Are internships drying up?
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Anonymous
Do you understand that the alternative provides just another advantage for wealthy kids? (Poor kids have to earn money in the summer!) There are still some unfunded internships out there, nevertheless. And many colleges now have a fund that will pay for travel to, or housing in, locations where their students land an unfunded job. Younger students should ask about this when they are touring campuses. |
Anonymous
+1 Great post which points out a real concern for many. |
Anonymous
DS is a college junior and he will have an 11 weeks internship this summer for $55/hour at a tech company. Last year he got a $35/hour 11 weeks internship as a college sophomore. He got both internships through my BIL who is an SVP at the company. The company selected him over two CS candidates, one from UPenn and the other one from Brown. In summary, who you know will trump the top 5 colleges. |
Anonymous
Idiots related to executives will always be chosen over more qualified candidates, nothing new there |
Anonymous
| Internships are pid but we also have to have an employee spend time making appropriate tasks fir the intern and supervise. Companies (including mine) are short staffed. Its not even the $ but the time for my staff who could do other productive work over overseeing interns. |
Anonymous
You state that as some strange pearl of wisdom. Perhaps the better advice is that kids should not simply rely on formal internship programs...reach out to alums at interesting companies (with hopefully useful insights...don't do a mass LinkedIn spamming) and hustle to create your own network. Even companies that decided to drop their official internship program may do some ad hoc intern hiring in certain areas. |
Anonymous
I landed my DD an internship with a former employer. No shame. She's at a top undergrad business school, doing well there, and as competitive a talent as any other student in the mix. But pulling the strings absolutely helped her land it. Every parent should be doing this, if you have a network or rank, pull it for your kid. It's too competitive right now with layoffs, an uncertain economy etc. Some industries are thriving, some are hurting. If you don't have any pull or connections, ask your relatives. |
Anonymous
| Is anyone's kid doing paid research internships in any university for CS this summer? |
Anonymous
| I'm trying to pull strings as much as I can to get my kids an internship, but alot of orgs have not solidified their plans for summer. My DS has been applying to very prestigious internships in his field but no interviews yet - most of those jobs just got posted in mid to late February. My DD has had three interviews in the last month, just waiting to hear status and still applying to anteing and everything. |
Anonymous
This is definitely an ethics violation if your BIL did more than pass his resume along FYI. Hopefully the company won't find out until after he's hired your son on as a FT employee over more qualified candidates. 
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Anonymous
Oh good. Another win for a white, male CS major and nepotism. |
Anonymous
DP. No it's not an ethics violation. It's nepotism but there is nothing wrong with that. And I guarantee that as an SVP rank all he did was pass the resume to the TA team and hiring manager. They knew what to do from there. |
Anonymous
There is an unwritten rule that when the referral comes from an SVP, it is almost a certainty that the candidate will be hired, regardless of qualifications. This goes on in both private and government sectors. Several of my SES friends who get internships for their kids with contractors that they themselves manage. There are rules but it is so easy to get around those rules, but hey as parents, you do everything possible to help your kids get a head start. No shame here. |
Anonymous
Yeah, we have a regular internship program, but supervising the interns, finding work that they can do that isn't just make-work, etc., is a lot of effort. It's really a benefit to the intern, not us, even with the issue of pay set aside. |
Anonymous
We canceled ours in mid-January. Several had been hired or were in the final stages of the process, but it is what it is. The same thing happened to me in 2007 when the recession hit, except my awesome job offer for after graduation was rescinded. I was devastated. |