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Interns at Facebook, Google Out-Earn the Average American (axios.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

Alayna Treene, writing for Axios: Long gone are the days of unpaid internships, at least at these 25 companies who are paying interns more than what the average American earns. Tech and finance interns in particular -- including at Google, Bloomberg, BlackRock, and Facebook -- earn more per month than the average American, according to data released by Glassdoor Tuesday.

7 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. They make the *median* income of SV by garcia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are plenty of fields where employees, interns or otherwise, outpace the salaries of the vast majority of Americans; however, put into context, interns at companies based in Silicon Valley are making just about the median income for the area and about 1/3 above the Californian median.

    I am not sure what this is supposed to tell us, honestly. Companies wanting to attract top talent need to pay decent wages. Clearly the marketplace is competitive, even pre-graduation, especially for those coming out of top-tier schools with advanced degrees.

    I mean, it's very nice that everyone wants to have income equality; however, let's dispel with the notion it's going to happen anytime soon and move along.

    1. Re:They make the *median* income of SV by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It tells us that at least half of all people in Silicon Valley don't work as software engineers or management. :-D

      That's a popular misconception about Silicon Valley. Not everyone here is a newly minted millionaire, billionaire or zillionaire. You got minimum wage people taking out the trash, virtual ditch diggers like myself cleaning up the messes, and everyone else who isn't management or engineering.

  2. Re:This is why they need H1b by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Internships are really extended multi-month job interviews. That is how my company sees them, and that is how interns should see them. We never offer an internship to someone that we would not want to hire as a permanent employee. After graduation, we offer jobs to about 60% of our former interns, and most of them accept. We make NO job offers to any other graduates.

    So the competition for the best interns is really a competition for the best future employees. The competition is fierce, and the best students usually have multiple internship offers.

    Students that don't intern, and expect to just magically find a job after they graduate, are idiots.

  3. Re:outcome vs opportunity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The "Great Society" programs in the US have locked people into cycles of poverty.

    My test for "locked in poverty" is whether a person of ordinary ability who is willing to work an honest 9-5 can find good meaningful work that pays enough to support a small family simply but comfortably (i.e. no one in the family is going to bed hungry, everyone on the family has basic medical care, the children in the family have access to decent schools, etc.).

    The question of whether the government is providing such generous welfare that it's preferable to not work and simply collect welfare even though good jobs are available is somewhat orthogonal.

    But clearly not everyone in the USA is working in good jobs. So the one explanation is that such jobs exist but people choose welfare instead. The other explanation is that such jobs don't exist - well at least not enough for everyone. This second explanation is problematic because it indicates that some fraction of the population must necessarily be trapped in poverty.

    Myself, I'm sufficiently cynical that I can totally believe that in most countries in the world (including the USA but possibly include a small number of countries like Denmark), some fraction of the population is locked in poverty. But if you can't face the truth then live your fantasy of a perfect world where the only people who are poor are those who truly deserve to be poor.

  4. Re:outcome vs opportunity by swillden · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So the one explanation is that such jobs exist but people choose welfare instead. The other explanation is that such jobs don't exist - well at least not enough for everyone.

    A third explanation is the one the GP alluded to: such jobs exist, but not locally. Because welfare is (barely) good enough and moving seems like such a risky endeavor, people stay put and get by on welfare.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  5. Re:This is why they need H1b by Trondheim · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Should you MAJOR in history or English literature? Not unless you have rich parents.

    I graduated with a B.A. in English, and now I'm an enterprise architect. Uninformed comments like this make engineers look foolish.

  6. Re:outcome vs opportunity by virtig01 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    if I move to eastern Kentucky how much welfare can I expect to get?

    That depends on what you're eligible for, and how efficient you are at converting non-monetary entitlements into cash:

    https://theweek.com/articles/452321/appalachia-big-white-ghetto