Internships are incredibly valuable to learning about yourself and your future career. According to NACE 2019 Internship & Co-op Survey Report, 56.1 percent of college students searching for an internship were not hired. Don’t let this number scare you! Internships are available everywhere. Sometimes, you just need to leave the state to find the right one for you. 

We have compiled a list of the top five reasons you should go out of state to find a summer internship and the top five reasons why you should not. 

Five reasons you should leave… 

1. New Opportunities 

An internship in a different state offers you a wealth of new opportunities. These include the chance to see things and do things you never thought possible and widen your perspectives. It allows you to move outside of your comfort zone and grow. You just might find you are more capable than you previously thought.   

2. New Connections 

Building a network can be incredibly useful in and out of college. However, building one in a new state can allow you to learn from new people, have new job prospects and connections, with the perks of traveling. You never know this internship might land you the job of your dreams, just because you made connections early.  

3. New Friends 

This may seem cheesy, but the ability to make friends with people out of the state helps to incorporate new perspectives and the chance to do cool things and live your “main character” life. 

4. Chance to travel 

Living in a new place allows you to have the opportunity to travel to new locations in your area. They could be local, or they could be four to five hours away. According to NACE 2019 Internship & Co-op Survey Report, 59 percent of companies assist interns with housing and travel costs, and forty-four percent of employers reimburse students for round-trip travel expenses. 

5. Money 

There are tons of internships that offer competitive wages, wherever your heart takes you. Companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Salesforce, they offer their interns upwards of 7000 dollars a month in wages, according to NACE. Talk about competitive!  

Five reasons you should not leave… 

1. Money 

Almost $8,000 a month from Facebook sounds appetizing, but the cost of living in the area might be just as expensive. According to Apartments.com, a one-bedroom apartment around Menlo Park, where Facebook is located, will cost you anywhere from $1,700 – $4,500 a month. So, it might just be cheaper to stay at home where you could still get experience but live with your parents. Not to mention the cost accumulated from relocating. In addition, according to NACE, 36.7 percent of employers say students should pay travel costs to the internship and housing. 

2. Lack of housing 

Some internships do offer to house interns, but it will come out of your paycheck. Would the four-bedroom, one-bath apartment you share with people you have never met truly be worth it? Not to mention, come time for your internship, there might be a lack of housing in large cities. According to NPR, in cities like San Francisco, housing has become increasingly scarcer due to the demand on the market. 

3. Homesickness and FOMO 

Depending on how far you move from home, you might not have the opportunity to visit throughout the summer. Not to mention, life continues while you are away, and it can feel as though you are missing out on the big and the small moments in your friends’ and family’s lives. The feeling of missing out or “FOMO” could cause you to become incredibly homesick and possibly even depressed. 

4. You are a small fish in a big pond 

The small fish in a big pond is a theory that refers to how students think of themselves, generally in academics. According to a Stanford research study, the theory indicates that “students in higher-achieving schools will compare themselves with their peers and consider themselves less capable, while equally performing students in lower-achieving settings have more confidence.” However, this theory applies when taking on a challenge like an internship. When you arrive, you feel confident and ready to take on any challenge that comes your way, but as time goes on, you begin to feel less capable. 

5. Culture shock 

When moving to a new place, you could experience culture shock. Oftentimes, the people are different, the laws are different, and daily stressors can be different. The shock could be so extreme that you decide to cut the internship short and simply go home, causing you to miss out on the opportunities you could have had as an intern. 

In conclusion… 

If you ask anyone with an out-of-state internship, they will always say the positives outweigh the negatives. Internships, in general, are incredibly valuable whether or not they are in-state, out of state, or online. Internships while in college or after graduation help you to grow your skills and gain the experience employers want.  

 So go out and search for the opportunities you want. They are out there waiting for you!