Get excited: For the first time in over two years, the summer interns will be back! They’re coming to breathe new life and fresh ideas into American offices—at least, they told us that they were coming. We really hope they’re coming.
This season, it isn’t another wave of Covid-19 threatening internship attendance in some industries, but a highly competitive intern-recruiting market.
In years past, internships were a coveted prize—so much so that some students even worked for free. This summer, amid an ongoing labor shortage, the internship landscape looks different. On Wall Street, intern salaries are up ~37% YOY. Roblox is dishing out nearly $10,000 for a summer’s worth of work, with other tech companies not too far behind.
But even after accepting an already sweet offer, college students continue to shop around for a better deal. According to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, interns are jumping ship so frequently that companies like General Mills have begun to overhire in anticipation that dropouts will reduce class sizes to target.
To attract top talent and keep the early-career pipeline running smoothly, some organizations are fine-tuning their programs to interweave work and play in hopes they can offer an experience that’s a step above the competition.
Not for fetching coffee anymore. James Powell, KPMG’s director of university talent acquisition team, told HR Brew that the audit, tax, and advisory firm hired 2,500 interns for summer 2022—its largest class ever—to help meet growing demand for services.
Powell described internships as a “critical pipeline” for hiring early talent. He estimated 95% of KPMG’s interns will receive and accept an employment offer, and 90% of any incoming employment class completes a KPMG internship prior to joining. Other employers view internships as a similar pipeline. In 2021, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) reported that nearly 80% of employers with interns extended employment offers upon internship completion.
Pipeline malfunction. For internship programs to operate as the well-oiled, first-year-associate recruiting machine they’re meant to be, interns have to show up and like the experience—a premise that broke down during the pandemic.
In 2020, fewer students took internships as many organizations suspended their programs due to the pandemic. In 2021, internships came back, but were largely virtual—and the interns were not keen on professional networking over video chat. According to a study from Glassdoor in 2021, 70% of interns viewed remote internships negatively.
Some managers didn’t love it either; Powell said associates found it difficult to develop interns remotely and assess their possible fit at the firm.
“Our best way to indicate [fit] is to watch them learn,” Powell said. “[Employees] could say, ‘OK, this is something on your next job I noticed that you can work on,’ and while we try to do that in the remote environment, it's really hard to do that via cameras.”
Pick me. Given the internship market is, in Powell’s words, “red hot,” companies need to stand out from the crowd. Here’s what a few big names are doing:
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KPMG: According to Powell, interns won’t be coming in five days a week, but will “flex with purpose,” based on team and client needs. Interns are assigned two mentors during the 10 weeks: one “formal mentor” to guide project management and field career development, and a second, “younger professional” to help with the day-to-day questions, like how to complete their timesheets.
Interns will also have some fun. In addition to attending baseball games and local happy hours, for the first time since 2020, interns will travel to Lake Nona, Florida, to visit the KPMG Lakehouse, a decked-out 800-room facility with a state-of-the-art gym, bike and running paths, and your choice of a sports or wine bar for the evenings.
Powell said social elements of an internship are key: “Interns really [like] to build their network early on in their career so when they join us full-time, they will have already met 20, 30 or so other interns at their offices.”
Deloitte: The Big Three firm’s managing director of talent acquisition, Sheila Williams, told HR Brew that in-person interns are the “lifeblood” of summer. She said she’s excited the firm will return to a “traditional [internship] model” this summer with interns coming in as needed. According to Williams, internships should offer a “simulation of what it’s like to work with a client, [and] to work with our teams.” She said the firm is “not shying away” from offering a realistic experience of life at Deloitte. During the summer, interns will engage with clients directly, shadow teams, work on internal projects, and complete community service.
Interns will take a trip to the Deloitte University: The Leadership Center in Westlake, Texas, which is partly styled like a ranch retreat, to complete training (how to onboard remotely), network, and—new to this year—receive well-being training, like meditation and mindfulness classes.
Roblox: At this top-paying internship, interns will participate in an educational series called ‘Making the Metaverse,’ designed to give students a taste of the technical complexities Roblox’s staff grapple with daily. By participating in immersive project work, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Roblox’s head of talent innovation and solutions, told HR Brew by email he hopes that interns feel like “a part of the team” and see the “impact they can have” at the company.
Interns have a manager and mentor on-site to guide their project work and help them, “ask questions, solicit feedback, and break work into smaller, more manageable chunks.” At the end of the summer, Roblox has a Project Showcase to show off their “high-impact” projects.
“[It’s] almost like a science fair,” Fitzpatrick said. “We invite the whole company, including our engineering and tech leaders, C-level executives, etc. It’s an opportunity to celebrate our interns’ accomplishments, as well as recognize their efforts this summer.”—SV
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