Yes, I did internships. Once, because I had to, and once because I wanted it. Internships are not a bad thing in the first place.
You can get insight into a certain job with all its everyday routine and narrow down your expectations. That is a good thing, and if you are interested in the work it can be a valuable experience. The con is that usually you are not paid for what you do. Apart from that, what you do is always what nobody else wants to do.
Most bosses know that, so instead of hiring another employee, they rather have continuously two interns doing the dirty work for nothing (but experience).
So, could you please explain me why everyone around me can't wait to do internships? Even if you know you are being exploited? The point that almost everybody brings to the fore then is: "It's good for the biography!"
No, no, no! If you did 5 internships in big companies, that tells me as a boss that you did not have the balls to be employed. An employment, of course, is better because you have working responsibility - but everybody seems to forget that.
The same thing with the semester overseas. Everybody I talk to wants to go abroad. What for? Because everybody does it? Well, if so, it is not any special no longer. For the biography? Forget about it!
There can be only one reason for going away from what you know, from the language you speak and the people you love. The only reason is that exciting prickle in you stomach that tells you: It's time to get away! If you don't have it, you'll never get it. And neither an internship, nor a year abroad won't help you.
