Shopify VP of Engineering Farhan Thawar discusses compensation benchmarks for engineering co-op students and interns.
Insight
Startups can outcompete tech giants for interns without matching their pay
“No matter what company you're at, whether it's large or small, you are able to compete with some of the biggest companies in the world for interns and for talent in general. And it doesn't have to be That you have to pay the intern more.”
Disclosure
Managers should encourage top interns to finish other internships before accepting offers
“I encourage people who I thought did a great job at my company, and I would give them a full-time offer to still finish their internships at other companies, because you want to make sure that you are getting that experience and you figure out, oh yeah, this r…”
Insight
Job interviews are notoriously poor predictors of actual candidate performance
“Interviews are not that good at predictor performance.
Actually, it's on the slide.
and it's really just a way for you to figure out if somebody might be a fit for you.
And so the shorter you can make that process, like I wouldn't recommend hours or hours lon…”
Insight
Early-stage startups can successfully scale with a one-to-one intern-to-engineer ratio
“So in startups, I like to think of like one-to-one when I was at extreme labs, like by the end there, I put in, you know, we have our ending stat there. We had about 65 interns out of 350 employees, but when we were growing, we had one intern to one engineer.”
Insight
Robust internship programs make hiring experienced full-time employees significantly easier
“The other thing I found interesting is whenever I've had a really robust internship program, I find that it's easier to hire full times. And I think that's a combination of things, whether it's greater, a better sense of how to onboard, or even thinking throug…”
Insight
Interns should have the exact same standing and access as full-time employees
“You have to think of them as your full times, and if you think of them as your full times, you should be taking their suggestions and feedback. You should be unblocking them. They should have the same level of access as everybody else.”