If you work on your portfilio, essentially working for yourself, you preclude a lot of chances for learning from others. You get to work on what you want and you get to work how you want to, but you're never going to be sure if you're doing something "the best way". Those learning opportunities have the most value early in your career, which is the big win for an internship. On the flip side, if you aren't going to get those opportunities and are just going to be cheap labor for some sweatshop, the internship will just be experience on paper and probably won't have done much for your actual development.
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If you work on your portfilio, essentially working for yourself, you preclude a lot of chances for learning from others. You get to work on what you want and you get to work how you want to, but you're never going to be sure if you're doing something "the best way". Those learning opportunities have the most value early in your career, which is the big win for an internship. On the flip side, if you aren't going to get those opportunities and are just going to be cheap labor for some sweatshop, the internship will just be experience on paper and probably won't have done much for your actual development.