A Request

[Pterano]

So I'd like to ask my fellow board members about a topic that's gotten me very conflicted over the past few weeks. I'm trying to get out of my current job and move onto something more in my field of study, which is history. Ideally, I'd like government work of some kind (probably intelligence work or really ideally join the Foreign Service), though hiring for people in my age range is terrible at the moment.

Now my mom's been pressuring me to take an unpaid internship, something I'm not exactly crazy about due to me having substantial bills to pay every month (i.e. health insurance, rent, food etc). However, my normal avenues at applying have so far been unsuccessful, and I applied to an unpaid internship at the Smithsonian. I figured like usual, it would come to nothing, BUT, just yesterday, I got word from a former professor of mine that the Smithsonian is actually calling my references now and getting information on me. Now... this still may come to nothing but... let's assume I do get this internship.

What's everyone's thoughts on it? Should I take the pay hit for a month or two (I'll have to commute into D.C. as well) to take this internship? There's no guarantee I'll get employment afterward, but there's also a chance they may ask me to stay on if they like me enough. I've been thinking it over the past couple weeks, but I still can't make up my mind, so I figured I'd ask for everyone's input to see what they all think. I appreciate the feedback, so thank you ahead of time!

[Mumbling]

There are several things you'll want to consider...

1. Are you able to pay the bills if you're out of business for 2 months? Getting in debt with some company is not the thing you want in this time of need, especially people in your age range who have a hard time finding a job. But if you say you have enough saved up to at least survive or if your family wants to support you on this end and give you an interest-free sum of money which you can pay back later, it's cool.

2. Will you be able to resume your job or find another if you come back from your internship? Since you cannot guarantee that you will get a job afterwards, this might be a risky thing to do.

If you've thought over those two things enough, I'd say go for it! The experience you'll get from an internship must be awesome. Next to that you will be able to build connections in the field, which will be very useful in later live. They might even refer you to other employers who can give you a paid job.

And if nothing good comes from it, you will still have the experience and you can put it down on your resume, which will hopefully have a positive influence on your job hunt in the future

[Pterano]

Those are very good points Mumbling, and the second one in particular I hadn't considered. I'll check with my job to make sure about that, though I feel since it's family run that probably WON'T happen, but you never know. Thanks for bringing these points up! I love getting other perspectives that I definitely end up missing down the line.

Yes, it certainly would be good to add to the resume as well. Something I was thinking about too was telling them I could bring a perspective that's different from college students, as they're all looking for credit, but I'm doing this because I want to do this.