I am trying to get a feeling of how difficult it is to justify not doing an internship during the summer while applying for full time positions.I am currently a Masters student in Fin Math. I have 3 years of work ex with a year in Risk Mgt ( and 2 yrs as a stastical modeler ). This summer i am planning to get married and hence cannot fit an internship . I wanted to know the following1. I know in an ideal world i would have loved a summer internship, but given the situation as it stands how much of a problem will this prove to be? I know a couple of friends (without summer internships) who had tough time getting selected for full time interviews and they are inclined to believe their lack of internship experience to be one of the reasons.2. Can someone in this forum narrate similar experiences and advise on how to put across the lack of summer internship during full time interviews?ThanksS

I think getting married is a pretty good reason - I wouldn't worry about how to put it across.

If I were interviewing you and you told me that you didn't get a summer internship because you were getting married . . . well, you better have an awfully good explanation about how a one day party necessitates you not working for a whole summer. Just my 2 cents though.

Well indian marriages are certainly not a one day party .. if i were to rush things up (go to india, get married, come back to the US immediately) it would still take me a couple of weeks, your point though is certainly valid and i cant help getting into reasons regarding why my wife wouldnt be thrilled by the idea of me dropping by for my wedding and leaving immediately. I guess an alternate option would be to do an internship in india and hopefully i can justify that decision with a little more "reason"

An internship serves a number of purposes. Getting some experience, well you have that already.You're going to miss out on the chance for a bank to have a trial run on hiring you, and seeing what you're like. That might hurt a bit.Also missing out on that part of the internship which shows you different areas, that being said, as a pimp I have yo say that my first though would of course be to see how I could sell you based uponyour experience in risk and stat arb.I'm on your side, but I'm going to have to say something you aren't going to like all that much.Your wife might be a bit of an issue here. What if she can't get the right to come into the country, ? What if it takes a long time ? Will you go and live in India ? Some managers will look at your experience and ask why you want to do an internship anyway ?I vaguely worry about how an Indian internship will look on your CV. Unless it's at a top ranked western firm, might dilute your experience.Also it's important to understand that no one will ever read your CV.It will be glanced at, keywords sought, and a skim taken. A scary % of the people who look at it won't understand several of the terms you use.Thus some people willo "read" your CV with an Indian internship at the top, and think "hmm an Indian wanting to come to the USA", and many firms don't want to getinvolved with work permit hassles. Their error, but your problem.Having seen the scale of Indian weddings, I assume that you can't change the date ?I'd concentrate your fire on going for "real" jobs. Will be a bit slower, but from the little I know of your experience I'd expect you to get there in the end.

It's very simple, don't say you didn't do an internship because you were getting married. Say it was pressing family issues or some such thing, at which point the interviewer is not supposed to probe further. You are not lying and even if you are being opaque, well, just think about the damned lies your employer is going to tell you during the interview process.

DCFC- Thanks for your perspective, i didnt quite envisage some of the points you rightly brought up. For example, i have had many people tell me that any internship experience is a good experience but your point on the dilution it may cause is certainly food for thought. About the dates of the wedding, its not yet fixed but its going to be sometime in mid july - august and there are too many stakeholders in this ( people, the stars, the moon etc) for any easy way of changing dates to be possible ( but i can always try!).About my wife, she works at Citigroup in India, the general idea is that she would try to get a transfer to the US but there are no guarantees of that happening. She is willing to come here as a dependent ( thus waiving all rights to a job) but that is something i cannot get myself to do at the present moment.Given the various random factors involved with all this, needaclue's suggestion seems to be a practical one. I think once i broach my wedding story in an interview it will get them thinking on all the wrong fronts so it would be a good idea to just cut short the story to a "pressing family issue".Right now i am still searching for an offer in summer that can accomodate a wedding schedule, but my mind is already set on getting a full time offer.

Glad to help...As needaclue says, I'd avoid the subject if at all possible. Saying "family issues" may put up a wall, but leaves the high chance that a manager will fill in that gap in his knowledge with something bad and long lasting, like a sick parent, who may cause you to leave.Like you I'm assuming this wedding is a one off thing, so it may be better to explain.Sad to say, Citigroup is too large a beast for you to do some sort of deal where your wife's transfer and you joining them could be connected.