I’m a first‑year student and would like to ask seniors which is more recommended for a freshman summer—an internship or joining a research group. The internship would also help me gain experience. I already plan to do research later and am currently still learning the basics related to it.
Can you find a summer internship as a freshman?
Solve LeetCode problems, do projects (not research projects), and then by sophomore year you should be able to land an internship at a major tech company.
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Not sure, but I thought I could just give it a try.
Oh, but I don’t plan to look for a job after my bachelor’s; I just want to understand how to allocate research and internships now. If I’m leaning toward research, do I still need to try to find an internship during the summer?
Play (bushi)
Whether to join the lab depends on the prerequisite knowledge required by your discipline ( ) do some research first.
No, two completely unrelated roads
I suggest you look for a research internship. Based on the samples around me, even a very strong sophomore friend was rejected by HR for a summer internship because of his grade.
The research you can do as a freshman is pretty much like a regular internship; it doesn’t require any prior knowledge.
Do whatever you can find; if you can’t find anything, just slack off and enjoy the vacation, which is also fine.
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Maybe you could first learn about the internship position you want, see what you need to study, and know that the online resources are comprehensive; since you’re in a lower grade and have more time, you could even study both, see which interests you, and then make a deeper choice.
It has nothing to do with the grade; it’s about your skill level.
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First of all, as a freshman you are most likely “菜” (not in a derogatory sense; it just means average or normal). Second, summer internships now are aimed at those who are about to become seniors and get a full‑time position; freshmen and sophomores are just joining the hype. Research and internships are completely different things. Many computer‑science research topics sound very “nb” (for example, any AI‑related research you’ve heard of). The vast majority of people who graduate with a bachelor’s or master’s end up doing development work; only a few go into algorithms (which brings up the whole “why did I get a master’s degree if I learned nothing?” discussion). So internships and research are totally different. Also, just because research sounds “nb” doesn’t mean it actually is; research can be very shallow or low‑quality. You should think carefully about which one you want to pursue.
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I think we shouldn’t look down on first-year students; it’s impressive that they already have the idea of seeking internships. As for second-year students looking for internships, isn’t it still about learning? Even if it’s just a visit, broadening one’s horizons is also very meaningful.
It’s commendable to have this idea.
However, if you want to find a target summer internship at this grade level, my personal suggestion is to find a sufficiently strong connection to push the group forward; direct applications on the official website have a 99% rejection rate (unrelated to ability, HR doesn’t care at this step).
This internship should refer to an internship aimed at finding a job? Although I haven’t done such an internship, I can talk about research‑oriented internships. Even if you decide to take the job‑search route, you don’t have to rush to start the internship directly in the summer, right? My personal recommendation is to pursue a research internship. A high‑quality research internship experience can provide a huge boost and help for undergraduates, and will open up many more options later. My advice is to try to get the highest possible grades in the first year, solidify your coding skills, and then use your résumé to apply for summer research at ailab and West Lake University. Don’t think that starting a research internship in the first‑year summer is too early; top students at peer schools usually start at this time or even earlier. It only looks early because, in your environment, a CS undergraduate path that is not aimed at job‑search is about 2–3 years behind other schools. Also note that I recommend “external‑school research internships”; I don’t suggest doing research in your own school’s group during the summer. As of now, to my knowledge, my school has no
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Oh, okay, thanks!
Thank you, thank you, but I don’t quite understand what the “connection advancement team” means 
Find someone to directly refer you to the engineering team’s hiring manager or someone who can speak up, willing to back you up; otherwise, as a lower‑year undergraduate, it’s indeed easy to get screened out at any stage.
Will ailab’s bar be very high? I want to invest
A bachelor’s from Xi’an Jiaotong is fine, but I still need some presentable background.
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