About the Author:

Melissa Lawhorn is a senior at Indiana University and holder of multiple internships. With multiple internships under her belt, Melissa provides her perspectives and advice for fellow college students to get the most out of their internship experiences. Follow her weekly column in The Internship Chronicles.

After reading my introduction post, some of you probably think I’m crazy for all the positions I’ve recently taken on. Those of you who didn’t already think I was crazy may start to wonder now, when I start discussing that I’ve been looking for fall internship opportunities.

*GASP* I know, I know. Let me explain myself…

The fall internship search started prior to this month, meaning that when I started searching for fall positions, I had not yet been offered the positions with Social Fresh or Social Tables, and I didn’t know that I had been accepted for an Intern Queen position. I only had the one internship at Deer Park Manor, and knew that, unfortunately, that just wasn’t enough to get me the amount of event planning experience I would need to land a great job after graduation.

So with that in mind, I started searching for fall internships.

I decided to widen my search to include downtown Indianapolis (more on this choice later!) and to open up the search a little more from purely “event planning” positions. I applied to PR firms just because I’m interested in PR. I applied to radio stations because honestly — who doesn’t think that sounds like a fun internship!? Promoting a station and working at concerts? Yes, please. I even applied to a couple wedding-related magazines; even though they aren’t planning experiences, at least they were still within the realm of weddings and special events.

Now, I’m rethinking myself. My Intern Queen and Social Fresh positions will both be extended — IQ until I graduate, and Social Fresh at least for another semester. Add to that the full semester of 18 credit hours that I’ll be taking, and I have to really consider if another position (especially one that I may be commuting to an hour away) is something that I can take on for the fall semester.

So of course — I turn to you, readers! What do you think? How much work is too much? At what point should you stop looking for further opportunities?