1hr Commute?
I'm thinking of commuting for 2 months during my summer internship, which would be approx 1 hour each way. I'd be in S&T so probably early mornings meaning i'd wake up at 5am and get home 8pm (?). Rent would be near 1000/month and probably reduce the commute to 20 mins or so. Commuting would be from my family home so no rent. Please share any thoughts on this, thanks.
I had about a 1 hour commute from home last summer interning in IB (not New York though). It’s been great having the extra cash senior year to go out and go on a couple extra trips
Thanks for the reply, any signficant downsides you experienced? What was your working hours like?
Live in the city and get the full summer experience. Some desks make you get there at 6am. So you're waking up at 4:30 to get there by then. Not worth it IMO. $1,000 is nothing in the grand scheme of your career
Appreciate the response. Though if it makes any difference I have <5 mins walking time during the commute. It would be more like: wake up, walk 2 mins, get on the train, walk 2 mins to work. But I do understand your point and will have a look at places near by.
Agreed with the above - if you are living outside the city it will be much harder to go out with the other interns/go to happy hours/get the full experience. Might save a few thousand bucks (which if you really need the money then it might be worth it for you), but ultimately you are going to be missing out on much more.
If you really need the money then I suppose you have no choice. If I were you, I’d live in the city work and enjoy the summer. I had a 40 min commute and that turned into a 2.5hr commute each way towards the last month of my internship, it was absolutely miserable. Have some fun over the summer.
Thanks for the response. My thinking was to save that money and ideally use it for a trip abroad in the rest of the summer, the rest would go towards investments, savings and final year expenses.
Live in the city
That's a decission you need to make yourself. Factor in the gas and commuting expenses
Appreciate the comment. Commuting expenses would likely be approx 20% of living costs + free food etc. Can also spend the time reading a book / doing some work etc.
you're probably buying back like 75 hours of time for 2k, so thats time you bought for about 27$/hr. Once you start factoring in the costs of actual transit, gas + wear, you're probably buying back the time for half that.
You can always make more money, you can never make more time. I'd avoid the commute.
I think you also have to factor in the opportunity cost of not being able to bring back girls to your place.
This is the most important factor IMHO, above anything else
My 2 cents, rent something in the city; you'll recoup all the money spent on rent once you start FT. If you're doing a summer internship, your sole objective should be maximizing the chance of securing a return offer. That extra hour of sleep in the morning will make all the difference. Plus think about any unexpected events that could occur while commuting, what if your train gets canceled/you get stuck in traffic and you show up 2 hours late?
Don’t do it for the sake of saving money, only do it if you can’t afford it. Working those hours as an intern whose never done it before is far more challenging than it looks on paper. Adding in a crazy commute will make it even worse and will disadvantage you relative to the rest of the class.
Also get a place closer than 40 minutes commute away. You can afford it, and you need to be closer if you want to increase your chances of an FT offer. The money you’ll make if you get one makes the incremental rent difference trivial.
Pros:
- You save money
Cons:
- You'll sacrifice sleep to get to work on time. If you end up working late, that's less sleep for you. If you go out partying, you'll be a zombie at work. If you get lucky with a girl, well tough luck. If you uber from the city to your place a few times a month, you'll end up spending as much as you would had you lived in the city.
- Coming in late during an internship, especially in S&T, is a death sentence.
- You might not have time for anything.
Advice - Try to find a really cheap studio in the city. You can stay there during the week and then go back home to do laundry/etc, on weekends, and then go back on Sundays.
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