Successful internship programs convert 70% to 80% of graduating interns to full-time
Farhan Thawar · How to Build a Great Intern Program from Scratch | @shopify VP of Engineering Farhan Thawar · Feb 12, 2021 · at 30:45
Farhan Thawar, VP of Engineering at Shopify, breaks down strategies and return offer expectations for interns finishing their final academic term.
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“I think in most companies I've seen like 70 to 80% conversion here in terms of like giving them an offer and then coming back.”
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More from Farhan Thawar
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.”
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…”
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…”
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.”
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…”
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.”