During college: crappy internship < working for yourself < good internship Sounds like you have a crappy internship. Working for yourself is a good option, b

During college: crappy internship < working for yourself < good internship Sounds like you have a crappy internship. Working for yourself is a good option, but may not be the best. Besides, you have the rest of the year to work on your business. I was in a similar position as you. I had a part-time business that was making as much as most people their first year out of college. I decided to grow it and work on it full-time during the summers. Thinking back, it was kind of a mistake. I started hating my work and eventually suffered major burnout, due to a variety of unforeseen variables even though I was still making really good money. Afterwards, I went looking for jobs, but had limited options due to my hodge podge of expertise. I would have had more attractive options and flexibility if I had covered my bets and taken a good internship. A good internship is one where you build useful contacts, develop marketable skills, pursue an industry/area that you might be interested in for a career/business. If you are looking for something technically challenging, why not join Google's Summer of Code? Look for a good prof to take you under his wing? Shadow a guy that you want to be in 5 years? Work at Apple? Get street cred with an open source project? You should be focused on exploring, finding your passions, getting useful experience, opening up more attractive opportunities. Not so much money.