I want to dive into web dev / anyone had an internship?

[KULP]

If you're in a hurry, skip to the bolded questions at the bottom.

Just some quick facts: 19 / CS Sophomore / web enthusiast / some background

Currently I'm a student and I'm getting into some CS core at my school but my true passion is web development. I've been dabbling in HTML & CSS for 2 or so years now. If you gave me a pdf I could build the website with a bit of time. I'm no professional but I really want to start furthering my skills in php and other web programming languages. the problem is I keep getting caught up in school and to practice php I also have to design the html page, which is tedious and kind of a waste of time. I have a background in java, html, css, and learning c++ and assembly right now. These are all great but I'm kind of getting annoyed in that I really want to just sit down and program a full website database and all. I have all the logic down, been programming in java for four years now. I just need something to keep me going despite my busy schedule.

To ease this annoyance I've committed to getting an internship after junior year. This leads me to my main question: What kind of experience do I need before considering an internship with a development firm? I would prefer a paid internship, honestly, but if I'm learning and they're keeping me involved I honestly don't care if I'm making anything. My second question is for anyone who has had an internship before: When did you have your internship and how much did you learn from it / what was your experience?

Thanks for your time!

[oracleguy]

Internships are good, they also help you get a job after you graduate for two reasons. Firstly it gives you experience in industry and secondly the company or companies you do internships should want to hire you when you graduate. I learned a lot from my internships back in the day and they also helped me build industry connections.

You don't need a lot of experience for a college internship position, they know you are still learning. When I interview candidates for an internship position I usually ask them programming questions, have them explain some concepts to me. I also ask them to talk about school projects they've done. And sometimes have them write some code for me to solve a simple problem.

Also keep in mind that some companies are better than others in how they treat their interns and even within the same company it can vary a lot depending how good the management of your group is. So at worse, don't let a bad experience deter you.

If you are in your sophomore year right now, I wouldn't wait until after your junior year to start looking. You are less likely to get hired as a sophomore but it can't hurt to try. You also can start to get interview experience.