5 ms·

Tech’s coveted internships are getting canceled due to Covid-19

66 points by sidhanthp 7y ago

throwqwerty 7y ago
basically this same story was posted last week and i commented on that one as well. i have a summer internship with FB and i reached out to both my recruiter and team lead. both said that it's still on but possibly WFH. from what i've heard Google isn't cancelling software internships (the cited cancellation is for UX design) and doing online onboarding and WFH at the discretion of the managers. if you're in the same boat you should probably email your recruiter and your matched team lead.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
GoatThompson 7y ago
Hey, this happened to me today at 9:30AM. I’d lined up an absolutely dreamy UX Research internship with an incredible Chicago company — smart coworkers, awesome office, rigorous interview process, the whole 9 yards. Then my phone rang and everything evaporated due to forces beyond my control. I spent an hour sitting on the floor wanting to throw my laptop through the window before I counted the ways I’m lucky and made pancakes. Today has been terrible but I’ll be ok. I did it once, I can do it again :)
- istorical 7y ago
  Just an idea, but looking back on internships from years past, three things they give you are experience/learning, networking/relationships, and a resume item. Perhaps you could proactively address #3 now by using their sympathy to get them to write you a short 'recommendation' or vouch for the fact that they accepted you for their internship program, so that in the future on your LinkedIn you can note the summer of 2020 as the headline 'Internship at ______ - canceled due to Corona - instead I taught myself _____', and then in the body of that entry, start with their quote they gave about what impressed them about you, and then write the rest of the entry about what other stuff you learned / did instead.
  - throwqwerty 7y ago
    >Just an idea, but looking back on internships from years past, three things they give you are experience/learning, networking/relationships, and a resume item. you forgot one very important item: full time offer.
- throwqwerty 7y ago
  >I did it once, I can do it again :) honestly i feel that a lot. if my internship gets cancelled i'll be mighty disappointed after having anticipated it for so long (years) but one thing you should (and i will) keep in mind is that you can probably get recycled to next summer. admittedly that isn't a consolation if you're graduating next year.
- trimmedarticle 7y ago
  For whatever it's worth - after the "Great Recession" of 2008-2009, I graduated university with a 3.7 GPA and couldn't find a job... at all. Granted, I was in a small market and wanted to stay there but nobody wanted to hire me for any full-time job I applied for. Finally, I found something for the city doing data entry. The salary was poverty-line level. I drove down the morning it was supposed to begin, but the door was locked. I got home and checked my voicemail - they canceled the position. I had a decent business idea or two, and ended up becoming an entrepreneur out of just frustration really, and within six months I had meetings with executives of businesses I couldn't get an internship with about partnerships. Just keep working and solving problems.
  - csomar 7y ago
    Very interested to hear more...
  - cvhashim 7y ago
    Write a blog about this.
- cvhashim 7y ago
  Really sorry to hear that :(
- HeyLaughingBoy 7y ago
  Awesome attitude! That's probably what got you the internship in the first place.
frutiger 7y ago
As a counterpoint, Bloomberg (a medium-sized tech company) is still hiring interns as well as FTEs. We are all WFH but the positions, hiring, internships are proceeding as usual. Disclaimer: I am a team lead at Bloomberg.
- throwqwerty 7y ago
  i'm curious does Bloomberg have a lot of experience running internships completely wfh? can you talk a little bit about how you're planning to adjust how you mentor and coordinate (if you're hosting this summer)?
- sheikheddy 7y ago
  What about interns outside of US/Canada?
jimmaswell 7y ago
Shame on any company too stuck in 1950 not to embrace WFH in this time for work not abdolutely requiring physical presence.
- cameronbrown 7y ago
  WFH will seriously hurt any internship. I think it's for the best, but it won't be nearly as good as actually being in-person with engineers.
  - jimmaswell 7y ago
    WFH being worse is debatable, but people entering the workforce need internships now more than ever. Companies canceling them are failing in their social responsibility unless they suddenly can't afford the interns due to lost business.
    - navidr 7y ago
      Companies mostly calculated the cost and devoted the investment for recruiting the intern beforehand.
    - throwqwerty 7y ago
      >Companies canceling them are failing in their social responsibility do you really believe there's a single incorporated entity on the planet that makes decision based on social responsibility? companies that continue to have internships are doing so because if they do not then they won't meet hiring quotas for next year (and will then be short-staffed because of churn).
      - jimmaswell 7y ago
        > do you really believe there's a single incorporated entity on the planet that makes decision based on social responsibility? By proxy when the unpopularity of a decision impacts revenue/public perception. We can choose not to do business with companies that are especially unconscionable. And once in a while someone at the head of a company does just do something good too.
robbyyy 7y ago
Remember, this is an emergency on an epic scale. Hopefully it will pass any things will return to normal (or something like it).
- lonelappde 7y ago
  Hopefully WFH stays.
ethanzh 7y ago
I got an email from my recruiter at a medium-sized VC-funded startup in Mountain View basically saying “if things don’t change by June we won’t be able to continue move forward with your internship”. I appreciated the transparency and that’s about as good of an an answer as I could’ve expected given the sheer uncertainty of everything going on right now.
alephnan 7y ago
Didn’t Yelp also rescind full time offers ?
- sushid 7y ago
  Yelp's case is also more situational than the rest. They entirely depend on people shopping/eating out to search and make posts. That's clearly not happening right now and I'm sure SMBs are scrambling to cancel any ad purchases they already have with Yelp.
navidr 7y ago
I got email yesterday from a midsize company, they cancelled my internship too.

66 points by sidhanthp 7y ago

basically this same story was posted last week and i commented on that one as well. i have a summer internship with FB and i reached out to both my recruiter and team lead. both said that it's still on but possibly WFH. from what i've heard Google isn't cancelling software internships (the cited cancellation is for UX design) and doing online onboarding and WFH at the discretion of the managers. if you're in the same boat you should probably email your recruiter and your matched team lead.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

GoatThompson 7y ago

Hey, this happened to me today at 9:30AM. I’d lined up an absolutely dreamy UX Research internship with an incredible Chicago company — smart coworkers, awesome office, rigorous interview process, the whole 9 yards. Then my phone rang and everything evaporated due to forces beyond my control. I spent an hour sitting on the floor wanting to throw my laptop through the window before I counted the ways I’m lucky and made pancakes. Today has been terrible but I’ll be ok. I did it once, I can do it again :)

istorical 7y ago
Just an idea, but looking back on internships from years past, three things they give you are experience/learning, networking/relationships, and a resume item. Perhaps you could proactively address #3 now by using their sympathy to get them to write you a short 'recommendation' or vouch for the fact that they accepted you for their internship program, so that in the future on your LinkedIn you can note the summer of 2020 as the headline 'Internship at ______ - canceled due to Corona - instead I taught myself _____', and then in the body of that entry, start with their quote they gave about what impressed them about you, and then write the rest of the entry about what other stuff you learned / did instead.
- throwqwerty 7y ago
  >Just an idea, but looking back on internships from years past, three things they give you are experience/learning, networking/relationships, and a resume item. you forgot one very important item: full time offer.
throwqwerty 7y ago
>I did it once, I can do it again :) honestly i feel that a lot. if my internship gets cancelled i'll be mighty disappointed after having anticipated it for so long (years) but one thing you should (and i will) keep in mind is that you can probably get recycled to next summer. admittedly that isn't a consolation if you're graduating next year.
trimmedarticle 7y ago
For whatever it's worth - after the "Great Recession" of 2008-2009, I graduated university with a 3.7 GPA and couldn't find a job... at all. Granted, I was in a small market and wanted to stay there but nobody wanted to hire me for any full-time job I applied for. Finally, I found something for the city doing data entry. The salary was poverty-line level. I drove down the morning it was supposed to begin, but the door was locked. I got home and checked my voicemail - they canceled the position. I had a decent business idea or two, and ended up becoming an entrepreneur out of just frustration really, and within six months I had meetings with executives of businesses I couldn't get an internship with about partnerships. Just keep working and solving problems.
- csomar 7y ago
  Very interested to hear more...
- cvhashim 7y ago
  Write a blog about this.
cvhashim 7y ago
Really sorry to hear that :(
HeyLaughingBoy 7y ago
Awesome attitude! That's probably what got you the internship in the first place.

frutiger 7y ago

As a counterpoint, Bloomberg (a medium-sized tech company) is still hiring interns as well as FTEs. We are all WFH but the positions, hiring, internships are proceeding as usual. Disclaimer: I am a team lead at Bloomberg.

throwqwerty 7y ago
i'm curious does Bloomberg have a lot of experience running internships completely wfh? can you talk a little bit about how you're planning to adjust how you mentor and coordinate (if you're hosting this summer)?
sheikheddy 7y ago
What about interns outside of US/Canada?

jimmaswell 7y ago

Shame on any company too stuck in 1950 not to embrace WFH in this time for work not abdolutely requiring physical presence.

cameronbrown 7y ago
WFH will seriously hurt any internship. I think it's for the best, but it won't be nearly as good as actually being in-person with engineers.
- jimmaswell 7y ago
  WFH being worse is debatable, but people entering the workforce need internships now more than ever. Companies canceling them are failing in their social responsibility unless they suddenly can't afford the interns due to lost business.
  - navidr 7y ago
    Companies mostly calculated the cost and devoted the investment for recruiting the intern beforehand.
  - throwqwerty 7y ago
    >Companies canceling them are failing in their social responsibility do you really believe there's a single incorporated entity on the planet that makes decision based on social responsibility? companies that continue to have internships are doing so because if they do not then they won't meet hiring quotas for next year (and will then be short-staffed because of churn).
    - jimmaswell 7y ago
      > do you really believe there's a single incorporated entity on the planet that makes decision based on social responsibility? By proxy when the unpopularity of a decision impacts revenue/public perception. We can choose not to do business with companies that are especially unconscionable. And once in a while someone at the head of a company does just do something good too.

robbyyy 7y ago

Remember, this is an emergency on an epic scale. Hopefully it will pass any things will return to normal (or something like it).

lonelappde 7y ago
Hopefully WFH stays.

ethanzh 7y ago

I got an email from my recruiter at a medium-sized VC-funded startup in Mountain View basically saying “if things don’t change by June we won’t be able to continue move forward with your internship”. I appreciated the transparency and that’s about as good of an an answer as I could’ve expected given the sheer uncertainty of everything going on right now.

alephnan 7y ago

Didn’t Yelp also rescind full time offers ?

sushid 7y ago
Yelp's case is also more situational than the rest. They entirely depend on people shopping/eating out to search and make posts. That's clearly not happening right now and I'm sure SMBs are scrambling to cancel any ad purchases they already have with Yelp.

navidr 7y ago

I got email yesterday from a midsize company, they cancelled my internship too.