Year Abroad vs Year in Industry for University

[Cy-Fy]

Hi, I am currently aat university about to start my 3rd year of mechanical engineering which is normally 4 years. I have the opportunity to do an extra year in industry so the total degree takes 5 years, or I can also do a year abroad so the last year is taken at a different uni so it is still 4 years long. So far I haven't done many internships in the summer although I've done a little bit before uni and just helped out with some projects, but no real work.

 

My question is, I understand that year in industry is more beneficial in terms of getting experience, but would a year abroad at a very top university sort of make up for it on a CV?

 

Thanks

[porina]

Is "both" an option, assuming it is of interest to you? Having more worldwide experience is also a help but my gut feeling is probably less so than time in industry. Which country are you in, and which could you be going to? I'm thinking the more different they are, the more value there may be. 

 

I got lucky when I did my degree, my time in industry was overseas.

[Cy-Fy]

1 minute ago, porina said:

Is "both" an option, assuming it is of interest to you? Having more worldwide experience is also a help but my gut feeling is probably less so than time in industry. Which country are you in, and which could you be going to? I'm thinking the more different they are, the more value there may be. 

 

I got lucky when I did my degree, my time in industry was overseas.

Hey thanks for your reply.

Yes I believe doing both would be an option, it might be slightly more complicated to apply as I won't be at uni to do all the process because I would be applying while I'm in industry, but anyway that's more of the administrative side of things.

 

I am currently at Imperial College in the UK and the options I was looking at was to do the year abroad in the US where the choices are the University of California or MIT. The options are obviously very competitive so there are also other options in Australia, Singapore and Europe. Maybe I should mention that my idea of going to the US is because I've always wanted to live there for a while, but I know that if a placement year is more beneficial for my career then I will prioritize for this.

[porina]

I applied to Imperial way back... didn't get in  But the uni I did go to had a connection with Toshiba in Japan, which is where I went for my year in industry. It was both a great personal experience as well as something to differentiate my CV from others graduates.

 

I'm not involved in recruiting so I don't want to end up leading you down the wrong path. I still think if you are interested and able to do both, you get the best of both worlds. About this time last year I had just over 2 week work trip to near San Jose. I think I could get used to the California lifestyle  Only ever been approached by a recruiter from Apple, don't think I'd be a "cultural fit" in their organisation  Maybe if I was younger...

[dizmo]

If there's a chance the company you do your internship will hire you, then I'd do that. Makes more sense. Networking is also a very important aspect of getting a job, more-so than a name that will appear on a sheet of paper. After all, it's not like you spent your whole term at these "more prestigious" schools, you were only there for a year.

[bimmerman]

I had a choice to do both, and picked a year in industry abroad. That opened more doors for jobs (and, grad school) than anything else I've done.

 

If I had to pick, do the year in industry IF it is relevant work experience. You get paid to get real experience to put on your resume, which helps you stand out from your peers when you're job hunting. A year abroad in another university is also excellent, as it broadens you culturally, but it doesn't necessarily help you in the competitive job market (unless you've been interning while in school already, as you should be doing).

 

I'd do both if it were an option. Hiring managers don't know your age so an extra year or so, who cares. Just have a purpose for being in school 'that long'.

[Cy-Fy]

19 hours ago, porina said:

I applied to Imperial way back... didn't get in  But the uni I did go to had a connection with Toshiba in Japan, which is where I went for my year in industry. It was both a great personal experience as well as something to differentiate my CV from others graduates.

 

I'm not involved in recruiting so I don't want to end up leading you down the wrong path. I still think if you are interested and able to do both, you get the best of both worlds. About this time last year I had just over 2 week work trip to near San Jose. I think I could get used to the California lifestyle  Only ever been approached by a recruiter from Apple, don't think I'd be a "cultural fit" in their organisation  Maybe if I was younger...

Hey haha yeah I mean these sort of companies do attract a very distinguishable type of person to work for them.. 

Yeah I think doing both will probably be the best. Imperial has a big name in the UK and it does have a lot of links with industry it it just sometimes difficult to see that they actually exist when you are just an undergraduate.

[Cy-Fy]

17 hours ago, dizmo said:

If there's a chance the company you do your internship will hire you, then I'd do that. Makes more sense. Networking is also a very important aspect of getting a job, more-so than a name that will appear on a sheet of paper. After all, it's not like you spent your whole term at these "more prestigious" schools, you were only there for a year.

Yeah thanks for your reply. Yeah, more often than not, people I have known from my university who did an internship did end up getting an offer for a graduate position so it does seem very beneficial to do the year in industry.

[Cy-Fy]

16 hours ago, James Evens said:

short answer: both

- don't how it is for mechanical engineering but for science a year abroad is essential depending on your goals

- industry looks good but isn't as critical. Don't know if a industry year abroad would be seen the same way as studding year abroad while working at the uni.

Yeah that is an interesting point about doing the year in industry abroad, maybe that would be a good balance of the two. Thanks for your reply, I'll look into this.

[Cy-Fy]

14 hours ago, bimmerman said:

I had a choice to do both, and picked a year in industry abroad. That opened more doors for jobs (and, grad school) than anything else I've done.

 

If I had to pick, do the year in industry IF it is relevant work experience. You get paid to get real experience to put on your resume, which helps you stand out from your peers when you're job hunting. A year abroad in another university is also excellent, as it broadens you culturally, but it doesn't necessarily help you in the competitive job market (unless you've been interning while in school already, as you should be doing).

 

I'd do both if it were an option. Hiring managers don't know your age so an extra year or so, who cares. Just have a purpose for being in school 'that long'.

Hey thanks for your reply. Yeah it seems like the priority should be the year in industry to begin with then, if possible then go abroad. But yeah I understand what you mean, if I can do both that is probably better.

[Cy-Fy]

5 hours ago, comander said:

As others stated, see if you can do both. 6 months of one and 6 months of the other or something close is ideal. 

 

One warning, "the University of California" is only impressive if it's UC Berkeley or UCLA. UC Merced is kind of laughed at as are Riverside and Santa Cruz. UC Davis, Irvine, San Diego and Santa Barbara are places that will have people say "good for you" but no one is going to think you're a super genius like if you went to MIT. If you go to MIT, try to do it during any time other than the winter. 

 

 

For perspective, I ended up alright (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google, unicorn, etc.) And most of my peers went to places like Harvard and MIT (and a good chunk worked at places like McKinsey) but I went to a mid tier UC(everyone seems jealous of my near 0 student debt though). I wish I had studied abroad at some place like Oxford or Cambridge... But I would still choose a good internship or co-op over Oxbridge or LSE or Imperial. Oxbridge are the only places well known in the US among the general population FYI. 

Hey thank you very much for your reply. Yeah that is another difficulty with the Year Abroad programme, you have to put down your preference of 3 of the UC campuses but you are not guaranteed any of them, and even then UCLA is not a possibility for us so the choice might not seem that great after all. MIT does seem like a great idea but it's very competitive so very difficult to get into the programme. 

 

I also appreciate what you mentioned about your own career path. I have also been looking into possibly applying for an internship at one of the companies you mentioned, maybe particularly Apple or Microsoft. The difficulty is that, first my degree is mechanical engineering so there are less options than for software engineers for example, and second I believe it is considerably more difficult to apply to those internships in the US from abroad. Would you mind if I contacted you privately to discuss your experience with those companies?

[dizmo]

8 hours ago, Cy-Fy said:

Yeah thanks for your reply. Yeah, more often than not, people I have known from my university who did an internship did end up getting an offer for a graduate position so it does seem very beneficial to do the year in industry.

It's really a no brainer to me. Why spend the time going abroad, with the hopes of landing a job after, when, as you said, the internship almost guarantees you the position? Most people I know that have gone to internships have been offered positions. Once you're there and learning, you learn the ways they want things done, and it's just more beneficial for them to hire you since they've already put that investment into you.

[airENOwevEr778]

I think you have both very good options but the school you'll go to can really only take you so far.