Intern or Full Time position dilemma

Jengon

Hello I was hoping for some advice or opinions on my current issue, any comments are appreciated!

I am being offered an internship and a full time position at the same time and want to make sure I pick the choice that will be best for me since I am a recent graduate. I am an MIS major and I am interested in having a technical career.

The internship I was offered is in the Information Technology department of a large company and I would be doing IT governance and communicating with several IT departments. It seems like a good way to get to know various IT jobs.

The full time position I was offered is similar to a financial analyst, also for a large company. I was drawn to this because I believed that I would be working with big data and it sounded like a good introduction into it. However, I recently learned that this position is mostly using excel and now I’m wary.

Both positions offer similar salary and I am more worried about positioning myself for a future career than I am about money.

I am hoping for a little outside perspective from technical people. Thanks!

Krones

Depends on what you want to do if money is not the issue. Sounds like your mind is already made up. Excel skills are nice to have but if you don't want to be doing vlookups, pivot tables, etc for the majority of your day it sounds like the other job is the winner. If you do want to work with SQL Server and become a DBA later down the road, the finance analyst might be the way to go but no guarantees and if you are validating data in Excel all day....

Master Of Puppets

Welcome to TE! I think the first position is the winner here. Taking into account you're aiming to pursue a technical career it is probably the better choice. With the financial analyst, I would say your options are not that many - not really sure how much of that experience will be helpful for the future.

eansdad

Internship would be the way to go to get into IT.

puertorico1985

I agree with everyone here. A financial analyst position would be a great job, but I would not call it technically oriented. If technical skills are what you want to learn and do in the future, the internship is the one for you.

blargoe

If you want a technical career, take the internship. I actually think the position as you described it sounds interesting. You might not be "in the trenches" doing the technical work, but you are interacting with the business and will get an understanding of governance, which could be a differentiator down the road. If I'm a hiring manager, I'd take a chance on an entry level person with some understanding of IT processes.

Early in your career is when you take internships and lower paid opportunities if that is what gets you in the door. It's harder to do so later in life, as your personal expenses tend to increase as you take on marriage, kids, increased medical expenses, etc.

Jengon

Thank you to everyone for replying!

@Blargoe - Yeah the fact that it was not very technical had me wondering if it were worth it. But since I would get to know various departments it seems like a good fit for someone who isn't sure which side to focus on.

@Krones - That is what I was worried about, that the experience would not help me later on.

swild

While I was unemployed at the end of last year, I was offered a Financial Analyst position but turned it down because it was a step out of IT. They tried to convince me that while that was the title, I would really be doing desktop support. I told them that I would accept the position if they changed the job title to align with the position and then never heard back from them.

I would say that there is no question: take the internship.

Jengon

@ swild - Yes, actually the job had a more big data name, and yesterday I was informed that it was in actuality a financial analyst position. One of the things I am most afraid of is getting that first non-technical position and ending up not being able to get my foot in the door.