Would it help to offer to intern with a company for free?

[erub]

I'm a masters student in electrical engineering, focusing on RF/wireless circuit design and telecommunications. I'm graduating in December/next May (there aren't any classes this summer that I want to take) and my dream job (well at this point at least) is with a large company. I gave them my resume at the career fair last fall, and told them how I really wanted to intern there this summer, but I wonder if the guy thought it was a line and threw my resume in the trash.

I've had two previous internships, and have been compensated very well (engineering interns usually are). I'm in no current monetary bind, I can work for free this summer (3 months) in order to gain experience and try to get my foot in the door with this company for a fulltime job when I graduate. I've had friends in other (non-engineering/business) fields that interned for free. Their website says that the is company normally pays their interns.

I talked with a current employee and he advised me to try to stop by and talk to the HR associate about future opportunities with them, because there are no current internship postings on their website. I'm wondering if the security will let me do this or just throw me out and tell me to look at their website..

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'd probably email and ask, it's less intrusive than phone or showing up in person and lets the HR person pick their own time to respond.

If they don't have any internships then they might not have any people available that have the extra time needed to work with you. So even offering free work isn't necessarily useful for them.

 

[michaels]

You're a masters student and have to ask this? Common sense man!

 

[Jeff7]

If I may ask, what qualifies as "compensated very well?"

 

[erub]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
If I may ask, what qualifies as "compensated very well?"

this past summer I made at an hourly rate more than the avg starting BSEE salary