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I completed an internship in June this year and the same company have just listed another internship in a different department in which I am interested. The company is not very large, I have personally met the founder, which I think is in charge with the recruitment for this internship.

Would it be a bad idea to apply again at this company?

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    What kind of internship you had before? There are internships done merely for educational purposes with no intent of hiring the intern to a FTE position later and there are internships that have the purpose of "screening" / "grooming" prospective employees, so well-performing interns will be offered a job later Commented Jul 15, 2021 at 12:27
  • I would apply for training rather than an internship if it's the same company because in training learn more than an internship. you have already done one internship and you know many things about that company. Now for the second time if you go for the training you will learn more deeply about the company and work which you are applying for. Sure workload will be more than an internship but you can gain more experience and you can get closer to the other colleagues. and also you can secure your job in the company if you want. But don't sign the contract if you choose training.
    – xml_dope
    Commented Jul 15, 2021 at 13:04

3 Answers 3

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There's nothing wrong with applying again if you left a good impression, we had the same intern in two different departments over three years (one month each year). Since every department was satisfied with his work, we would gladly employ him again.

Now in your situation it seems you would like to do another month in a different department within the same year and again - I think you shouldn't hesitate to apply there again, just mention that you are interested in the other field as well.

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It all depends on the alternative!

In a vacuum, there's nothing wrong with doing a second internship at the same company. I not only did two internships at the same place (one in highschool, one in college) but also did a co-op there as well.

However, there are some things to keep in mind:

What would you be doing if you didn't apply? If the answer is "not work at an internship", then, yeah, taking the internship is almost surely the right answer.

But if the answer is, "Apply elsewhere, find a different one"... then it gets a bit trickier. Even though the specific job/department is changing in this second internship you're asking about, it's still at the same company. Which means the skills you're learning for this second internship might be a bit less varied.

Are you going to lose out on experience?

Similar to the first... if taking this internship is replacing finding a different place to work: what about the variance of experience you're getting? One reason a lot of IT people shift jobs quite a bit isn't just the pay - but the skillset. If you stay in one job for a long time, you're likely not improving your skillset as much as if you were finding new things and learning new technologies. But it's the same thing with business environments: working for a completely separate company will give you a better perspective of the business world - you'll have two places to compare/contrast instead of just one data point.

This isn't to say "Don't take the internship". Because taking it definitely is NOT a bad thing. It's more to say... weigh it against what the alternative is (which none of us here know what that is.)

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No I think that's a bad idea.

It makes you look desperate like you have no other alternatives. This will change the founder's perception of you.

Too much of a good thing is bad.

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    I disagree. I had two internships with the same place during my college years, and there was no "desperation" about it. They knew I had done good work the first time around, so when it came time for the second, it was a bit of a no-brainer for them. Commented Jul 15, 2021 at 13:03
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    I completely disagree most businesses (especially small ones) will be glad to know that you liked them enough to try different roles with them Commented Jul 15, 2021 at 13:15
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    Yeah, I had the opposite experience as well. I did a summer highschool internship at a place. Did a good job, made a good impression. They hired me for a college internship because they remembered that I did a good job. And then, later on, they hired me for a 6 month co-op for the same reason - they were happy with my prior work. Each time I worked at the place, their opinion of me went up, not down.
    – Kevin
    Commented Jul 15, 2021 at 13:37
  • Unless it's a hell-hole cynically exploiting people, the senior management will believe their company is a great place to work and totally understand that people will want to work there twice. Of course, there will eventually come a point where it'll look a bit weird, like if you're still doing internships after 5 years, but lots of people spend months or even years looking for work, especially in high-demand fields, and doing multiple internships at different firms is common.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Jul 15, 2021 at 15:55

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