4 ms·

I've never heard of an 8-month internship. What sort of program is that? Like a semester+summer?

cbhl 13y ago
Probably a co-op program with a University. the University of Waterloo often does 4-month and/or 8-month (depending on the program); the University of Toronto does 12-month, in partnership with companies that are looking to woo students before they've even finished their undergrad. (Usually it involves the school designing the academic program and shifting when courses are offered (including putting courses in the spring/summer) to accommodate the work term.) The grandparent appears to go to the University of British Columbia, judging from their profile.
Elv13 13y ago
My university (Montreal ETS) also do it. They have 3 (real/full) semesters per years. Students usually take 1 of them per year to work as interns. You can technically work as intern for like 5 years and still be considered enrolled into the engineering program. Students will either prefer 8 months internship for well paid jobs or jobs that cannot be done in a 4 months development cycle(like a video game). In the end, it does increase the total time spent to graduate, but students tend to have much lower debts (if not profit) at the end. These kind of deals seem to be quite widespread in Canada (just like the above commenter show). I know these private sector <-> teaching organization deals are not well considered in some part of the world, but, in the end, someone who just graduated, but accumulate years of full time working experience have an easier time landing a job at the end, at least for STEM jobs.
- pm90 13y ago
  Its a sweet deal for companies if you think about it. Maybe benefits are different in Canada, since I heard that the Govt. provides healthcare, but in the US, the employer has to provide that. Plus, more salary, 401(k) etcetc. Actually, from another viewpoint, for small companies its very beneficial to hire interns; they can be used to work on projects which might be interesting but have low financial returns. Which leads me to conclude that > 3 month internships should perhaps be allowed only if you're working at a startup, or small-scale shops that can't really (I mean really really) afford to pay you. For a company like Broadcomm, that doesn't make sense. Of course, this is just my subjective viewpoint. I'm inclined to believe that my sense of justice might be very skewed.
  - Elv13 13y ago
    Interns are being paid in every fields but medicine and education. Some technical schools (including mine) will refuse internships paid anywhere near minimum salary (they care way to much about the statistics and marketing, which is, in turn, a good deal for students too). I am not claiming it is Klondike for every interns (it's not), but having a ~20$/h-30$/h mostly tax free salary is really helpful to avoid loans with interest. Education is not very expensive in Quebec, fees will be around 6k$ / year (9 15 weeks courses + 1x internship fees, books/material not included) but after adding the cost, of life, the rent, food and everything, it get to around 20k$/y. Given the state provided healthcare and services the first quarter* of the citizen have to pay for, it is even financial beneficial to some people. *(The other three would be elders, children and the ones below poverty threshold)

cbhl 13y ago

Probably a co-op program with a University. the University of Waterloo often does 4-month and/or 8-month (depending on the program); the University of Toronto does 12-month, in partnership with companies that are looking to woo students before they've even finished their undergrad. (Usually it involves the school designing the academic program and shifting when courses are offered (including putting courses in the spring/summer) to accommodate the work term.) The grandparent appears to go to the University of British Columbia, judging from their profile.

Elv13 13y ago

My university (Montreal ETS) also do it. They have 3 (real/full) semesters per years. Students usually take 1 of them per year to work as interns. You can technically work as intern for like 5 years and still be considered enrolled into the engineering program. Students will either prefer 8 months internship for well paid jobs or jobs that cannot be done in a 4 months development cycle(like a video game). In the end, it does increase the total time spent to graduate, but students tend to have much lower debts (if not profit) at the end. These kind of deals seem to be quite widespread in Canada (just like the above commenter show). I know these private sector <-> teaching organization deals are not well considered in some part of the world, but, in the end, someone who just graduated, but accumulate years of full time working experience have an easier time landing a job at the end, at least for STEM jobs.

pm90 13y ago
Its a sweet deal for companies if you think about it. Maybe benefits are different in Canada, since I heard that the Govt. provides healthcare, but in the US, the employer has to provide that. Plus, more salary, 401(k) etcetc. Actually, from another viewpoint, for small companies its very beneficial to hire interns; they can be used to work on projects which might be interesting but have low financial returns. Which leads me to conclude that > 3 month internships should perhaps be allowed only if you're working at a startup, or small-scale shops that can't really (I mean really really) afford to pay you. For a company like Broadcomm, that doesn't make sense. Of course, this is just my subjective viewpoint. I'm inclined to believe that my sense of justice might be very skewed.
- Elv13 13y ago
  Interns are being paid in every fields but medicine and education. Some technical schools (including mine) will refuse internships paid anywhere near minimum salary (they care way to much about the statistics and marketing, which is, in turn, a good deal for students too). I am not claiming it is Klondike for every interns (it's not), but having a ~20$/h-30$/h mostly tax free salary is really helpful to avoid loans with interest. Education is not very expensive in Quebec, fees will be around 6k$ / year (9 15 weeks courses + 1x internship fees, books/material not included) but after adding the cost, of life, the rent, food and everything, it get to around 20k$/y. Given the state provided healthcare and services the first quarter* of the citizen have to pay for, it is even financial beneficial to some people. *(The other three would be elders, children and the ones below poverty threshold)