

Ask HN: Should I accept an unpaid internship? - sz

I recently finished my freshman year of college (quarter system = late start/end).  I have an opportunity to work unpaid for a medium-sized IT company, Coradiant Inc., in the Bay area.  They are willing to cover travel costs and I can make arrangements with minimal living expenses.  However, this would require postponing projects I had planned to start this summer (not all of them programs - I'm eager to start learning quantum mech, for example), and having no income doesn't help with student loans.<p>My assessment so far is that the internship is more resume-friendly and will probably bring positive recommendations later, but an independent project summer will allow me to learn things that are more important/useful to me.<p>How valuable are internship experiences to entrepreneurs, compared to executing your own projects?  Are there any other factors that should weigh into this decision?
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seasoup
Seems to me like internships that are just resume padding don't seem like
they'd be of much help to someone looking to be an entrepreneur. Internships
at a start-up would yield much better results, as you would get to see what
happens in a start up first hand and they would probably pay you, and you
would learn a lot more then an internship at a big company. Just sayin'.

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kloncks
I'd take it. Experience is paramount.

Keep working on side projects. One day, they might be something and really
experience might help you there.

