Are Internships worth it?

GavisconExtra

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice. At the moment I am considering applying for summer internships with the Big 4 and other firms such as BDO. I am just wondering if they are actually worth it or not? Financially it doesn't make much sense for me because I'm not from Dublin so would be paying rent in Dublin for the duration of the internship, and would obviously be a lot better off living at home and working at home for the summer. Also, it means that I may not be able to go traveling at all this summer, because of financing as well as most of the internships lasting 12 weeks.

So, can anyone tell me the benefit of doing one? Obviously I know that it is common to be offered a graduate traineeship, but what's the difference between getting an offer through the internship and getting an offer through graduate recruitment? I know one or two people who have been offered paid masters from doing an internship, is this usually only offered to people who have done internships or can people who are offered jobs from graduate recruitment also be offered this?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

T L

Where are you from? There are various big 4 offices in Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Limerick, Kilkenny, some of which definitely take on summer students.

There's no difference in getting an offer through summer work vs grad recruitment. You can be offered a sponsored masters through grad recruitment.

For you, the pros are that you can spend the few weeks evaluating if you like the work (you might hate audit and decide to pursue tax instead), the industry segment (you might find asset management interesting for example, or hate it and set your mind on traditional industry), and you'd get an idea if you like the atmosphere of a big 4 office.

Can expand on any of the above if you have more specific questions.

DmanDmythDledge

Having experience on your CV would greatly help. It's obviously far from impossible to get a grad job without previous experience but so many undergrad courses now have work placements programmes and those are the people you're competing with.