Let me be blunt: internships are the greatest invention since the 40-hour work week. There are several reasons this is true—internships usually demand much more knowledge, effort, and commitment than do traditional summer jobs, so they often pay much better. Internships look fabulous on any resume—the fact that a company with the resources to develop an internship program hired you to work for them is a plus in any hiring manager’s book. Finally, internships are terrific because they provide the intern with a real-life application of the principles he or she is learning in school. The reason this is so important is because interns get a preview of what their career goals are leading toward. Before they have committed themselves to an industry or specific job, interns learn what types of things they will be doing in that field, and if they want to change, they have the opportunity to do so when they return to school.

While some internships don’t pay at all, the experience and wealth of knowledge collected during the few months the intern is working is extremely valuable. In a real-life example, one summer I had an opportunity to intern with a well-known, international company. The experiences I had there and the challenges I faced were incredible—I look at it as the high point of my summer work experience. I was even given the opportunity to go on a business trip for the company, alone. The responsibility I was given made me feel important, and when I worked around several problems at the customer’s site, I was treated like a hero when I returned home.

Developing career goals is an important step in any student’s life, and an internship will do the most to further those goals once they are developed. Though you may be scared off by a rigorous application process, it is a small price to pay for the rewards of a real summer job. And contrary to popular opinion, interns are not just coffee-fetchers anymore. A story in the news recently told of an intern at a major electronics firm whose boss quit midway through the internship. The intern was left to do the boss’s job and had to learn information usually learned throughout a career in a matter of a few weeks. While this is hardly typical, it symbolizes the trend of increased responsibility in internships.

Whether you are offered a great-paying internship or one that doesn’t pay at all, make sure you don’t automatically eliminate it from your choices. While you may have more fun working with your friends at the local pool or fast-food joint, your career will thank you if you find a job that actually helps your chances of getting hired in the future. After all, you deserve to get the best job you can get.