Hi all,

Just started my third year and I'm wondering whether it's worth spending one day a week doing an internship. I think I could manage it with my current workload, and could always stop after a few months if it's too much. I've done a couple of similar internships before I started the PhD but not directly related to my current academic field. It's a small field so relevant internship opportunities are few.

My supervisor has made it clear in the past that she thinks it's better to stay in academia and I would tend to agree (for various reasons I won't go into right now) but I'm keeping my options open because of the depressing state of the academic job market. Also, the institution I'd send my internship application to has informal links with my academic department so I don't think my volunteering there would seem too weird to the academics. I've heard anecdotal stories of entry-level positions going to longer-term interns so I'd be keen to be in the right place at the right time.

Is it worth it though? Or would it seem strange for a doctoral student to be doing fairly basic work? I don't mind doing stuff like that (it might even be a nice break from my research). I'm also a little worried that they might turn me down and I'll be embarrassed if people found out I applied and got rejected.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

I'd probably say that in your third year it will end up being too much, and also I'm not how much value it would add, especially since you have done internships previously.