Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

April 6 news, the report pointed out that the American technology giant intern application competition is extremely fierce, more than 100000 applications, but the number of acceptable interns is only a few thousand. The recruitment process tends to favor wealthy students, which makes some people feel unfair.

The following is the translation of the source Pexels:

Jalaun Ross knows that it's not easy to intern at a well-known technology company. He studied at Central Connecticut State University (Central Connecticut State University), majoring in computer science.

He chose a local affordable public university rather than the top computer school. He doesn't know anyone in the industry and can't ask them to help with internal referrals to recruiters.

Last summer, during his internship at a financial services company, Ross spent hours every night doing coding tests that tech companies used to screen candidates. Although he has applied for more than 200 internships, he has not received any internship offers from any technology companies.

"going to college itself requires a large number of academic tasks and activities, which may be more challenging for students from low-income families and ethnic minorities." "how can people like us who study at ordinary state universities compete with students at top universities?" Ross said.

Gaining internship experience at a well-known technology company is like getting into an Ivy League university, which can bring lifelong advantages. Companies like Amazon or Google are in great demand for high-level software engineering interns, who can earn more than $24000 a summer, as well as accommodation subsidies. Internships can provide fascinating intellectual challenges, build valuable relationships, and may lead to full-time job opportunities.

With more than 100000 applicants but only a few thousand places available, the competition for top technology internships is as fierce as entering Harvard.

Critics point out that there are problems with the typical recruitment process of high-profile technology companies. it tends to give students from top computer schools and those with industry connections an advantage-just as elite private universities tend to recruit students from top high schools and favor children from alumni. Moreover, wealthier intern candidates may have more time and opportunities to refine their portfolio and improve their skills.

"the assumption of privilege is deeply embedded in the system," said Ruthe Farmer, founder and CEO of Last Mile Education Fund, a non-profit organization that helps low-income technology students finish college. "it favors students who have more free time for sidelines, hackathons and technology interviews, and these features tend to confuse privileges and student potential."

(Ms. Farmer's non-profit organization has received funding from Google, Microsoft and other technology companies. )

Students complain that the internship selection process exposes long-standing inequities in hiring and hiring in Silicon Valley. With layoffs and cuts this year, there will be fewer internships at leading technology companies, further widening the economic gap. In response to the New York Times report, nearly 300 students, graduates and software engineers shared their experience of applying for technology internships and jobs, some of whom described the process as "cruel", "unfair" or "frustrating".

To compete, they say, many students spend hours applying for more than 100 internships, practicing internship coding tests or conducting personal coding projects in an attempt to impress recruiters. More than half of the respondents said the companies applying for the job did not give any response.

Some students at lesser-known public universities say they feel at a disadvantage compared with their peers at strong computer science schools such as Stanford, MIT, Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley. Some students said that they did not hesitate to give up part-time jobs or ignore homework and concentrate on applying for science and technology internships, but did not get any internship opportunities in the end.

Some students majoring in well-known computer science say they have achieved more success in the internship application process. Kien Pham, a student at the University of Minnesota, says he spent the summer and fall actively applying for more than 300 internships.

Among them, he applied for an internship at Amazon and prepared for it for nearly two weeks, documenting his life experiences and making sure they were in line with Amazon's internal leadership principles, the company's core values. In the end, he succeeded in getting an internship in software engineering at Amazon this summer.

Some students point out that there are socio-economic differences in the internship application process.

Technology companies like Microsoft and Google have internal recommendation systems where employees can recommend candidates. These recommendations can make some students stand out among tens of thousands of applicants. However, students from unknown schools often lack a background with an industry, family or elite university, which allows employees to recommend them.

In addition, Farmer mentioned another problem: the intern selection process may ignore or underestimate students who have work experience while in school.

Davita Bird is a computer science major at Colorado University of Mining and is proficient in six programming languages. In addition to studying, she also works part-time as a math assistant, a coach of science and technology education programs, and a university event organizer.

Last semester, Bird spent two months and an hour a night applying for 40 internships, including Airbnb, Amazon, Google, Oracle and small companies. However, she did not get a reply from most companies.

"I was asked to work as a full-time student and work extracurricular, and to spend five hours a week looking for an internship, which could not hire me for five months," Bird wrote in the comment. In the end, she accepted a cloud computing internship with an electronics company. "I hope the company will at least send me an email telling me that I have been rejected."

For some students, the process may be opaque, as large technology companies rarely disclose intern recruitment rates or which universities recruit the most interns.

In a recent interview, Vaishali Sabhahit, global head of university talent at Adobe, said the company usually received applications for summer internships from more than 100000 candidates and ended up hiring only about 600 interns. This year, the company also partnered with Bowie State University (Bowie State University), a historic black university in Maryland, to launch an independent cybersecurity internship program.

Apple did not respond to questions about its internship program. Microsoft and Meta also declined to comment on the issues raised in this article.

Keyon Young, director of the student program at Amazon, said in an email that the company will consider the candidate's education and work experience, but is most concerned about whether students are in line with the company's leadership principles. Last year, Amazon recruited the largest number of American interns from top computer schools such as Berkeley, Georgia Tech, the University of Washington and Carnegie Mellon, he said.

"even if you don't have contact with current Amazon employees, you have a chance to be considered to join us." Young added.

To expand opportunities, large technology companies such as Oracle, Microsoft, Google, Meta and Amazon have launched a variety of junior intern or mentor programs for freshmen and sophomores over the years. These programs target ethnic minorities, women, blacks, Hispanics and low-income students in the field of science and technology, involving them in engineering projects.

Google's "engineer Student training Program" aims to prepare students for professional internships. Last year, the program attracted hundreds of students from 143 universities. Amazon's Propulsion Program also offers high-performing interns opportunities to rehire internships or full-time jobs, Young said.

Richer students may have an advantage in coding tests and technical interviews. To prepare for exams, many students practice their skills on LeetCode, a free test preparation website that provides coding and algorithm problems, as well as detailed solutions.

The site also offers advanced services where members pay as little as $35 a month to get questions that have been or are still being used by companies such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft to evaluate applicants. LeetCode said that in order to keep the problem up-to-date, regular surveys were conducted among members who applied for technical positions.

However, spending hours practicing on LeetCode doesn't help Jalaun Ross. He was "heartbroken" when he applied for more than 200 technical internship positions, all of which were rejected.

"although I like computer science, it makes me feel that this field is not suitable for me." He said.

In spite of this, Ross is still gratified because he has the opportunity to study and work in the computer field. Recently, he accepted an internship offer from a financial services company where he worked last summer.

(this article is translated by AI, and the editor is responsible for proofreading.)

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.