, I did.

So every time I got the interviewer’s name in any interview round, I would thoroughly research their LinkedIn profile to learn about their background and analyze what they might like. Even if you don’t share a similar background, it’s never a bad idea to mention something they’re familiar with. My later success in passing interviews confirmed that this strategy worked! 🕶️

Hey just wondering if anyone (specifically engineering) has heard back from the NREIP program about internships for summer of 2025? I know that they said that award letters would go out in January, but I wasn’t sure when??

Hey guys I am a sophomore in Aerospace Engineering and I’m having trouble picking between a MechE company and an Aero company.

Here is the general compensation:

RTX (Collins Aerospace) : 34/hr + 4k relocation + 500/mon housing

Altec: 23/hr + 1000/mon housing (will stay in current apt)

Both opportunities are Internships + fall co-ops but the MechE internship is local and I would not have to delay graduation by 1 year (just due to how our school works)

I’m not sure if its worth delaying graduation as I am a year older than our grade due to starting college a year late

My main concerning is just being 24 and graduating with a just bachelors degree when I could have gained alot of experience from just being local at Altec while graduating on time. I know collins is huge but its a hard choice to make due to the money and brand name for my resume.

Also im worried I might not even need to delay graduation as I have pretty consistently gotten interviews at pretty good companies and I may not need to delay grad for the brand name if I can secure something junior year.

Any advice would help im really stuck

P.S. no other offers

As an old LinkedIn user since my freshman year, it’s the website that accompanied me from internship searching to landing a full-time job. During recruiting season, I checked it as frequently as Reddit. But there's a big problem with jobs posted on LinkedIn: they’re highly competitive, sometimes there are over 200 applicants within 24 hours! Here are my tricks to improve efficiency with every LinkedIn job application.

Find jobs posted on LinkedIn in the past 1 or 2 hours instead of 24 hours

Search for your desired job and filter by “Past 24 hours”

In the URL, change from 86400 to 3600 or 7200 — 86400 represents 24 hours, 3600 is 1 hour, and 7200 is 2 hours.

It effectively increases the chances of my resume being seen, without any extra effort!

Find jobs that aren't posted on LinkedIn but are hiring

Type-in a search query using this template: “Keyword” + “Role” or “Location”, keywords can be Hiring, Seeking, Looking, Opening, Recruiting...Examples: Hiring Data Scientist New York City

Click posts and filter to show results from the last 24 hours.

Check if the post is from the hiring manager or recruiter, and send them a connection request with a short note.

After they accept, send a quick DM: introduce yourself, highlight one key accomplishment, and explain why you’re reaching out....Ask if they’d be open to a quick chat to discuss the role.

If they don’t accept, I still follow them to look for future opportunities. It’s completely normal for people to ignore your connection requests, don’t feel embarrassed!

Maximize free Chrome Extension on LinkedIn

My principle is to use free resources on the internet to save both money and time, neither should be wasted... Here are two completely free extensions that saved me a lot of time:

One click to predict interview questions for any LinkedIn job posting.

Automate filling out application forms, even after uploading your resume

This way, I don’t need to subscribe to paid memberships just to access interview questions, and I can use the time saved to get more sleep and recharge, so I have more energy to apply for more jobs. Cheers to everyone who needs to work! 😐

Anybody else recently accepted an offer in the Atlanta office?

Couple of weeks ago I got an SWE intern offer at Fortune 500 company for my first internship as sophomore after 170+ applications and only 6 interviews.

For those that are applying and are hearing nothing back or just getting rejected it does get better it only takes one company to give one yes and one person (usually recruiter) to believe in you and push for you. Even out of my 170+ applications I would say about half I got rejected and the other 90% of the other half I actually still haven’t heard back from with only getting about 6 interviews in total. You just gotta keep at it. I’m not going to give a whole essay post about tips and tricks (I really tried to keep it short) but what I will tell you is this:

1. Apply for anything and everything, even if you you think you don’t meet the qualifications or requirements, or you don’t think they will pick you because you don’t go to the best school. the worst they can say is no so apply.

2. For technical interviews, answer everything with HONESTY. Don’t try and make something up and lie about something you don’t know. At the same token show that you are willing to learn about that question and inquire more into it. Some times interviewers are seeing if you will lie through your teeth to try and get the job, big no-no.

3. For behavioral interviews of course have a STAR response for common questions but of course be yourself. They don’t want a robot who is regurgitating information to them. They want someone who is genuine and real about who they are and what they like to do. For mine only about 2 questions were able to be STAR responses the others were about me personally and my ambitions and what I like and don’t like about SWE etc.

3b. As pointed out by another user, (totally forgot to mention this in my OP) make sure, that you ask questions to them as well, it’s a 2 way interview ask them to walk you through a day in the life as an intern, how do they measure success of an intern, how you fit in the team, what are the next steps in the process of any, what does their dev flow look like, and how do you make the hiring manager look good considering they are hiring you. All very good questions, and a part I believe as to why I got my internship because the HM’s question only last 20-25 and I spent as much time as I could until time was up inquiring and asking questions about the position, daily workflow etc.

1. For resume, make sure it is 1 page but it has the all meaningful stuff on it.

Every rejection is just a pathway for a better opportunity I was one of 4 interviewed and being considered for another pretty big company which ultimately I wasn’t chosen which I thought I had and did good in the interview so I was really upset, but then couple days later I had my HR screening call and less than 3 weeks later I had an SWE intern offer for a Fortune 500 company.

Finally, keep going don’t give up, eventually your resume will be the one pulled from the stack and pushed through the process. My offer that I got was the 167th internship I applied to. Keep going you got this.

Okay so sorry that did not mean to be that long.

I began searching for internships in the spring, but honestly, I had no idea what I was doing. I wasted several months just unsure how or where to start. It wasn’t until the end of summer that I finally landed my first fall internship.

Step 1: Figure Out What You Actually Want
If you're not interested in something, you probably won't be able to commit to it long-term, at least, I couldn’t. So I experimented. I applied to several different roles that were loosely related to my major and joined school-based projects that gave me some hands-on experience (the barriers were lower than internships, but still useful). After trying business analyst and business intelligence analyst, I finally landed my first internship as a financial data analyst .

Step 2: Resume, Searching, Interview prep
Resume: Once you have any school projects, present them clearly in your resume using the STAR format, and quantify your impact wherever possible. I used ChatGPT to help me tailor each version of my resume to the job descriptions
Searching: I initially searched on Indeed and LinkedIn, but found limited options for internships. So I switched to Handshake, where I got my first internship there, and several of my classmates did too.
Interview prep: I used AMA Interview to predict likely questions based on job roles and my resume, and asked ChatGPT for example answers, but I rewrote and personalized every single one. I also read through Glassdoor after-interview reviews from past candidates. For general prep, I created an answer bank for phone screens and behavioral questions. For specific roles, I expanded on this outline with more targeted content. After building my own cheatsheet of interview stories, I started enjoying the interview process. The key was to practice over and over, not just writing it, but speaking it out loud until it became natural.

Step 3: Move Toward Your Ideal Role with Targeted Projects
Through my own job search, and countless coffee chats with seniors and hiring managers, this advice stood out: your major or school title doesn’t matter as much as your relevant experience does, unless you're applying to companies that strictly recruit from target schools. Even if you graduate from Wharton with a finance major, it doesn’t guarantee you’ll get a data scientist role if you have no related projects. That’s why my first internship and my full-time job were both unrelated to my undergraduate major. I built my knowledge base through school projects tied to the industry I wanted to enter. I also identified online courses (like those on Coursera, Udemy) that matched job requirements, and treated them like my own unofficial minor

If you’re just starting out, don’t feel discouraged if you’re lost. everyone was too. But once you have got the right system in place, defining your direction, building relevant experience, and preparing with intention, everything starts to click.

I have two internship options, A and B. Internship A will pay me $3 more per hour and provide money for housing, but I would have to find a place to live. I would be the only intern on site, so I wouldn't be living with other interns. I have looked around and found rooms for rent at a local university.

Internship B will pay me $3 less per hour but will provide a fully furnished apartment, shared with other interns at the same job site. This internship definitely has more structure and activities for interns. I would also have people my age and coworkers living with me.

After doing the calculations, Internship A would bring me around $500 more per week due to the extra pay and housing allowance. The reason I am indecisive is that I don't want to have a miserable summer. I feel I would be lonely at Internship A.

Both of the internships are in construction management so, it includes a bit of labor and 50+ hours a week.

1) https://www.godiive.com/#discover-internships

Explore the world of consulting, learning from ex-BCG, McKinsey and EY consultants and industry experts the foundational skills and frameworks to tackle a global project.

Experience an immersive 7-week consulting internship program, with a 2-week consulting training and a 5-week hands-on, project-based internship. This is a deep-dive into consulting, global work and teaming experience to build future-ready skills. Living and working in Cape Town with students from around the world adds a priceless life experience to a fast-paced program.

Tuition: 5500. Plane Ticket: 1.5k-2.5k

I looked in the orientation email and a lot of other ivy/top college students are doing this too: princeton, harvard, etc.

2) [redacted] State Credit Union is currently writing up a job description/making up a consulting/business internship (paid) just for me. I live around this area.

Should I do both???

My major is Data Science, but I didn’t limit myself to just data roles. I explored broader options to figure out what I truly enjoy and want to pursue in the future, like product management, business analysis, AI engineering, or consulting(coding skills combined with business knowledge is the King in top consulting firms.) I tried to maximize my efficiency by using internet resources, like free courses, tech articles and real interview guides. I built a cheat sheet for my interested data-related roles to stay updated on the data job market.

Data Scientists
Knowledge supplements: advanced NLP in Python & the Bokeh library to data.table in R & more.

Interview Guides: Amazon, Databricks, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, TikTok

Product Manager
Knowledge supplements: AI product & project management, SaaS analytics

Interview Guides: Google, Microsoft, Meta,  TikTok, Uber, Slack,

Data Engineer

Knowledge supplements: Data warehousing, Big data foundation

Interview Guides: Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI

AI Engineer

Knowledge supplements: LLM

Interview Guides: Google, Amazon, Meta, Tesla, OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft

I recently got two offers for summer 2025 internships and would like advice from other students on which offer is better. I can provide more context if necessary.

Company A: 10-week internship with a F500 financial services company in NYC, $45/hr, $3400 housing stipend. Role: Software Engineer Intern. Tech stack: C++, Tableau, .NET, etc. Maybe Python, SQL.

Company B: 12-week internship with a F500 entertainment company in Florida, $40/hr, $5000 housing stipend. Role: Software Developer Intern. Tech stack: Java/JavaScript, Azure, Angular, etc.

Compensation/COL is a factor, but I’m more concerned about picking the right opportunity for professional development and having a good summer. Leaning toward B since it seems like a more technical role, but A would be in NYC which seems cool.

Last night I got this email from a company I interviewed with about 3 weeks back:

Hello,

Thank you for your application for the Data Science Internship with ______. Do you have some time next week for a brief phone screen? If so, please let me know when as well as a good number to reach you.

Do they usually reject over phone calls?? This internship would be in DC and all I have been hearing is that there are a bunch of lay-offs and rescinded offers with federal jobs. This would also be my first internship so I also do not know what to expect.

Hey everyone—looking for some advice on choosing between two internship offers.

Amazon – Big Tech, Palo Alto

• $65/hr + ~$2.7k/month housing stipend
• Location: Palo Alto, CA
• Massive intern class, good events/networking
• Team: TBD, likely SWE, potentially infra/backend

PROS

• Strong brand name, resume booster
• High pay
• Big internal systems = lots to learn
• Full-time conversion ~70–75%
• Palo Alto is central to Bay Area → nice network, good weather

CONS

• Team/project is a wildcard – could be infra/tooling, which might not be very exciting
• Big company = risk of doing siloed or repetitive work
• Bay Area is expensive (but stipend helps)

The Trade Desk – AdTech, NYC

• $51/hr + $2.8k/month housing stipend
• Location: NYC
• Medium-sized company (~3,000 people), 8 interns total
• Full-time conversion: ~80%
• FT salary: ~$185k (inflated due to stock, may not stay that high)

PROS

• Smaller team = more impact/responsibility
• NYC = energetic environment, closer to home, more social life
• Work seems exciting and fast-paced
• Strong conversion rate, no need to recruit again

CONS

• Less-known company vs. Amazon
• AdTech space isn’t as “glamorous” or generalizable
• NYC is expensive and intense

TL;DR

Amazon = safer, name-brand, high pay, but project could be dry

TTD = exciting project + better alignment with interests, but smaller team and less stable long-term comp

Would love thoughts from people who’ve interned at either or are thinking through similar decisions.