Career Choices
FinneousPJ
Member Posts: 6,455
in Off-Topic
Hey forumers,
I'm struggling with a career choice regarding summer internships. In short, I'm faced with a choice between the university and a company in my field of study. The university I feel is a high risk, high reward case. They're offering me a job in designing a new lab for electrophysiological measurements with practically unlimited budget and free hands regarding design decisions. However, there is no guarantee anything's ever going to come of it. The pay is also way low. On the other hand, it might lead to groundbreaking inventions and discoveries. The company is offering me a normal engineering internship, with standard pay (20 % higher than uni), low risk and and low reward; the likelihood of innovating anything is low. It does offer a relatively obvious career path though, from intern to engineer.
What would you do?
I'm struggling with a career choice regarding summer internships. In short, I'm faced with a choice between the university and a company in my field of study. The university I feel is a high risk, high reward case. They're offering me a job in designing a new lab for electrophysiological measurements with practically unlimited budget and free hands regarding design decisions. However, there is no guarantee anything's ever going to come of it. The pay is also way low. On the other hand, it might lead to groundbreaking inventions and discoveries. The company is offering me a normal engineering internship, with standard pay (20 % higher than uni), low risk and and low reward; the likelihood of innovating anything is low. It does offer a relatively obvious career path though, from intern to engineer.
What would you do?
1
Comments
What is your field of study? Have you graduated with your degree? What stage in life are you at? Do you have any existing commitments, such as family, debt, or something similar?
1. Is this a career I want for the long term? Since you've gone up to M.Sc. you probably will be in this field for the long term, but have you found out more about the company, the culture, etc.?
2. How long can I tolerate a low income? I'm sure you didn't study so hard to earn peanuts, so you may want to set a baseline on how much you can take before you jump ship.
3. What is my contingency plan if things do not work out? Every day spent in the wrong job is a day that could have gone to your right job. How do you catch up with your peers if things are not as planned?
4. How does this career choice fit in my life plan (e.g. marriage, kids, house)? IMO, my career should revolve around my life, and not the reverse. You need to spend some time considering, and consulting with your GF is a good idea if you're already planning for something bigger down the road.
Feel free to contribute, everyone.
Then again thats what I say before I do something stupid. I'm hardly qualified to give life advice.
I simply pursued what I was passionate about, which is writing software, and took the opportunities to do that the way I felt was right, rather than pursuing the obvious 'best' opportunity - which in the early days I would not qualify for. 3 years later I had my dream job writing software for a top motor racing team, and indeed won several world championship (as constructor) with them - but that was never a path I set out a plan to solve, simply making the best of what I had means when the opportunity was available, I had a weird CV that happened to be the right one to open that door.
Ten years since winning world titles, I am in a completely different industry on the other side of the planet, still working on what I love - writing great code, for a company that believes in doing it right, and happens to value the folks can do so. I got lucky, I was in the right place at the right time to take the opportunities, but the opportunities were there because I had followed something I was passionate about, so had something to show. I was also lucky that my passion has been an increasingly valuable skill over the last 30 years - if I were passionate about making burgers, I might have a different story (and passionate about sushi would be another story again!) But that is what worked for me.
How passionate are you about the actual work these two options give you. Not how do you think others perceive that work (lots of software work was seen as boring, but it clicked for me and I loved it) but how would you feel doing that work yourself?
Taking another tack, thinking of this from an employer perspective, which of these would look better to me on your resume? If you have a track record of nothing but success in academic settings, I will have concerns about how well you will adapt to the rigors of a 'real world' job. The industrial internship settles a lot of those nerves, so looks better when trying to make that first step after final graduation. OTOH, the university position has the potential to provide some very interesting experience an skills when looking at that next step, three years later - although by then your most recent work is what would count. In the long term, neither will matter themselves, it is the opportunities that they happen to open up in the near to medium future, and what you make of *those* opportunities, that will probably have the most profound effect on your next 20 years.
I hope you find your way into something as rewarding and enjoyable for you, as my decade in motorsport was for me - there is nothing quite as good in life as genuinely enjoying our work, as that is where we will spend the majority of our waking time.
If the company's offer doesn't have an expiry date, then I would try the former for a while. After a few weeks it's likely I would know the chances of something big happening. If not then I'd take the company job. Is that a kind of hipster hating hipster thing? YOLOers hating YOLOers?
They're both expecting an answer next week, so I'm afraid stalling won't work. Of course I could ask for more time.
Thanks for contributing. To be honest, I think it's more likely the professor would wait even a few weeks for my answer. The company would probably just hire another intern.
Also, in my country, universities are cheap (there are pricey ones too) or even free (and they are quite good), this is to give an example of how different everything is here :P
I couldn't give any more advice (I'm younger than meagloth!) besides asking if you can get more payment from that work (I'm pretty sure you'll guess where I live now hahahaha) and (if you haven't already) introducing your GF to Baldur's Gate (not as a career, but, hey! It's a great game if not the greatest).
I have already asked about more pay, but they tell me it's not possible, because they have rigid payment schemes with salary tables.
Thanks for your thoughts
@FinneousPJ In that case I would probably go with the company job. Unless I found the work the professor is doing to be fascinating and I would regret missing out on a chance to participate in it.
Is a few months at 20% difference relevant long-term.
Have you talked to the professor about options such as ongoing involvement or consultancy.
Can the company offer you any research extras, or can you do this in your own time elsewhere.
If you opt for the university how easy is it to establish a career path elsewhere when you finish.
How realistic is the aspiration of being the #1 lab & of the proposal succeeding.
You obviously worked very hard to get where you are. Congratulations on the job, you deserve it!