How an internship turns into a career

Because the New Zealand student internship program has so many ways to improve, I am always on the lookout for how particular students have made up their own student-work program.

I met G.  G was starting university. He is very good at computer programming and a great self learner. Socially he met some engineers in a small local software consulting company. He took the initiative to invite himself over to see their offices. He convinced them to hire him for a short project. They did. At the end of the project, they could see how good G was. They hired him for 2 days  a week.

Then G again made up his own work/study program.

He chose to go to uni  part time to allow him 2 days/week of work time. This means his 3 year degree will take him  4 years. Of course, he will be able to pay his way and not roll up debt. He decided he is already good at computers so he wanted to use uni to broaden his experience so he is studying Geography and GIS, and learning lot of IT on the job instead of at school.

When G graduates he will have 4 years * 2/5 = 1.4 years of full time work experience. G's work prospects look very good.

Do you know of others who are making  up their own work/study programs?