Ask HN: What's up with tech internships? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's up with tech internships?

12 pointsrkon9 comments

"Ideal applicants will possess:

1-2 years experience working with: HTML/CSS, XML, integration and template design on a CMS (such as SharePoint or Kentico), JavaScript libraries, Photoshop or Fireworks, ASP.net, C#. Knowledge of Windows Server 2003 and 2008, IIS. Experience with SQL Server queries and stored procedures; Oracle PL/SQL knowledge. Experience with Visual Source Safe (or similar)."

This is for one 'programming/web development' internship, and it's not even asking for as much as most other ones I've seen (they usually mention C or C++, AJAX, PHP, Ruby and Flash as well).

Am I making too many lofty assumptions about the level of competency they expect in all these areas, or are employers just looking for ridiculous qualifications in college students (who may or may not be paid)?

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No. Knowing C# is enough for this job; SQL would be good, and Photoshop is a bonus

Employers post everything they use hoping that someone will match at least half of them. Most full timers aren`t even experts in all the technologies.

Don't be intimidated, think about it from the employer POV. Most are DESPERATE!

If you've got a year or two of internships under your belt already and are a junior or senior in a CS program these requirements seem pretty reasonable. 1-2 years just means you've made something with it, it doesn't mean you are an expert.

Exactly. These requirements are not unreasonable at all. I don't think it is out of line for an employer to expect that you've at least seen/touched the tech they use.

A lot of the 'requirements' are more on the way of suggestions. Most companies only expect you to know some of the things they list in this sort of situation, anticipating that you can learn the rest if and when you need it on the job.

Where did you see this? There are plenty of bullshit "opportunities" forwarded around CS student mailing lists. You'll learn to bin these soon enough.

My favourite was an ad for a PHP Ninja, where you needed to be a PhD student in order to maintain their CRUD webapp, but they might be willing to glance at your CV if you only had a Masters.

If an advert emphasises what you will gain from an internship, in terms of skills and in terms of money, that is a good sign.

Just ignore anything that doesn't feel right.

Yeah, I know those spam emails you're talking about. Usually the type of "great opportunities" where you get to manage yourself and earn "tons of money" on commission, AKA free help.

Most of the internships in my area (Philadelphia) are just like the excerpt I posted. Some are worse -- like the company that obviously wanted an unpaid intern to build them a brand new website -- and very few are better.

All the ones I am seeing are similar.

It's not a bad thing when employers continually raise the bar on their expectations for both full-times and interns.

You should still apply to these seemingly daunting positions because many times employers want to see you have the capacity to learn (remember almost anyone can learn anything given some reasonable amount of time) even if you don't know something right now.

Also well-known companies know they can suck people in through name alone and not pay them as much as other firms.

In my experience, for any company that is really worth it, the job description is pretty meaningless.

All that matters is how you do in the interview. Thus, if you have good coding skills and reasonable algorithmic/problem solving skills, you shouldn't have any problem getting an interview.

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