Unpaid internship for 6 months
I am graduating this year and I've been accepted in a top MSc program in Europe - think HEC/SSE/Bocconi. However, I have only 2 months of work experience in my local government. Thus, I believe I'll benefit if I get more work experience before I enrol in the MSc. I have the option of going back to the same government department where I worked before. The job is really interesting and sounds great on a CV. The department is the sole contact between the country and the World Bank and IMF. They meet foreign representatives when they visit the country, go on meetings with officials abroad, negotiate contracts, etc. However, there are no full time positions in the department - in fact someone has to die to get an opening there. The whole 'department' is actually 6 people and they all have been there for more than 5-10 years. There is no way they can pay me, but they offered to take me for a 6 month internship. So I am in a bit of a dilemma if I should take it.
Option 1 - enrol in the MSc directly, with only 2 months of work experience.
Option 2 - take the internship, work 6 months for free and defer my enrolment, but with the benefit of some great work experience.
Covering my costs of living is not a problem. My end goal isn't to work in the government (low pay). EU institutions/WB/IMF and other finance jobs are an option.
Thoughts?
If you do not have other comparable options that offer $$, and can otherwise support yourself, this sounds like a viable alternative to enrolling. Since you will be working with a small group, it sounds like you will have a great opportunity to impress them and forge strong relationships. I think that many of us in the USA might be more apt to discount the opportunity since it might be seen as more beneath a top tier grad to take such an offer, but I understand that in Europe formal employment in all sectors often follows the completion of an informal practicum or "apprenticeship." Given that you can still afford to feed yourself, I'd take the opportunity and then go on to enrolling. I am also doing something similar in terms of passing a full-time offer which may not reappear in order to pursue an opportunity in Europe which will allow me to build relationships on the continent in the fields I want to break into. It's all about whether you are comfortable rolling the dice. Worst case scenario, you are a little poorer, but you have a whole lifetime to make that back.
I'm doing an upaid internship right now and honestly with the experience I'm getting and everything that I'm learning everyday I don't care. Noone is going to know that it was unpaid and the company is very legit and of good size. Mind you I don't work 80 hours a week, if I were I'm sure my views would be different.
I've done an unpaid internship and like Bollinger said, experience is key. You can make the money back eventually, but you can't go back and get experience that is transferable to FT positions
Do you have to defer your enrollment for a year? If yes, do you have a plan for the other 6 months?
Thanks for the input guys, I really appreciate it. @Salphabeta I have another full-time offer which pays OK and some of my best friends work there, so it will be pretty cool. However I'm looking for something short-term because I want to start the MSc in Finance this or next year. And I will feel pretty bad if I go with the full-time option and leave after just 6-9 months working with people I care about. @GoodBread My plan was to have some fun during the summer, do the internship from September to May and hopefully do a banking internship in London from June to August before I start the MSc. Problem is I'm already 23 years old and if I do this I will graduate from the MSc at 26. Some associates will be my age and I will be a 1st year analyst just starting his first paying full time job. Plus depending on your parents when you are 25-26 will s***.
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