Anonymous
12/19/2025 11:49
Subject: Internship vs. research vs. job
Anonymous wrote:I had a (paid) internship in a particular field of engineering. These do exist, btw, even for HS students. People were nice. They loved doing what they did.
It convinced me, however, that their work would be boring *for me*. I still went into engineering, but chose upper-level electives and such so I could get a job in R&D instead.
A different intern the same place the same summer had the opposite reaction and later went to work at that place.
A possible benefit to internship is learning whether one likes that sort of work. It won't be as crisp a decision for some as it was for me, but it could be helpful in selecting a career path.
OP here,
This is interesting to me. The internship is with a company that does work that is similar to what he thinks he might want to do, in the field he is currently planning to major in.
The research would be in a field that he is curious about.
Both are related to engineering, but sort of different ends of the engineering spectrum if that makes sense.
To me, I think that is an advantage to the research if he gets it.
I will let him pick, but he is a kid who likes to talk through things before he picks so I want to think before we start talking!
Anonymous
12/19/2025 02:14
Subject: Internship vs. research vs. job
I'd go with the internship. It's a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity at this age. It would definitely be good to have on his resume, and it may even help him realize what he wants to major in.
Anonymous
12/18/2025 21:01
Subject: Internship vs. research vs. job
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I work in a federal research lab and up until this year, we often had paid and unpaid high school interns.
Our students always end up on at least poster presentation and usually get their name on a publication.
I see and where there is a publication, there is likely a patent or some type of IP process to learn about (from a high level), which is where the future entrepreneur/scientist/engineer can gain some nice exposure.
DP. Maybe. Lots of publications will have zero patent aspect or intellectual property aspect.
Anonymous
12/18/2025 20:34
Subject: Internship vs. research vs. job
Anonymous wrote:I work in a federal research lab and up until this year, we often had paid and unpaid high school interns.
Our students always end up on at least poster presentation and usually get their name on a publication.
I see and where there is a publication, there is likely a patent or some type of IP process to learn about (from a high level), which is where the future entrepreneur/scientist/engineer can gain some nice exposure.
Anonymous
12/18/2025 17:20
Subject: Internship vs. research vs. job
Anonymous wrote:I work in a federal research lab and up until this year, we often had paid and unpaid high school interns.
Our students always end up on at least poster presentation and usually get their name on a publication.
Federal site where I work had paid STEM (both HS & college) interns last Summer. We expect to have some also this summer.