[Molaris]

Alright I have a couple questions about student internships. (I am also a first year undergrad student)

1. Are they worth looking into and actually doing? I know the job market can be a little difficult for people just coming out of school with a chem degree, would having that kind of experience be of great benefit to me?

2. Where to look? I've done a little bit of snooping around online for internships and haven't found much for undergrad students. I live in southern California and I did find one program that NASA JPL has for students which definitly caught my attention.

I'm new here, so sorry if this question has already been asked. Us newbies probably sound like broken records asking the same questions over and over again, lol. Any advise is greatly appreciated!

[eazye1334]

1. Yes, absolutely. Proving you can cut it in the classroom is very different from proving you can do it in a work setting.

2. My first internship was actually at the university I was studying at. I stayed over the summer and helped one of the professors with some fuel cell work. As it turns out, that work and the summary paper I wrote about it helped me get my current full-time position. You're just starting out, so anything relevant you can add to your resume is helpful. I'm not saying you shouldn't try for the NASA one you mentioned or anything like that, but don't count out something "smaller" for your first. Anything can help, it's never really going to hurt you to get experience and some networking contacts.

[Molaris]

Cool! Thank you very much for the advise. My semester starts next week so I think I'll ask my chem teacher if she knows of anything that my school may offer.