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Ask HN: What skills do employers usually ask for in internships

9 pointsjoshuad7 comments

I'm a computer science student and I am going to start looking for internships by this fall so I could start next January if I find any. I'm wondering what technical skills employers usually look for in students. I definitely have no preference as to what specific field I get into right now but I see myself getting into the networking/data communications field in the future when I graduate.

I'm no genius nor a hotshot programmer, just the average joe who's very passionate about programming. I know a little about a lot of things (Java, C, C++, Python, Windows, Linux, etc) because I believe that I have my whole lifetime to master some or a few of those.

If you have any general advice regarding getting my first internship, by all means, please pitch in. Thanks!

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We use co-op students for (paid) four month terms. My number one concern when deciding to take an intern is "Am I going to get positive effort out of this exercise"? In other words, will the work the intern does significantly exceed the effort I have to expend training them?

So, the first thing I look for is evidence that they are quick on the uptake, self-motivated and so on. The second is familiarity with our basic computing environment - OS, editors, source control so that they can actually sit down and start doing real work as quickly as possible. You don't want to waste a couple of weeks having them learn to type 'ls' and use emacs.

Since we are a scientific organisation, I am not obsessed with specific language experience as long as the student has good experience with a "similar" language. This is because generally the students don't do "real" software engineering, they usually work in an existing framework, so they don't need advanced language skills.

So by having skills in a wide area, even if they are relatively shallow, you are already increasing your catchment area.

My gut reaction is "learn to use git", but I am not sure I could rationally defend it.

>My gut reaction is "learn to use git", but I am not sure I could rationally defend it.

Git might be a good indicator, even if it's not a tool used in the organization -- provided the person the candidate talks to knows of git. If someone knows git (or mercurial et. al.), I'm going to assume they've got decent knowledge of programming. They might not be the best programmer, but they probably want to learn, and are fast enough to learn new things.

Despite not having any real big projects, I still use hg for my stuff, I don't think we have a problem there :)

I'd stress the importance of networking (the other kind): if you're somewhere with any sort of technology community, start attending local (free) events and meeting people in the industry. It's not a matter of going to the events looking for work, but to meet people. The more people you know, the easier it is to get what you want.

Second, an online presence is a good way to get ahead of other candidates. An active GitHub account will go a long way with employers. A blog will too, if you talk about relevant topics.

I'd focus less on specific skills and more on the ways you've demonstrated those skills. If you have worked on free-time projects, throw them up on GitHub and make sure the employer knows about them.

Finally, talk to other students at your school who have had internships. Not only will they be able to advise you, if they think you're a good candidate they can put in a good word for you.

Finally, talk to other students at your school who have had internships. Not only will they be able to advise you, if they think you're a good candidate they can put in a good word for you. - Great point!

Great question. We've been talking A LOT with companies re: internships and entry level hiring for CollegeJobConnect because, well, that's what our company does! :)

Here are my thoughts:

For undergraduates, employers can't key off of past work experiences because many students simply don't have any (I didn't). If you have done an internship, awesome! Highlight that experience and make sure your description of what you did includes a "so what?" statement (ex. "Built a cool new widget in C++ for Acme Co. (so what?) which improved our client service department's ability to handle critical requests and improve response time" - silly example, but you get the point). All points should explain what you did and why it was important to yourself, to your employer, to the world in general, etc.

If you've worked on projects or have things you can point to online, highlight those too. Again, make sure you explain the importance of what you did and why the employer you are asking to hire you should be impressed (as in "Because of my work on Project X I am now a jQuery ninja and can produce incredible UIs" or "During Project X we won 2000 users and I learned the importance of client support and cost-effective marketing"). Along those same lines, if you have a blog or social media presence, make sure they all tie in together and tell your story well ... and that they display appropriate content :)

Definitely include as many objective metrics as you can: overall GPA, major GPA, SATs, any honors that you received, sports or clubs you participated in, and what your hobbies are.

That's what comes to mind off the top of my head, glad to chat a bit more if you'd like, hit me up at jeff at collegejobconnect.com - good luck!

The biggest issue is the ability to learn quickly. There is probably little or no work experience yet. I would not put much weight into school projects. I would look for any contributions to open source or private projects.

My recommendation would be to work on an open source project starting now. You will get to work on a better project (since you get to pick) and quite possibly learn more. You might find out that this turns out better than an internship in the long road.

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