A couple of recent threads have focused a bit on internships, and I thought some hard data would be appropriate.

• Average applications for internships are up 150% per opening in just the last 2 years so 250% more competitive. AI has everyone scared, and rightly so for entry positions.
• It's worse in tech at many companies (including the big ones) openings dropping 20-50% accompanied by layoffs of many of those that facilitated internships. In IT 273 apps per opening, in Finance - 193/opening.
• At the "super" tier (FAANG tech/finance/consulting) acceptance rates are well below 1% for many companies AFTER the original screening. It is much more difficult to get an internship at that level than to get into an Ivy League school.

I agree with everyone that internships are probably the best path for college students to get jobs, but even for the 50-60% who do apply for internships (my current guesstimate), the odds have become disheartening.

I was too lazy/stupid/short sighted to apply for an internship back in the day but certainly could have got one. Now, even for the "great" kids, it is tough out there.

If you know a kid who has an internship, he/she probably deserves a pat on the back.

A couple of the cites I used:
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/21/applying-for-internships-is-nearly-twice-as-competitive-as-last-year-says-new-report.html
https://www.naceweb.org/talent-acquisition/trends-and-predictions/internship-entry-level-job-modality-corresponds-with-students-job-preferences

Internships will be a thing of the past. I know in my industry I'm seeing more and more companies completely sideline their internship programs. Why spend money and resources putting together a formal internship program when:

1. Tasks that an intern would normally do are increasingly being automated by AI.

2: Even if you do give an intern a full-time offer, they're going to be gone in about 2 years.

This is all going to end in disaster eventually. There won't be any entry-level jobs available. The rich will get richer and everyone else will suffer for it.

Young people must feel increasingly marginalized on many levels. Must be disheartening.
My son (Aggie class of 2015) did an engineering co-op via A&M with a large defense contractor. It led to doing that two other semesters and then a job offer in February of his senior year without so much as an interview. He's been there since and has had a great career so far.
Sucks that this happening for young people now.

The internship is a weird concept. "Here's a promising youth who'll spend 3 months pretending to be one of us. Find something useful for him to do that fits within the venn diagram of duration, capability, & value that you haven't already done."

There's a reason they default to office go-fer.

And the UNPAID ones? How little do you value yourself to PAY to work? and how conceited does a company have to be to assume that folks will pay in time and expenses for the mere chance of a job with them?

Gen Alpha and Gen Z really got screwed.

Ipad kids and smartphones were pushed on them by absent Gen x parents. Now when they are looking to join the work force Gen X is busy offshore jobs over seas. Add in that the boomers have *******ized health insurance and cost of college has boomed due to government backed loans. Now kids are being funneled into debt/health insurance-bondage style slavery.

The applicants for an internship at my company were 2 ivy league, 2 Berkley, 1 masters at rice and 1 other that had internships with NASA. All of them with internship experience and research experience. My company isnt some FAANG level exciting gig. And that is after resume screening. Insanely competitive.

Get Off My Lawn said:

---

The internship is a weird concept. "Here's a promising youth who'll spend 3 months pretending to be one of us. Find something useful for him to do that fits within the venn diagram of duration, capability, & value that you haven't already done."

There's a reason they default to office go-fer.

And the UNPAID ones? How little do you value yourself to PAY to work? and how conceited does a company have to be to assume that folks will pay in time and expenses for the mere chance of a job with them?

---

Internships for a company make a lot of sense. Let us see culturally how the person fits in. Do they consistently show up. What is their attitude like. Do they seem to enjoy the work. Things you really cant screen for in an interview.

Now with the cost of short term housing going up, most internships are still really losers for kids. A 3 month apartment rental in houston will cost minimum $1,800 a week in a safe part of town. That is brutal.

Internships are not the only thing that has suffered. The entire concept of apprenticeship in the trades has also mostly gone away.

Hell, my niece's ex-bf (thank god for the ex part) wanted me to call one of our HVAC contractors to hire him, with zero experience, to learn on the job at full pay. Told him go to a technical school get trained, come back and talk. Said he wasn't going to spend money getting certified and demanded he should make full rate whilst learning on the job.

Shrugged my shoulders and told him good luck. He's back to being a server at Chilis at 24 years old.

All that to say there may be some issues with companies, but a lot of the issues have to do with the attitudes of youth in general, but these youth and their entitlement approach to life.

Competition for an internship is insane. We have around 35 engineering interns a year in our company. I looked in Workday for this past summers numbers. 35 positions, over 12,000 applications. Of those 35, maybe 4-6 are hired on full time whether it is immediately after the internship or the conclusion of the students schooling. The majority just don't show enough work ethic to make it in our industry or just don't take the opportunity serious enough.

Get Off My Lawn said:

---

The internship is a weird concept. "Here's a promising youth who'll spend 3 months pretending to be one of us. Find something useful for him to do that fits within the venn diagram of duration, capability, & value that you haven't already done."

There's a reason they default to office go-fer.

And the UNPAID ones? How little do you value yourself to PAY to work? and how conceited does a company have to be to assume that folks will pay in time and expenses for the mere chance of a job with them?

---

I guess it depends on the company culture and the job. Our engineering interns do engineering stuff and function as part of the team.

Get Off My Lawn said:

---

The internship is a weird concept. "Here's a promising youth who'll spend 3 months pretending to be one of us. Find something useful for him to do that fits within the venn diagram of duration, capability, & value that you haven't already done."

There's a reason they default to office go-fer.

And the UNPAID ones? How little do you value yourself to PAY to work? and how conceited does a company have to be to assume that folks will pay in time and expenses for the mere chance of a job with them?

---

My son did an unpaid internship in Dallas summer before his senior year. Then graduated during COVID. Day after graduation he packed up his stuff and moved to Dallas to start work full-time in the office. It worked out great for him.

Blackhorse83 said:

---

Get Off My Lawn said:

---

The internship is a weird concept. "Here's a promising youth who'll spend 3 months pretending to be one of us. Find something useful for him to do that fits within the venn diagram of duration, capability, & value that you haven't already done."

There's a reason they default to office go-fer.

And the UNPAID ones? How little do you value yourself to PAY to work? and how conceited does a company have to be to assume that folks will pay in time and expenses for the mere chance of a job with them?

---

I guess it depends on the company culture and the job. Our engineering interns do engineering stuff and function as part of the team.

---

…with all of their work checked over by an EIT / designer and then reviewed again by whomever signs their PE to it.

I get how there's value to "dating" a prospective employee, and in some niche cases a good intern may be able to produce real benefit… but the intern model made much more sense in a period with pensions and lifelong employment. For any company that doesn't invest in keeping its people happy, the value of vetting college juniors is minimal. The best ones will job-hop away from under-appreciation anyhow.

Now with the cost of short term housing going up, most internships are still really losers for kids. A 3 month apartment rental in houston will cost minimum $1,800 a week in a safe part of town. That is brutal.




I only know this because my oldest interned in Atlanta back in summer 2024. Universities will rent out their dorm rooms at a daily rate. No utilities to hook up, no deposits, just move in.

Georgia Tech and Emory do down there. Fraternities do as well. My son stayed with his fraternity on gt's campus and even had a meal plan.

Reminds me of this exchange from the movie Emily the Criminal.

What if they're in an internship program for ai governance? That's a **** show at thr vast majority of companies.

Wouldn't an internship be the same as starting off at the bottom of a company and working your way up?

Companies should create deals with colleges based on cost and curriculum (aka remove all the non-sense classes, i.e. The Exxon Degree plan or The Hartford Degree plan)

Reading this while on my internship is interesting

washedupballer said:

---

Reading this while on my internship is interesting

---

Don't sweat it. Every generation has its Chicken Littles.

Sack up guys. Your life as an American will be great as long as you maintain optimism and seize opportunity. That's your heritage.

IndividualFreedom said:

---

Wouldn't an internship be the same as starting off at the bottom of a company and working your way up?

Companies should create deals with colleges based on cost and curriculum (aka remove all the non-sense classes, i.e. The Exxon Degree plan or The Hartford Degree plan)

---

Pretty sure those exist or certainly existed. For us lowly accounting folk, Ags have the Professional Program in Accounting.

The big 6, 5, then 4 endowed scholarships and professorships and in return got a vetted group of top tier students to pick from… at least that was what it was when I went through.

It's a great answer. Many of the builders have poured quite a bit of money into the tech campuses that are popping up at many high schools.

Again, it's not a popular answer but a lot of it lies on slack arse entitlement syndrome.