Should I intern in product management or software engineering?

You might be studying in an Undergraduate or Postgraduate course. The answer to this question lies in the answer to the following 3 questions:

1) What have you studied so far? Have you studied Computer science or other engineering degree or a management course or something totally different.

2) What do you want to do in future? Career in software engineering and product management would be a bit different. They would require different skill sets; background and the future roles & prospective companies would be different too.

3) What do you like to do? This is the 3rd and important piece to ponder upon. At a very high level, software engineering and product management appeals to different people for different reasons. Do you like to be left alone and get your job done; Are you happy sitting behind a desk engrossed in lines of code; Does that give you the satisfaction and happiness and you could see yourself working as a software engineer building some amazing digital products? If yes, then go for it.

On the other hand, are you interested in the overall development of the product from its Strategy, design, Discovery, understanding customer personas, exploring their user journeys, having an input in Design, and then working with the software engineering team to make that product working and then release it to the commercial world? IN that case, product management is your choice of work.

If you are still no sure, go for the role you see has a greater success rate in terms of employment in your area/industry. Once you have had your internship experience, you will know whether to opt for that role when you want to start your job.

You could even search for an internship in Product management and then compare your experiences, before deciding your career path.