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My son is a computer engineering junior. He has had a few interviews for internships but so far no offers. His grades are average. He has a career fair coming up mid February, in the mean time I have an acquaintance that is a Civil Engineer for he state. I spoke with him and he is really trying hard to use his connections to try to get my son an internship working with the state, the job would be working with computers, but as my son says, not relevant to computer engineering. My acquaintance told my son that if he really goes out of his way and is able to get him on, that he would like him to commit to the state internship. It kind of puts him between a rock and a hard place, his father and I know what the economy is like, and how hard it is to get anything decent job wise, but try telling that to a 21 year old. I understand that he does not want to turn down a "possible computer internship", but in today's economy something is better than nothing, our opinion is that even though this job may not be relevant to his chosen field it is still a state job, which we think would be impressive on a resume regardless. We also realize he will have to learn from his mistakes, any opinions will be appreciated. If he takes the state internship and commits to it, and then finds out he has to turn down an engineering internship because he is already committed, I will feel bad, on the other hand I will feel bad if my acquaintance goes out of his way and my son would take the job only to turn it down if he is offered a relevant engineering internship.
That is tricky! We have a somewhat similar situation where a friend of our has already recommended our son for a very selective internship with a well regarded company. He applied for it and sent our friend an e-mail asking for her help. Son has excellent grades but is only a sophomore. Tonight on the phone son mentioned that he might rather stay in his college town all summer instead. He has a great shot at a systems administrator internship there. However, none of this is anywhere near a done deal. There's no way our friend would want to stick herself out there if our son turns down even the interview. ugh.
In your situation, I would encourage your son to let the whole thing play out a little more. If he gets something more relevant he can back out of the state job with that as the explanation. It's understandable that your friend would like a commitment but if there is something more in line with your son's career path, wouldn't he understand? If nothing else turns up, I can't imagine why he wouldn't do the state job. ANY job experience is better then none and he will learn from it.
BTW, there are many internship search sites out there. I would not wait for a career fair. I know my son has applied to at least a dozen positions since last fall. This is a great one for tech's - Job Search | one search. all jobs. Indeed.com
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