The bad economy already has people thinking about jobs -- it is, I am sure, going to be a challenging year (years?) for people graduating.
I was wondering if there would also be an effect on summer internship programs. Summer interns are often a different budget line item, but it's hard to believe that the Microsoft/Google/Yahoo/everywhere else programs, for both undergraduates and graduates, won't be curtailed in this environment.
I haven't heard anything about summer internships yet, and though it's a bit early, late December/early January is usually when I start get reminders from people to have good students apply for the summer. Can anyone comment (anonymously if needed) if they have any actual information?
I think the problem is not just whether companies have budget for intern salaries, though that is a factor. But the bigger factors are likely to be:
ReplyDelete1) Can the companies afford to divert full-time employees from their regular responsibilities to supervise and mentor interns?
2) How many full-time employees are companies looking to hire in the following year? The main ROI for a summer internship program is converting interns to full-time hires.
Some companies have hiring freezes, and since internships are often used to evaluate potential new hires, there are fewer opportunities for next summer.
ReplyDeleteAt the research lab where I work, the number of summer interns we are going to be allowed to hire (in all of research) has been cut.
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