At These Companies, Interns Make More than the U.S. Median Household Income

http://www.fastcompany.com/3027064/fast-feed/at-these-companies-interns-make-more-than-the-us-median-household-income

by markkanof • 12 years ago

19 14 12 years ago

That's because they're not really "interns" they're just "software developers who are not old enough to actually hire yet because they're still finishing up the traditional college experience"

rl123452• 12 years ago

"[...] not old enough to actually hire yet because they're still finishing up the traditional college experience"

Isn't that exactly the definition of what an intern is?

thebiglebrewski3• 12 years ago

Yeah, notice how I said "software developers" though. That makes this a lot different than people in other professions...

mulligan• 12 years ago

They left out all the law firm summer clerks. Also a number of interns at these companies are graduate students.

runamok• 12 years ago

I wonder if a fair portion of that is a housing stipend so the student can relocate for the short duration of the internship.

hatred2• 12 years ago

I don't think so. Most of them give a separate housing stipend in addition to this.

salman89• 12 years ago

A cheap recruiting tool for these companies. Get top recruits through the door when the difference in a few K still matters to them.

jofer2• 12 years ago

For that matter, I've done internships at two of the companies on that list, and currently work for a third.

The full-year-equivalent for my intern salary was ~$80k, at both. (Counting housing stipend.)

However, at least in my field (geoscience), an "intern" means someone who has already completed at least a B.S. and is currently enrolled in a graduate program. You _can't_ do an internship as an undergraduate.

It's not uncommon to have interns in their 30's who have >10 years experience with very similar work to job they're doing as an intern. (To be fair, it's also common to have people who are doing very unrelated graduate work and have no experience with what they're doing as interns.)

At least in my case, I had already completed a B.S., M.S., and was a few years into my PhD at the time.

At any rate, keep in mind that a lot of these internship programs don't allow undergraduates. I'm not saying they're not cushy (they are!), but they're basically 3-month paid interviews.

hatred2• 12 years ago

I can certainly say with confidence that 9 of the top 10 companies do hire undergraduates readily. ( Not sure about Exxon ).

Happy Apping :)

jofer2• 12 years ago

I should have clarified that. I mean in geoscience. As far as I know, none of the majors accept undergraduate geoscience interns.

At any rate, the point I was trying to make is that the average salaries include quite a few (majority even? I dont' know...) folks in graduate programs.

dhruvmittal• 12 years ago

It's worth noting, at least for the companies on this list that I've interned at, that the listed numbers look like it they are for a well qualified software engineer (with at least a summer or two of industry experience prior to the internship), an MBA student, or a MS/PhD student. In my experience, the actual intern salary at these companies is significantly lower (about 60% the listed salary on average).

DrJ• 12 years ago

christ, I was asked about this and said $25 per hour or 70k per year.

At These Companies, Interns Make More than the U.S. Median Household Income

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