Internships freshman year
Hello there,
I need some help deciding what to do this summer. I'm a freshman going to a target school ( majoring in physics) and aiming for top IB. I have three options this summer:
1) working for a relatively good startup. I think the advantages of this option is that it shows entrepreneurship and I'll learn a lot of management skills ( but no finance).
2) work as a research assistant in a experimental physics lab. I'm pretty passionate about physics, but I'm not sure if this work will be relevant and helpful for the future.
3) work in a small PWM firm. I'll learn about finance, etc..
These are the options that I was offered. What do you think? Should I try to contact f500 companies instead ( prestige). An other option is to chill and enjoy my summer, but my line of thought is this work experience will help me land a better internship next year and even better the year after. Thank you very much for your time
TheoreticalPhysics, a freshman internship really only serves the purpose of you learning and showing future employers that you work hard. So, I would choose the startup as that will most likely give you a more interesting experience than the PWM internship and something more relevant than the physics lab internship.
I would make sure to spend some time this summer networking and making sure to keep that GPA as high as possible. I would also include "no-name" boutiques in your networking efforts as sophomore IB internships are tough to get, but also very valuable to have.
One question. Why are you majoring in physics if you want to do IB? Do you know how hard you are going to make your life? Physics is literally the hardest college major by a mile. You're either A) way too smart to go into IB or B) going to get too low of a gpa in physics to break into IB. Bankers aren't going to understand that a 2.7 in physics is equivalent to a 4.0 in econ. Seriously, not failing out of a physics program is an achievement itself. There were 80 declared physics majors my freshman year of college. Only 9 graduated with a degree in physics. The rest switched to math or chemistry.
If you're committed to and passionate about physics, that is awesome. You're going to learn a shit ton and if you make it through, you'll be the smartest person in basically any room you walk into. The problem is that people in the corporate world, especially those who are not quantitatively inclined, do not realize what it takes to do well in physics in college. I tried taking an upper level physics class my senior year that had high math prereqs but few physics prereqs. That shit was so fucking hard. I spent 30 hours on the first problem set and got a quarter of it done. Physics requires creative insight, keen problem solving and as much if not more math knowledge than being a math major. I would hire anyone with a physics major from a good school but that's just me. Few bankers will understand this.
Sil thank you very much for your answer! I'll think about that DeepLearning it's awesome to see someone who knows how hard physics is haha. I've always wanted to learn physics. Yes I'm very aware of all the things you said and I'm majoring in physics simply because I love it( and I'm pretty good at it).I figured that If I don't do physics I'll regret it for the rest of my life. It's the only major that I'm really interested in, but I know , given the state of academia, that it's not something I would do for the rest of my life.I want to do IB because it's challenging and I enjoy the social interactions. Besides, I've done some finance courses on the side and It's one of the few things that sparked my interest and I feel that IB is somewhere with unlimited advancement opportunities, you just have to be the best. Maybe I'm just a fool who doesn't understand the world. If you have an opinion on this or recommendations on career paths,I would be very glad to hear it. Thanks for your question ! It made me reflect on myself.
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