I have no sympathy for companies that bitch about how hard it is to find engineering talent if they don't operate a strong internship program. There is a Joel blog on this - the best talent graduates from university with job offers from all the places that they interned. There is no rational reason for any company that purports an interest in top talent to shy away from having an internship program. It is the cheapest hiring strategy, far cheaper than having expensive in-house or outsourced recruiters.
Not entirely true. Both interns and new college hires can require a lot of work from your previously-productive employees. I've met many firms -- particularly in the finance sector -- who don't hire anyone below that 3-5 years' experience bracket. If you are willing to pay, it can really be worth it to avoid the amount of early-stage training it takes to get a young person either up and productive or determine they're not capable of growing into larger-scale development and have to manage them out.
I'm not in favor of it personally, mind you, as I did a lot of hiring across the board, but I can understand where they come from, particularly little sub-500 employee shops.
Agreed. It's hard to find engineering talent if everyone only squabbles over the Stanford grads, for example. But what about other graduates or even self taughts? IMO companies that over value pedigree have lost the hacker spirit.
When we're talking startups or even small established shops, I can't imagine finding the time in the day (let alone the resources) to set up a "strong" internship program to supplement a handful of developers. And then teaching them a full stack, and then seeing them head back to their dorms? Odds on the company won't be around by next summer, let alone ready to reap that particular harvest.
Agreed. While interns are just a piece of the puzzle, it's a great one. And when they graduate, they're also more likely to relocate than many other people, if they don't live nearby.
