Summer Restlessness

[profoundquiet]

I am a little concerned with the upcoming summer. I really want to do something productive and useful towards my career goals, but unfortunately I will be on vacation with my family from mid-June to mid-July. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my family and all, but I am a bit worried about the rest of my time during summer. I will have a month during May/June and 1.5 months during July/August just sitting at home with absolutely nothing to do.

I plan to do Masters research when I get to grad school, so I was thinking of reading up on papers in the lab I want to work in, but that doesn't seem very substantial. I want to do something like an internship that I can put on my resume (no industry experience whatsoever, just research) but the vacation time is right in the middle of summer and cuts a huge chunk out of that. The reasoning for wanting to "work" is that I've been hearing that the job market is really really tough these days, even for engineers, and I think that my lack of industry experience is really detrimental to my chances.

By the way, the argument that "You should relax now cause you'll be working hard for the next 5 years" does not apply here because I am not sure if I will continue on to the Ph.D. program. I may very well be looking for a job in 1.5 to 2 years.

Sorry for the rant.

Any suggestions for constructive things to do this summer?

[hejduk]

Any suggestions for constructive things to do this summer?

There have a few threads about this lately, but I think work, save money, and "enjoy your last bit of freedom" (as a faculty member put it to me).