ASK HN: At your organization, are internships just another recruiting tool? | Hacker News Reader

ASK HN: At your organization, are internships just another recruiting tool?

2 pointsraybb5 comments

After a few interviews with a small startup I wasn't offered a position. They told me it was because they were looking for someone that could possibly stay as a permanent employee (I still have 1 year of school left). I appreciated their honesty but it got me thinking about past internships and how they have all wanted me to work full time, even though I feel as though I provided relatively little value to them (medium sized companies). It got me thinking, from an employer's perspective, are internships anything more than another recruiting tool? What are your opinions/experiences?

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I see a lot of exploitation in internships in businesses near me, which does anger me. A lot of companies use internships as a thin veil for cheap/unpaid labour. Be wary of such offers that have very little learning or training.

Not all internships are this way though. But make sure any internships are of actual transferable value to YOU, not just the company offering it.

That is very common, more common in small companies than large ones. This is true to Germay, atleast.

Bosch, daimler,sap, all Offer no strings attached.

The company iwork at didnt exactly prefer me over others,ihad way more linux experience than other candidates and it was a dev ops position, but i also saw a gleam in their eye when they heard id like to stay long term.

Its a resource issue, im "cleaning up" lots of the code my short term predecessors left behind.

Short term apprenticeships generate quite a bit of technicalde debt for a "small" company.

Addendum;

Apprenticeships require resources. So a small compny would be more willing to spend what they can afford- engineer guidance and withstanding non productivity- on prrsons they can benefit from.

Big companies benefit from apprentices(?) that lean towards their tech stack going to other companies. So its not all bad.

Tip: want a no strings attached p Apprenticeship: go big.

Just to be clear when you say a small company how are you measuring that?

Do you have any recommendations for how to search for apprenticeships?

Small is anything under 100-150.

Big is folks like Bosch, daimler, deloit etc. Theyre not google big, big certainly big on software. If ur brave, try SAP.

Daimler always looks for new intrrnationsl talent, check them out

Some (unethical) employers will also use unpaid internships as free labor, which is actually illegal.

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