Graduating Early vs More Internships

[The BMW Guy]

Thought I would get some opinions on this situation. I have made up my mind for the most part, but some more feedback would be insightful.

I have an opportunity to either go back to school and graduate on time like my classmates or continue going on internships, delaying graduation by a year or two. Currently I have a decent amount of experience (3 somewhat related positions) but I still feel like I haven't developed my skills enough and don't know what exactly I want to do in my field of study.

Doing more internships would allow me to explore more positions, gain more knowledge and hopefully figure out what I want to do without having to put in a significant commitment with one company. Internships are also a lot easier to get into than a full-time position with certain companies. Only negatives I see is I will be behind my peers, obviously getting paid a lot less for that time period and possibly not be given meaningful work as an intern.

Just curious what you would do and why?

[Type_S1]

I would graduate ASAP as your salary would significantly increase after you have your degree. Internships are there to show employers you have work experience. Without the degree you likely will not get meaningful work and therefor will not truly understand a job well enough to know if you like it or not.

Finish, get somewhere full time, get paid more, and than figure out what you like.

[tch7]

Graduate & get a real job. Better pay, better experience, etc. An internship really only makes sense when you have no related experience. Also, taking longer than average to graduate does not look good on the surface.

Lots of grads spend their first few years trying to figure out what they really want to do, hence the reason many companies offer EIT rotations that'll cycle you through different disciplines before you have to focus in on one. Nobody expects you to be committed for life to what you do fresh out of school.

[Euro838]

Get an internship at place that has a position that you want in a few years. It's not that important that you are not doing it as your internship. Do a good job at your internship, have them pay for your remaining school and allow you to work part time during your last years. Doing it this way will not leave you "behind" your peers. Your benefits are the following:

1) Tuition is covered for the rest of your studies
2) Don't have to work at a crappy job during school to pay bills
3) Don't have to look with the masses after graduation for a job
4) You are already building years of experience, does not matter if some of it may only be part time.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Real job experience > anything else, including education

Only exception would be if there was a guaranteed position doing what you want to be doing after the internship, and if they paid for you school. Otherwise GTFO of school ASAP because nobody cares about your degree after you have work experience.

[realazy]

I have assisted HR in a few career fairs as an engineer, and I just came back from McGill today. I would say make sure you have worked for the company you want to work with after graduation already.

Most of the major oil and gas companies don't hire any new grads into their official new grad program who have not already been in their student system. What's left are the entry level jobs which are very competitive due to the amount of experienced engineers that were laid off this year.

[googe]

I can't speak much for other fields, but anything to do with tech, your experience will pay off way more. Consider that when you put a resume together, even though a lot of work might be internships/part time, it comes across as several years working in the field. It also lets you build up your network of contacts for when you're done and don't qualify for internships anymore.

[Feruk]

Too vague, can't answer. What sort of degree are you doing? What sort of jobs have you had? Everyone's got "experience", but not all experience is equal.

[The BMW Guy]

Computer Science degree. Have had summer jobs programming and doing excel work for oil and gas companies. I really want to get into Amazon, Microsoft, Google (Flying out to a few for interviews but am unsure if I will pass) and other tech companies but it is harder to get into full-time positions than as an intern. Thus the main reason I am looking to delay graduating a little; so I can have more chances at scoring an internship with those software companies.

Also interested in getting into any pure software company, rather than an O&G company, to get more programming experience/skills. So far I'm still set on delaying graduation a little as the pros seem to outweigh the cons, keep the feedback coming.

[dirtsniffer]

^ I always thought you were in Engg

[The BMW Guy]

^ Wow, big brain fart by me. I am in Software Engineering. Although IMO it is the same as comp sci...except I get a fancy ring at the end.

[8baller8]

Experience trumps all.

[Feruk]

I know three guys who did Software at U of C and now work at Microsoft. Only one did an internship there.

[tango101]

Same Boat Man. ~2 years intern experience with different companies, working towards Compsci degree, and am considering doing another. I briefly checked out the career fair last week and could only really find intern/coop positions available for software dev positions in Calgary. I kept asking for new grad positions, but majority of companies want you as cheap labor for a year before paying you real money (I'm looking at you SMART).

Good luck with your interview in the states though. Be sure to brush up on your binary trees if youre interviewing for MSFT!