How is it going for college freshman getting internships for the summer?

[Anonymous]

My CS major son is still looking, but does have an interview next week. Personally, I think it’s fine to not have a formal internship after freshman year and just work in retail, etc. I am curious how other freshman are fairing.

[Anonymous]

Mine isn’t even looking - plans to work his restaurant server job and hopefully make a lot of money.

[Anonymous]

I heard someone say that companies usually don't take freshman interns. But,my freshman DC had one interview last month by a company that was impressed with DC during the internship fair in the fall. DC is technically a sophomore with all their credits going into freshman year. If DC doesn't get it, they'll just work retail over the summer.

[Anonymous]

Working a fed internship that they applied for last summer. It's been a long process.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s more common for a freshman not to have an internship than the other way around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s more common for a freshman not to have an internship than the other way around.

+1 DS had one (PT through a friend of DH's at a company that doesn't routinely hire interns but is in a field close to DS's major) but said he was the only one of his friends with an internship that summer

DD is now a college freshman and applying some but most likely is a retail job plus take an online general ed class to free up space in her schedule next year.

[Anonymous]

DS is a CS major in a top 10 CS program. He did internship at a financial institution the summer between freshman and sophomore. I know he applied to lots of companies (like 100) and began the process back in August/Sept his freshmen year. He is not picky on location for the internship and lived out of town for the summer (June-Aug) with two friends in an Airbnb. His paycheck covered his living expenses.

He is going into the summer between his sophomore and junior year now. He’s had several offers and worked extremely hard over the Christmas break. He did lots of applications, coding competitions and interviews. I know he told his sibling that coding competitions are critical and he felt behind in this area compared to his peers. He has landed offers at 1 financial firm, 1 SaaS software firm, 2 Silicon Valley startups, and 1 FAANG. He is most interested in one of the startups and the FAANG.

[Anonymous]

Tell your kids to keep applying if it something they want. Companies will make offers up through April.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard someone say that companies usually don't take freshman interns. But,my freshman DC had one interview last month by a company that was impressed with DC during the internship fair in the fall. DC is technically a sophomore with all their credits going into freshman year. If DC doesn't get it, they'll just work retail over the summer.

OP here—I had also heard that many companies don’t hire interns after freshman year. My company doesn’t. I honestly was surprised my son got an interview from a reply to a job posted in indeed. At least he will get some practice with interviews!

[Anonymous]

Mine is going back to a summer camp job. No thought of a summer internship after freshman year.

[Anonymous]

To the poster with the kid at a top 10 school, how did your kid get to the stage of interviews/coding assessment with those firms? My kid was offered at mutliple intelligence agencies freshman year he is having trouble breaking through into SaaS interviews. He has worked pretty high paying jobs the last couple of summers at fortune 500 companies, but mostly because we had connections. His skills are excellent - really excellent- I'm in the industry and I know how advanced he is. But not seeing a path to get in cold- if your top 10 faciliating this? He is in a top 15.

[Anonymous]

Top 10 poster here. Just texted my son to get
more insight to his experience.

Here applied to about 400 internships. Mainly cold submissions, but a few with referrals of upperclassman or friends. He is not picky on location although really wanted Silicon Valley this summer. He said he spent lots of time on Leetcode to practice his coding. He says if you do get a call, they all test your code skills. So the Leetcode prepares you well for the coding tests these companies do. School has job fairs and some wine/dine events from emplyers but not much more than that. Hope that helps!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Top 10 poster here. Just texted my son to get
more insight to his experience.

Here applied to about 400 internships. Mainly cold submissions, but a few with referrals of upperclassman or friends. He is not picky on location although really wanted Silicon Valley this summer. He said he spent lots of time on Leetcode to practice his coding. He says if you do get a call, they all test your code skills. So the Leetcode prepares you well for the coding tests these companies do. School has job fairs and some wine/dine events from emplyers but not much more than that. Hope that helps!

Willing to share the going rate at FAANG for the summer and is there a housing stipend in addition (or is it part of the going rate)?

[Anonymous]

My company is big on nepotism for summer internships so my freshman CS major son will be commuting to work with me this summer. I’m looking forward to it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Top 10 poster here. Just texted my son to get
more insight to his experience.

Here applied to about 400 internships. Mainly cold submissions, but a few with referrals of upperclassman or friends. He is not picky on location although really wanted Silicon Valley this summer. He said he spent lots of time on Leetcode to practice his coding. He says if you do get a call, they all test your code skills. So the Leetcode prepares you well for the coding tests these companies do. School has job fairs and some wine/dine events from emplyers but not much more than that. Hope that helps!

Willing to share the going rate at FAANG for the summer and is there a housing stipend in addition (or is it part of the going rate)?

FAANG - $55-$58/hr plus Corp provided housing or $1K housing stipend. Corp HQ in Silicon Valley