Weeks off in the middle of SA Forum

[adude]

If I get an SA offer, I'd like to do the same # of weeks altogether, but take weeks off in the middle, as opposed to the beginning or end of the summer. Should I accept first and then ask about this? Or ask before accepting? Or would this sound so bad to the employer that I shouldn't even ask?

[thesealocust]

Or would this sound so bad to the employer that I shouldn't even ask?

To elaborate slightly instead of just being snarky: In an X week program (where x is almost always 8 to 12, with 12 getting rarer) your last week is largely wasted because you can't take on any long term project, and your first few weeks are all about learning the ropes. That leaves a fairly small chewy center / core of time where you'll have functionally unlimited time horizon (so anyone with a project can give it to you) and while you'll still be clueless you'll at least know where the bathrooms are. So for very practical reasons, disrupting that would be bad.

On top of that, most large firms don't have much flexibility in start / stop dates, so that wouldn't work.

But the best reason not to is that such a request would be unprofessional and suggest a lack of commitment. If you have a 3 week funeral already planned for the middle of the summer maybe it would be different, but if that's just the time you'd like to head to Maui I'd reconsider.

[Renzo]

I can't think of anything that would cause me to ask for that much time off during a SA job. I suppose I might ask for 10 days if an immediate relative suddenly died, and there was no one else to sort out their affairs.

My sister-in-law is getting married this summer. I already told her I'm not going to make it.

[reasonable_man]

Perhaps you haven't heard about what is going on in the economy right now?

In short. Don't miss a single day of your SA and hope to hell you get an offer..

[2LLLL]

Don't do it unless you have to go to a funeral. If you do have a funeral, take 1 day. If you have a wedding to go to, skip the rehersal, skip the other ancillary events, fly in the morning of the day of the wedding and fly out early the next morning or late that night. If you want to take a vacation, STFU and do it before or after your program.

ITE you can't do anything to risk your prospects of future employment.

[nifer327]

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[JazzOne]

If I get an SA offer, I'd like to do the same # of weeks altogether, but take weeks off in the middle, as opposed to the beginning or end of the summer. Should I accept first and then ask about this? Or ask before accepting? Or would this sound so bad to the employer that I shouldn't even ask?

Mention this at the interview, and it won't be a problem.

[thesealocust]

Mention this at the interview, and it won't be a problem.

LOL, no.

You missed the joke. JazzOne is correct. If you request several weeks off in the middle of the SA during the interview, it will take care of the problem, because you won't have an SA to schedule around

[Lt. Aldo Raine]

Mention this at the interview, and it won't be a problem.

LOL, no. On the one hand, you CAN seek some time off, if for a clearly legit reason, and if you do so up front. A family member or best friend's wedding clearly qualifies, so I'd argue you shouldn't be missing either on account of a SA job. Random family vacations and other stuff are different, and do not ever justify time off from a SA position, particularly ITE. And of course a wedding or other justified (non-emergency) departure never really lasts more than 2-3 days, other than maybe your *own* wedding, which would make a slightly longer absence acceptable. In sum, asking for "weeks off in the middle of SA" is a colossally stupid thing to do, as the posters above have indicated.

Pretty sure Jazz is saying you are almost certain to not get an offer if you bring this up during an interview.