The Best Companies For College Internships
“You need experience.”
You’ve heard that refrain from advisors, parents, and peers for years. Like generations before you, you answer with the same question: “Where can I get that experience?” Sure, you deserve credit for your high GPA. In a perfect world, your extracurriculars would validate your ability to manage time and “get the job done.” You’re young and hungry – and you have big ideas and a high ceiling. And you clean up well too. Isn’t that enough?
Afraid not. Employers want to see you in action. Hiring someone is a big investment. Two years ago, CNN calculated that an employee making $50,000 actually costs a company $66,000, when you factor in social security and Medicare tax, unemployment insurance, and health care and 401K benefits. And that doesn’t include the cost to replace an employee who doesn’t work out. Inc. reports that it can run as high as 150 percent of an employee’s salary. Bottom line: Employers want to be certain that you can apply your skills and work well with others.
That’s where an internship comes in. You can spend your summer – or time outside of class – working in a professional environment. You can practice your craft, notch some accomplishments, and build a network of people who can vouch for you. Of course, landing an internship is easier said than done. Not to mention, not all internships are created equal. Some involve working on significant projects, but others are simply glorified clerical jobs.
FACEBOOK TOPS THE LIST
To help students identify the best places to intern, Glassdoor recently published its “25 Highest Rated Companies for Internships in 2015.” Derived from reviews from actual interns, Glassdoor based its rankings on the highest average company score (on a five point scale). In addition, Glassdoor mined a composite score to cover the difficulty of each firm’s interview (again using a five point scale).
And the big winner was Facebook, with a 4.6 average (tied with Chevron and Google). What makes an internship at Facebook time well spent? Here are some recent thoughts from the interns themselves:
“The environment is really fast-paced, with a lot of freedom. As Facebook grows, there’s more and more of a spectrum of different types of work environments and managerial relationships–all the way from entirely hands off, to much more hand holding if you need it.”
- Former Intern – Front End Engineer in Menlo Park, CA
“You are working on a very interesting problems, which actually affect more than a billion people. You also learn a lot from people around you.”
- Facebook Intern (New York, NY)
“I was interning at the HQ. It’s a very cool place with many perks including a music room, arcade room, gym, outdoor courts, many restaurants and virtually any game you can think of spread across the campus. The salary is good and the housing is great. A great place to work with its policy to be open about everything going in the company to all employees – even interns. Also the intern program is really good – they have awesome people over there organising things for interns and helping us with intern stuff in general.”
- Software Engineer in Menlo Park, CA
Here, you have the trifecta: interesting work, freedom, and good people. While entry interviews are slightly more difficult than Glassdoor’s average (3.1 vs. 2.8), Facebook provides great training for handling more complex tasks and a sometimes-stressful environment.
FROM FOOD TO MENTORSHIP, GOOGLE LAUDED BY INTERNS
Chevron also earned high marks, with one Houston intern succinctly listing its benefits as, “Fast paced, high energy, independence, strong culture.” Culture, in particular, had strong allure to one recent engineering intern, who touted the firm’s intangibles. “The culture is just as it is advertized. Chevron takes care of its people, and makes sure everyone is a good fit to its culture. Is all about Team Work, Ownership and most importantly Safety.”
Past and present interns were especially complimentary of Google, with one intern summing up the firm’s charm as, “Great office culture, perks, company values, global footprint.”Among recent interns, Google’s freebies grabbed their attention. “The food! So many perks, too,” one intern gushed. “They’ll treat you like a princess, I’m telling you. It’s amazing.” Another cited Google’s legendary “bowling alley, juice bar, indoor rock [and] climbing wall.”
Who can beat that?
To see the full list of the best companies for summer internships for college students, check out PoetsandQuantsforUndergrads.com:
Author / Playwright / Consultant
9 年One summer, I hired a college intern to work for my computer-based marketing company. I wanted to do my share to help the next generation. The student was a marketing major who just completed his junior year. One morning, there was a knock outside my office door, when I looked up, the intern was standing in the doorway holding a four-foot-wide by three-foot-high map of the United States. I asked how I could help him. He entered my office, enthusiastically, telling me how he had worked all night devising a marketing strategy for my company. The intern then stood the large map on my desk. Located across the map were hundreds and hundreds of little, round-topped, colored pins. I remember my first impression being how uniformly straight up-and-down the pins had been positioned. I could see why it took him all night. The intern then went on to explain what the colored pins represented, why they were positioned where they were, and on and on and on. I sat there and listened to every word. When he finished, he asked me what I thought of his strategy. It was quite obvious he was very pleased with his presentation; he was grinning from ear-to-ear. My initial thought was, ‘Here’s someone who played the board game Risk one too many times!’ I couldn’t shake the thought of comparing his strategy to the Allies’ invasion at Normandy. I thought back to how my father helped me foster confidence in myself. Like my Dad, I told him there were some good ideas and that I’d like to set up some time to review his strategy in greater detail. Why would I take the time if his plan was so “off the mark”? Surely, I had better things to do with my time. But, wasn’t this the very reason I on-boarded an intern; to teach, to mentor? During our subsequent meetings over the remainder of the summer, I instructed him on the “real world” implementation of a marketing strategy as opposed to what is taught in a college classroom and textbooks. I hadn’t thought about that day for a long time. Now that I have, my hope is that this young gentleman, after graduation, went on to devise some of the greatest marketing campaigns known to man. Would be nice. - from "A Lifetime Working with Idiots & How to Survive". Visit: www.WorkingWithIdiots.net
logistics supervisor
9 年yes,we need more experience
Documentation specialist/CSPO/ Agile Coach
9 年Would like to know companies in india for internship!!!!
I am PSR. I live in India. I worked for State Bank of Hyderabad. Now, I am into blogging and affiliate marketing.
9 年Good
Named Top 100 Coach 2024 | Career Coach for Lawyers, MBAs, Entrepreneurs + C-Suite | Helping people land coveted jobs & join Boards | Leadership | Team Building | Alumni Engagement | #LinkedIn Expert | 6,300+ Clients
9 年Aside from looking at formal summer internship programs, college students will benefit from a more tactical approach. Since many colleges have cut back on career planning and relatively few colleges still offer undergraduate recruiting, it's more important now than ever for college students to understand how to conduct an independent job search and how to uncover the hidden job market. Thanks to my mid- and senior-level clients for sending their college kids my way for help with Resume writing, Networking & Interviewing Skills. It's never too early to start!