Following Graduation: Internship or Job?

You take the job, unless it's a dot-com internship.

 

Also, after Google stalking you, have you spoken with guys in Baton Rouge about becoming a full-time staffer?

 

Although I personally would take the internship because, as Dick points out, now is the time you can afford to take the risk, I also just wanted to urge you not to rely on "off-the-rack" advice. There's no right or wrong decision, it all depends on what's best for you--No one on this board knows all of your circumstances, goals, values, etc. (like before, when I said this is the time to take a risk, it may not be for you). It's important not to just to get people's thoughts on what you should do but WHY you should do it, so you can weigh it into your own calculations.

 

Not yet. Planned to bring it up in a few months. From what I hear there will be a little shakeup at the paper come June, so I'm not sure what they will have open.

Continuing to work in Baton Rouge would be my ultimate goal come May. But, who knows at this point.

 

Take the internship. You'll get good experience while expanding your network.

Yes it's rolling the dice a little. But if you're good enough to get an internship at a top 20 paper, there are going to be job opportunities when the internship is over.

 

Matthew, kudos for putting together a great resume at this young stage.

With this economy, I would recommend the full-time job.

 

After hearing this from you...I say go for the internship...sounds like you're willing to take on the adventure and it could lead to big things.
Yes, it's a tough job market, but you seem to have the talent. Get the big-paper on your resume and look for another offer when it's over. One more word of advice...work hard during your three months...network, network, network and make the internship count. Three months flies by.

 

I'd take the internship. If you are good enough to get an internship at a major paper, there will be other podunk jobs around in 3 months. And if you don't find one right away, that's OK too. You're young and presumably don't have a family to feed.

The plus side is that the internship could lead to much bigger things that going right to podunk, and at worst it will be a much better experience.

I got an internship at the LA Times right after graduation. I never even bothered to apply for any jobs that would preclude me from taking the internship. (I got the internship in March to start in June.) Oh, and this was also a bad economy, in 1992.

Anyway, that internship turned into a job at one of the Times suburban bureaus and the rest is history.

So unless you absolutely cannot afford the potential unemployment after the internship, I'd do it.

 

I'd imagine the answer to the original post rests in exactly what qualifies as a mall/medium size daily entry position. If that means some real solid mid-sized paper (35-40K or more) stocked with good people, it might be worth it. If it's just any old opening you find on SJ, well. You only have so many chances to go big and try to network at the top, it can't hurt to try. And at the end you still have SI and some other big paper on the resume and it's only three months later.