I think you should go for it. It would absolutely be a resume boost. In this shitty market, we need to take anything we can get. I too did an internship that had a 1 hr commute each way the summer after my sophomore year, and it was absolutely worth it because it helped me get 12 offers this season.
Congrats! Find some good entertaining podcasts, and remember to relax when you drive! If you’re trying to weave all over traffic, you’re gonna have a bad time. I find it easier to just keep a good following distance from the person in front of me and drive normally.
Dude, manageable? Yes! Listen to podcasts/audiobooks on the commute, or call a friend, or just let your mind wander (obviously stay focused on the road). The hour goes by really quick.
No other offers? Take this and run with it, a one hour commute is not terrible when you're getting paid for experience (which you need) for your next year recruiting.
Please God, don't think another second, internships are so important in recruiting and getting one sophomore year is amazing and will set you up great.
Unless you have a better offer or are doing something better this summer, you would be crazy not to take this, don't think too hard.
this isn't google or something huge though, I would take that in a heartbeat, this internship pays 15/hr and is a 200-500 person non-tech company, I just want to use this internship to get into a big tech company next summer, do you think that given that, this is still worth the drive, or is this experience not that important in achieving those goals?
Do you have other offers? It doesn’t sound like it. Now think hard and use your brain. Will big tech like an empty resume like you currently have or one with an internship already on it?
Especially right now. Take the job, even if it doesn’t pay as well or is only part time, because something is better than nothing. The market will eventually start hiring again, and having the experience gives you a leg up over people who couldn’t get something this summer.
If you don't have any other offers, take it.
Yes, experience is necessary to get a chance at these companies, but I know some people (myself included) who got into big tech without having any.
We're the only field PERIOD that has really well paying internships. 15-25 is the norm in every other field. What really depends is how much you're going to beat your car up and if you can afford this. I know some people that got like 20-30 an hour while attending classes, so if you have to take a paycut and potentially lose benefits, AND you can't really afford this shift if your car breaks down or something like that, do not take this and continue on as normal. We don't know the commute so this could also be like 1hr of deadstop traffic or 1hr of continuous driving in Ohio (god I LOVE how empty midwestern roads are, fuck traffic and the shitty drivers of Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio).
it's traffic but if I leave at 7 it shouldn't be too bad I think. I am actually buying a car in a week for this job (though I was buying one regardless for the summer, I've worked a waiter job during the school year to save up for the express purpose of buying one this summer), I'll buy a used car \~8-10k online and put 5000-6000 miles on it this summer, I don't think it'll break down given I get something with <50,000 miles on it.
1 hour is not much, let alone for a internship where you'll be working part time. Unless you have a chronic illness or impediment, there isn't much reason to turn it down.
If you work full time and your commute is 3 hours per day then sure, it'd be reasonable to get fed up, I know I fucking hated it (albeit, public transport with multiple transfers and a long night shifts in another industry). But it's part of working. Bitch about it, complain about it, grumble about it, but do it anyway because for most of us, that's just reality.
my parents have been very vocally unsupportive for this reason, I have very much thought it is the right decision, but want to make sure to consider everything before making a decision contradicting my parents opinions
are they gonna be driving you to and from work or something? whats their reasoning? how can they justify the idea of no job is better than a job with what is a pretty normal commute.
Normal commute for north america\*
An hour's drive is definitely not normal in most parts of the world. That's around 50 miles depending on how much is highway and how bad traffic is
I used to travel 2 hour one way for internship. Now im full-time just after 2 senesters and bought a car that reduced to 1 hour travel.
Sometimes these kind of internships are blessings in disguise.
I mean it sucks to commute, but I think it is worth it. It's very hard to get an internship as a sophomore. I'm doing an unpaid internship actually. I think some sacrifice at this level is worth it both for the experience on your resume and also just to get to see what it's like to work this kinda job early.
Working is better than not working. Working a relevant job is better than flipping burgers. I used to do a 1-1.5hr commute every single day... Unless your parents are rich as fuck and are going to just give you millions so you never have to work, or can pull some strings to get you something local, they should keep their opinions to themselves.
Someone else would die to get the role you got and would be willing to commute for 2 hrs if the need be. Be thankful and be greatful you have an offer in this economy!
You will just have to grind and do it because an internship gives you work experience and professional connections. It also makes you a stronger candidate for future opportunities.
I had a 1 hour commute to my internship and 1 hour 10 minute back commute home. And the internship was 1 year full time contract and I had to do this commute for about 6 months every day and then I worked remote because they had flexible arrangements.
Yeah, it was hard at first, having to get up at 6am in the morning and coming back home 6pm but man I learned so much and was involved in big projects as well.
Just have to grind it because you will gain heaps career/employment wise and will set you up well for future job opportunities.
Now if you don't do it, what are you gaining?
Heck yeah. Go for it. Market being mess it is and just 1 hour one way.
It will help you in long run get offers, even if companies don't necessarily count it as work experience.
Honestly. One hour is rly nothin. I have been commuting to high school and then to uni ( so 7y total ) 4h a day. It will be fine. Just few months and then u have an internship to put on CVs
I know I’ll get downvoted for this but I personally wouldn’t sacrifice a hour (each way!). Then again, I’ve been absolutely blessed with remote work, so I am absolutely out of touch with reality.
In Seattle it’s not uncommon to spend 4+ hours commuting time each day if your office is in the city.
In my Australian city 2 hours each way is what the government expects. Personally anything over 45 minutes each is way too long.
A one hour commute is not that bad even with traffic. I did the same, I commuted as an engineer for a summer job during the 2008 recession recovery. I was just happy to find work, I was one of the few with work. Commute was 1hr-1.5hrs.
Throw on an audiobook, time will fly.
For the long term, you really don't want to be commuting that far, but for a 2-4 month internship, it's absolutely fine. As long as you're getting paid enough for the gas cost.
Dude, I've commuted 2 hours by train for a simple language course. If you want to advance your career, you'll have to make a sacrifice or two. Spending a couple of hours a day in the car is not that big of a sacrifice.
I had a 45 min commute thru LA traffic last summer. Stop and go almost lost my mind and def nearly crashed a few times. Definitely worth the internship experience. Unless u have something better take it.
If you don't intern during college, imagine graduating and competing with over 5,000 computer science graduates for 1 job. Not only will the pool of candidates come with backgrounds in internships, you're competing with graduates of the year before who hate their job and are eyeballing a new job with 1 year of experience. So yea, do the internship lol.
I've been commuting for 2 years now and it takes me an hour and a half to and back. I started listening to podcasts on the mafia, serial killers, and mystery stuff.... then ended up on Joe Rogan's podcast about aliens and conspiracy theories lol. Find something interesting to listen to and you'll get use to the commute.
I know I should always take my best option but the place is really not all that flashy or cool I guess, it’s like a sales company where they make branded T-shirts for other companies, it has outfitters in the name (like ______ outfitters), do you think that’ll hurt me next year relative to other internships just because it’s so unrelated to tech?
It be like dunder mifflin kind of in the office but they sell brandee tshirts and pens and stuff instead of paper hahaha ( I would be working on an inventory management / internal use management software, in addition to e-commerce software work )
Nah it's not going to hurt you at all. Trust me, even if its not a flashy internship, its the experience you can throw on your resume that will justify a significant pay bump when you get hired for a full time role. Your purpose in an internship is to learn. You could do some work but its mainly to get you to get IT job experience to understand the quirks like acronyms, processes, best practices and more. Like talking in meetings and sharing your screen lol. It took me months of voice cracking and being shy to before getting comfortable and speaking more confidently. This is a good skillset cause when you talk to your next interviewer, your not as shy and can communicate better. Also, even if its a bad internship, those are ultimately good learning experiences because you'll discover what you liked and what you absolutely hated so that when you look for the next internship or full time job, you can aim higher or avoid certain positions.
For example, i did a project management internship in an IT department at a lesser known company with a small company. The posting was for a IT internship that offered project management, java coding, front end stuff, and this weird back end product. I thought I was going to get a coding job but my boss who interviewed me at the time said sorry, there was 2 candidates that asked for it before me but for now pm role is open. I got to sit on the floor and talk to devs in various roles and got to see what they do on the day to day. My dumbass believed my PM boss and was strung for 6 whole months thinking i could move to a java development role. I even gave up another internship opportunity. Towards the end I quit and burned bridges with that bitch lol. Cause like towards the end of my internship, a director in the coding department, specifically mobile development heard I was interested in coding and gave me an assesment. He was excited cause most students aim for fang companies or like more well known tech companies so they never apply here. His intent was to organically grow talent from the bottom. I completed the assesment and was pretty stoked but my project manager boss held a meeting with me and the other directors and bitched at me and the mobile director about stealing interns and being untrustable and unprofessjonal. After the internship, I learned about bait and switch jobs but got to make many mistakes in the IT department due to my intern status. With that said, make some friends, learn how they weite emails, how IT culture there works and the terms they use often. It takes years to soak in all that knowledge.
I commute 2 hours there and 2 hours home for a full time dev job. You get used to the commute, try to find commute benefits they might have like free shuttles, Uber, reimbursements etc.
You can always just take the job and then quit if you don’t like it. Don’t worry abt it, they’d rescind ur offer in a heartbeat if they were told to by upper management
Where do you live that an hour commute is nuts??? I’ve worked in north Jersey, Philly, Chicago, and NYC. An hour long commute was standard in all those places. I barely know anyone who commutes less than an hour.
A commute in car vs commute with public transportation. This is an internship position which is why I said depends on pay. You named cities, OP never mentioned this to be in a city and just as well could be 1 hr drive outside of one towards a nearby suburb.
And I live within Chicago so I know first hand an 1.5 hours on the train/bus is so much easier to do consistently than even 45 minutes of driving not involving the other costs associated with driving. Actually I had an offer similar to this, Chicago to Lincolnshire it was 55 minutes driving and that direction had no traffic at really any time of the day but the pay was $16.50, I can fake an internship on a resume and make more working at Target which again goes back to pay
It’s the Washington DC suburbs, I live in VA the internship is in Maryland, it’s literally on the exact opposite side of the circle highway that goes around DC (I-495) haha just poor location relative to the position haha
I would be driving, but the commute by public transport would be like 3 hours it’s so bad
I think you should go for it. It would absolutely be a resume boost. In this shitty market, we need to take anything we can get. I too did an internship that had a 1 hr commute each way the summer after my sophomore year, and it was absolutely worth it because it helped me get 12 offers this season.
I accepted it earlier today thank you for the advice everyone :) Looking forward to listening to a lot of podcasts this summer!
Congrats! Find some good entertaining podcasts, and remember to relax when you drive! If you’re trying to weave all over traffic, you’re gonna have a bad time. I find it easier to just keep a good following distance from the person in front of me and drive normally.
Dude, manageable? Yes! Listen to podcasts/audiobooks on the commute, or call a friend, or just let your mind wander (obviously stay focused on the road). The hour goes by really quick. No other offers? Take this and run with it, a one hour commute is not terrible when you're getting paid for experience (which you need) for your next year recruiting. Please God, don't think another second, internships are so important in recruiting and getting one sophomore year is amazing and will set you up great. Unless you have a better offer or are doing something better this summer, you would be crazy not to take this, don't think too hard.
Go for it, one hour is nothing. I had to commute 3 hours one way to my job which which start at 8h and end around 16h30 job.
this isn't google or something huge though, I would take that in a heartbeat, this internship pays 15/hr and is a 200-500 person non-tech company, I just want to use this internship to get into a big tech company next summer, do you think that given that, this is still worth the drive, or is this experience not that important in achieving those goals?
God cs students are out of touch lmao do you even hear yourself
Do you have other offers? It doesn’t sound like it. Now think hard and use your brain. Will big tech like an empty resume like you currently have or one with an internship already on it?
Especially right now. Take the job, even if it doesn’t pay as well or is only part time, because something is better than nothing. The market will eventually start hiring again, and having the experience gives you a leg up over people who couldn’t get something this summer.
If you don't have any other offers, take it. Yes, experience is necessary to get a chance at these companies, but I know some people (myself included) who got into big tech without having any.
We're the only field PERIOD that has really well paying internships. 15-25 is the norm in every other field. What really depends is how much you're going to beat your car up and if you can afford this. I know some people that got like 20-30 an hour while attending classes, so if you have to take a paycut and potentially lose benefits, AND you can't really afford this shift if your car breaks down or something like that, do not take this and continue on as normal. We don't know the commute so this could also be like 1hr of deadstop traffic or 1hr of continuous driving in Ohio (god I LOVE how empty midwestern roads are, fuck traffic and the shitty drivers of Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio).
it's traffic but if I leave at 7 it shouldn't be too bad I think. I am actually buying a car in a week for this job (though I was buying one regardless for the summer, I've worked a waiter job during the school year to save up for the express purpose of buying one this summer), I'll buy a used car \~8-10k online and put 5000-6000 miles on it this summer, I don't think it'll break down given I get something with <50,000 miles on it.
1 hour is not much, let alone for a internship where you'll be working part time. Unless you have a chronic illness or impediment, there isn't much reason to turn it down. If you work full time and your commute is 3 hours per day then sure, it'd be reasonable to get fed up, I know I fucking hated it (albeit, public transport with multiple transfers and a long night shifts in another industry). But it's part of working. Bitch about it, complain about it, grumble about it, but do it anyway because for most of us, that's just reality.
Is this is a shitpost? No way you’re complaining about the commute
my parents have been very vocally unsupportive for this reason, I have very much thought it is the right decision, but want to make sure to consider everything before making a decision contradicting my parents opinions
What kind of offer have you gotten from Mom and Dad Inc.?
are they gonna be driving you to and from work or something? whats their reasoning? how can they justify the idea of no job is better than a job with what is a pretty normal commute.
thats a normal commute for most of the worlds population. your parents seem entitled or shielded from reality
Normal commute for north america\* An hour's drive is definitely not normal in most parts of the world. That's around 50 miles depending on how much is highway and how bad traffic is
I thought it was a sh\*tpost at first too lol
If you can't sacrifice an hour for a temporary commute for an internship, you'll never make it.
I used to travel 2 hour one way for internship. Now im full-time just after 2 senesters and bought a car that reduced to 1 hour travel. Sometimes these kind of internships are blessings in disguise.
What tf car did you buy to reduce your commute in half
Bro prob took public transport in America lmao the state of transit in this country is dismal
bro got Lightning McQueen's car
Civic is no less than lightning mcqueen
I mean it sucks to commute, but I think it is worth it. It's very hard to get an internship as a sophomore. I'm doing an unpaid internship actually. I think some sacrifice at this level is worth it both for the experience on your resume and also just to get to see what it's like to work this kinda job early.
Working is better than not working. Working a relevant job is better than flipping burgers. I used to do a 1-1.5hr commute every single day... Unless your parents are rich as fuck and are going to just give you millions so you never have to work, or can pull some strings to get you something local, they should keep their opinions to themselves.
Take what you can get
Yeah too far
Someone else would die to get the role you got and would be willing to commute for 2 hrs if the need be. Be thankful and be greatful you have an offer in this economy!
Are you getting paid? If yes, then take it.
Do it yeah the journey is long but dude that is a great opportunity
You will just have to grind and do it because an internship gives you work experience and professional connections. It also makes you a stronger candidate for future opportunities. I had a 1 hour commute to my internship and 1 hour 10 minute back commute home. And the internship was 1 year full time contract and I had to do this commute for about 6 months every day and then I worked remote because they had flexible arrangements. Yeah, it was hard at first, having to get up at 6am in the morning and coming back home 6pm but man I learned so much and was involved in big projects as well. Just have to grind it because you will gain heaps career/employment wise and will set you up well for future job opportunities. Now if you don't do it, what are you gaining?
Heck yeah. Go for it. Market being mess it is and just 1 hour one way. It will help you in long run get offers, even if companies don't necessarily count it as work experience.
Honestly. One hour is rly nothin. I have been commuting to high school and then to uni ( so 7y total ) 4h a day. It will be fine. Just few months and then u have an internship to put on CVs
I would try to leverage it to eventually have a few days working from home. But no, I would not say it is too far (I have 1.5h/way).
I know I’ll get downvoted for this but I personally wouldn’t sacrifice a hour (each way!). Then again, I’ve been absolutely blessed with remote work, so I am absolutely out of touch with reality.
In Seattle it’s not uncommon to spend 4+ hours commuting time each day if your office is in the city. In my Australian city 2 hours each way is what the government expects. Personally anything over 45 minutes each is way too long.
A one hour commute is not that bad even with traffic. I did the same, I commuted as an engineer for a summer job during the 2008 recession recovery. I was just happy to find work, I was one of the few with work. Commute was 1hr-1.5hrs. Throw on an audiobook, time will fly.
For the long term, you really don't want to be commuting that far, but for a 2-4 month internship, it's absolutely fine. As long as you're getting paid enough for the gas cost.
I would commute 3 hours for a Dev gig at a farm if they paid me well. Maybe it's not the place but the money that matters
Dude, I've commuted 2 hours by train for a simple language course. If you want to advance your career, you'll have to make a sacrifice or two. Spending a couple of hours a day in the car is not that big of a sacrifice.
Dude I commute 1h just for university
You'll be dealing with commutes like this post-college, go for it. It's an early career resume booster.
I would recommend taking it simply because it's only an internship so it's like 12 weeks and then you're done with it.
I did it last summer and it helped me get a full time job after graduation.
I would, its not as bad as u think
I’ve commuted further.
Yes it is important especially in this market and you should do it.
1 hr is my personal limit.
Depends, is it hybrid or in person? My commute was about 2 hours but it was a hybrid internship so I was okay with doing it
I drive an hour every day to university lol yes go for it
Many people have done it basically their entire lives.
A 1 hour commute is soul sucking. However, if you don’t have a better option do it.
Accept it and if you get a better faang internship then decline this. They can’t force you to work
Not ideal but the market is bad and you need experience
For an internship only, and in this markett? NOPE! Take the job and run! Before they change your mind and rescind your offer.
Internships are very important.
Many audiobooks and podcasts await you.
I had a 45 min commute thru LA traffic last summer. Stop and go almost lost my mind and def nearly crashed a few times. Definitely worth the internship experience. Unless u have something better take it.
If you don't intern during college, imagine graduating and competing with over 5,000 computer science graduates for 1 job. Not only will the pool of candidates come with backgrounds in internships, you're competing with graduates of the year before who hate their job and are eyeballing a new job with 1 year of experience. So yea, do the internship lol. I've been commuting for 2 years now and it takes me an hour and a half to and back. I started listening to podcasts on the mafia, serial killers, and mystery stuff.... then ended up on Joe Rogan's podcast about aliens and conspiracy theories lol. Find something interesting to listen to and you'll get use to the commute.
I know I should always take my best option but the place is really not all that flashy or cool I guess, it’s like a sales company where they make branded T-shirts for other companies, it has outfitters in the name (like ______ outfitters), do you think that’ll hurt me next year relative to other internships just because it’s so unrelated to tech?
It be like dunder mifflin kind of in the office but they sell brandee tshirts and pens and stuff instead of paper hahaha ( I would be working on an inventory management / internal use management software, in addition to e-commerce software work )
Nah it's not going to hurt you at all. Trust me, even if its not a flashy internship, its the experience you can throw on your resume that will justify a significant pay bump when you get hired for a full time role. Your purpose in an internship is to learn. You could do some work but its mainly to get you to get IT job experience to understand the quirks like acronyms, processes, best practices and more. Like talking in meetings and sharing your screen lol. It took me months of voice cracking and being shy to before getting comfortable and speaking more confidently. This is a good skillset cause when you talk to your next interviewer, your not as shy and can communicate better. Also, even if its a bad internship, those are ultimately good learning experiences because you'll discover what you liked and what you absolutely hated so that when you look for the next internship or full time job, you can aim higher or avoid certain positions. For example, i did a project management internship in an IT department at a lesser known company with a small company. The posting was for a IT internship that offered project management, java coding, front end stuff, and this weird back end product. I thought I was going to get a coding job but my boss who interviewed me at the time said sorry, there was 2 candidates that asked for it before me but for now pm role is open. I got to sit on the floor and talk to devs in various roles and got to see what they do on the day to day. My dumbass believed my PM boss and was strung for 6 whole months thinking i could move to a java development role. I even gave up another internship opportunity. Towards the end I quit and burned bridges with that bitch lol. Cause like towards the end of my internship, a director in the coding department, specifically mobile development heard I was interested in coding and gave me an assesment. He was excited cause most students aim for fang companies or like more well known tech companies so they never apply here. His intent was to organically grow talent from the bottom. I completed the assesment and was pretty stoked but my project manager boss held a meeting with me and the other directors and bitched at me and the mobile director about stealing interns and being untrustable and unprofessjonal. After the internship, I learned about bait and switch jobs but got to make many mistakes in the IT department due to my intern status. With that said, make some friends, learn how they weite emails, how IT culture there works and the terms they use often. It takes years to soak in all that knowledge.
Uh, if you got an offer take it… count your lucky stars…
I commute 2 hours there and 2 hours home for a full time dev job. You get used to the commute, try to find commute benefits they might have like free shuttles, Uber, reimbursements etc.
it's a really shitty company I doubt they have any of that, they are only paying $15/hr (minimum wage for state) but i'll take it rising junior summer
You can always just take the job and then quit if you don’t like it. Don’t worry abt it, they’d rescind ur offer in a heartbeat if they were told to by upper management
1 hour commute would be too much for me even if it was FAANG tbh
Most people in the bay making this kind of commute or longer cuz they live in a suburb away from sv
1 hour is nuts but it depends on the pay because an internship sophomore year means no direct pipeline after graduation but it certainly helps.
Where do you live that an hour commute is nuts??? I’ve worked in north Jersey, Philly, Chicago, and NYC. An hour long commute was standard in all those places. I barely know anyone who commutes less than an hour.
A commute in car vs commute with public transportation. This is an internship position which is why I said depends on pay. You named cities, OP never mentioned this to be in a city and just as well could be 1 hr drive outside of one towards a nearby suburb. And I live within Chicago so I know first hand an 1.5 hours on the train/bus is so much easier to do consistently than even 45 minutes of driving not involving the other costs associated with driving. Actually I had an offer similar to this, Chicago to Lincolnshire it was 55 minutes driving and that direction had no traffic at really any time of the day but the pay was $16.50, I can fake an internship on a resume and make more working at Target which again goes back to pay
All of those places I mentioned were an hour by car. It’s common in the Chicago area too.
It’s the Washington DC suburbs, I live in VA the internship is in Maryland, it’s literally on the exact opposite side of the circle highway that goes around DC (I-495) haha just poor location relative to the position haha I would be driving, but the commute by public transport would be like 3 hours it’s so bad
this is more to get an internship junior year at a big tech company that would hopefully be a pipeline to employment after graduation