Ask HN: Are internships affected by recent layoffs?

8 pointsssttoo2y ago8 comments

If your company had layoffs, in your experience are potential internships also reduced? Or increased (no employee benefits etc)?

8 comments

8 comments · 5 top-level

pers0n2y ago· 3 in thread

I doubt it, most companies use interns illegally for free work, they are not supposed to replace regular workers or do work that generates money but as mostly a benefit for the intern

sarlalian2y ago

I've admittedly been at the same company for 10 years, but no where that I know of does unpaid internships anymore. And our experience with interns is that they are a great way to find some really good future employees but absolutely a productivity drain on the team while they are here. It's worth it because of the hiring pipeline it creates, but 100% not worth it just for the work the interns do while they are interns.

Kirby642y ago

What company in tech has unpaid internships? They’re paid less, but they’re still paid in any tech firm I’m aware of.

olnluis2y ago

Outside of first world countries, way too many of them. But that's outside the scope of this thread since the layoffs situation is mostly, if not completely, concentrated within the US.

azornathogron2y ago

Where I work, yes, internship places have been massively reduced. Internships feed into the hiring pipeline: no hiring, no internships.

They're not a way to get low cost employees, since even very adept interns need a ton of guidance and help from the people around them, and that takes time from the full time employees hosting the interns.

Our_Benefactors2y ago

Multiple cycles of interns were skipped prior to the company performing layoffs. So it was more of a leading indicator.

mesozoic2y ago

Yeah. At my work we stopped taking on interns for the most part and declined most interns that were current any return offers.

CM302y ago

From what I've experienced yes. The teams suffering from layoffs where I've worked haven't had any interns assigned to them, and it seems like the number of people taken on as interns in general has been significantly reduced as well.

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