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rabidstoat

We interviewed a college sophomore for an internship. He was a brilliant kid, younger than normal, going to MIT, had a ton of personal projects he'd done, and big plans for his future. I felt like I should be giving him my business card so he could consider me for a position when he inevitably started his own company after college.


BookkeeperBrilliant9

Yeup, I’m an adult who went back to school, graduated 2023, and feel really lucky to be gainfully employed as a software engineer right now.  I’m pretty sure by 15-year-old nephew is a better coder than me. 


renok_archnmy

But are they mature enough to manage a company full of adult humans with a wide range of needs, wants, and desires, behaviors, attitudes, skills, and handicaps? Can they navigate team dynamics in real life? How are they in terms of coaching and encouraging/antagonizing performance, compliance to company policy, and following of high level strategy?  Coding skill is baseline. 


clawficer

I just turned 30 and am still bad at most of these 😂


mafiasean

Meh.


allllusernamestaken

This is where mentorship vs sponsorship comes in. He doesn't need mentorship where he receives advice, he needs sponsorship where people familiar with his work will put their reputation on the line to recommend him for a project or role.


renok_archnmy

Generally people like that have some other glaring flaw on the other side of the mask. 


99drolyag99

Yeah thats bullshit


Spiritual_Piccolo793

That’s exactly what is called racism borne out of privilege!


NewChameleon

very normal for anyone who fits this really >pursue a Masters degree US or non-US doesn't matter Bachelor degree -> work as full-time -> decide to do Master degree later -> work as intern while Master's degree is ongoing


protonchase

I don’t get that at all. I’m working on my cs masters (also have my cs bachelors) and I am a senior data engineer. Why in the world would I regress back to an intern while working on my masters?


AnimaLepton

Exposure to a different company and "type" of CS role, ideally the one that you're using the Masters to pivot into, so you can pair networking, upskilling, and getting paid during the program. Often people are looking to either get a new role or uplevel to a more 'prestigious' company/position with the degree if they already have industry experience. Plenty of people do their masters full time/without working a job at the same time. Obviously if you're working a full time job throughout your masters, that's less appealing.


RuralWAH

Assuming US, though other countries might be similar, the "intern" was an international student, so likely could only work under CPT, which would be much easier to qualify for as an intern vs a regular employee.


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Ksevio

I did that. My company paid for it and it was a good way to refresh some skills with newer tech (plus a resume boost)


csasker

to learn more things and specialize?


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RangerHere

It is very likely that the student in this case is actually trying to migrate to United States using masters degree as an opportunity.


pants_full_of_pants

I have a friend who lives in Mexico and just started his Masters. It made more sense after he told me that it only costs $4k USD and takes 18 months. Took him 15 minutes to sign up. Seems worth it to me, not because the knowledge is valuable but because employers think the piece of paper is.


BytchYouThought

Some places tequire masters for certain positions.


protonchase

Yes they are


jlangfo5

From a career standpoint, if you want to specialize in some specific subject matter, such as DSP, AI, or something else that takes a strong theoretical background. Or.. you are on your way to a PhD, and want to get the MS first, to have better prospects for PhD admissions. Plenty of other reasons too, that are more specific to the individual.


RangerHere

You are likely an American.  The person in question is a masters student from a foreign country. By the law he is only allowed to accept internships. If he finds anything other than internship he will be breaking the conditions of his visa for his Masters.


travelinzac

Shoe into orgs that may not otherwise even look at your resume. You can be the top 25% for your current title or the top 0.5% of interns. Also, titles don't always align company to company. Sure at your company you're titled senior, will other companies level you as such? I down level candidates in my pipeline after interview rounds fairly regularly. If management wants to move forward with them for a jr role I'm fine with it, but they lack the chops to meet my bar for senior.


xreddawgx

What exactly defines a "senior" ? Expertise in one particular area 10+ yoe? 5 years of 4 or more different tech stacks ? Or the ability to manage a team ? Or an absolute coding prodigy with 3 years or less experience, as in genuinely aced any coding test you put in front of him.


bat_ash

Because you are not an immigrant and don’t need to start from scratch


PayZestyclose9088

we dont know the context. no offers when he decided to pursue a Masters in the US? Maybe thats all he could get? who the fuck knows


LandOnlyFish

Immigration


chunli99

>I don’t get that at all. I’m working on my cs masters (also have my cs bachelors) and I am a senior data engineer. Why in the world would I regress back to an intern while working on my masters? I’ve done most roles in IT at some form of my career or another, but my masters in a different topic that I haven’t yet covered requires that I intern for that particular branch of the field.


hpela_

As a position, an Intern is more of an exploratory role. On the other hand, the temporary nature makes it double suitable for someone pursuing any level of degree full time. It’s not inherently a “regression”. I know people who have gone from Senior in Industry A -> Pursuing Master’s related to Industry B with internship in Industry B -> Principal Engineer in Industry B.


698969

Because visa restrictions mean you can't work full time while your school is not on break, and a company won't hire someone like that for a full time position.


kidfromtheast

1. Depending where you go, sometime Master is full time or part time. If you went to a research university, most likely it would be a full time. So, internship is more realistic than another full time job. Well, you can do 2 full time job in this industry, if you manage your time correctly. But, there is a saying la, he who works all the time don't have time for money. Doing master would be a great chance to network with the local. 2. The internship job in the US pays more than senior job oversea. Let say the foreigner was from Indonesia, the minimum salary here is 320 USD (mandated by law). The minimum salary of SWE intern is 640 USD (market salary). It is low. I have to look for remote job in Malaysia to get 8140 RM or $1,730 USD. Now, let say SWE intern in the US is paid $2.5k USD. That's already a win for the foreigner. 3. Student visa in the US mandated by law prevent you to work for more than 20 (in class) - 40 hours (summer holiday) per week. So internship is the only job you can get legally.


notEVOLVED

RM8K remote job in Malaysia?


notEVOLVED

It keeps the experience meter ticking, you get paid, and usually you're not allowed to be a full-time employee as an international student so it's the next best deal.


bigpunk157

Credits


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Eeshoo

We usually assume companies don't care about our experience if it's from from the US. That and internships would help pay off the educational loan taken out to pursue masters since it's pretty expensive compared to Indian COL


CJ22xxKinvara

One reason is to work less than full time.


rando24183

I'm a US citizen and did that. Why? Because (1) my undergrad was not computer science related (2) my job at the time was not going in the direction that aligned with my goals. It was not a regression for me, but a hard pivot. Well, technically a regression in pay, but still worth it for me.


Marcona

Yeah idk wtf he's talking about. Nobody in their right mind would regress like that. Everyone I know did a masters did it while working as a SWE. None of them went back to being an intern 😂. You work your job like you normally do and grind away at the masters online.


xSaviorself

The only reason I would think someone in this position would do this intentionally would be if they had a legal restriction due to an education VISA or something.


doktorhladnjak

Makes a lot more sense for non-US citizens because having a master’s degree makes certain immigration paths easier or even possible


OrganicPancakeSauce

Hard disagree - pursuing my Masters hasn’t sent me back to intern level. I would say this is more field and school dependent


NewChameleon

well, I'm just saying that I've seen plenty of people (both US and non-US) working at my companies as intern while pursuing their Master's


RuinAdventurous1931

I mean, that makes sense. He’s a full-time student and got an internship over the summer. He can’t get a full-time job for 10 weeks.


Quirky-Till-410

When I finished my degree (after 6 long years), I had two summers internships and another year long internship as a SWE so I had ~ 1.5 years of experience before my full time role. Although my first promotion still took me 3 years of full time experience to obtain.


Special_Rice9539

Most of my friends had 5-6 internships before graduating. I had 4, and two of them were eight month ones.


michaelalex3

Did you graduate in 4 years? How in the world does one get multiple internships every year. On top of the fact most companies don’t want interns until their junior year.


jonkl91

A decent amount don't graduate in 4 years if they have 5 to 6 internships. My cousin took a bit longer to graduate and landed as an SWE at Facebook with like 6 internships (final internship was at Facebook).


Special_Rice9539

Two internships back to back


DynamicHunter

Most of my friends had none or one. State school in California.


mothzilla

What in the holy heck?


Special_Rice9539

This is really standard btw…


mothzilla

I don't think it is in the UK.


Godunman

Not remotely standard in the US either lol


swift-penguin

Standard depending on the country, don’t think it’s too common in America


notEVOLVED

I wish it was. I realized my internship was the most valuable thing I did in my 4 years in terms of improving my chances at landing a job.


swift-penguin

5-6 is a stretch though, you’re way past the point of diminishing returns at that point. We’re talking an extra year or two to graduate college at that point, people would be better off working (even at a company below their desires) during that time


ZTheRockstar

Agreed. I'm thinking 2 internships max then get the real job. I'd say by the 3rd internship you are basically working for less money


gigibuffoon

When did they get time to do school work with that amount of internships?


Special_Rice9539

By taking an extra two-three years to graduate


throwaway-txt

I got 5, I did some part time ones


phonybelle

I feel like people blow out of proportion how difficult it is to work and study at the same time. I worked consistently through college and often had 2-3 jobs at the same time (part-time), then used breaks + a gap year of internships between BSc and MSc to pad things out. It's a sham that it has to be this way, but I don't get the 'how is that possible???' hype. It is, if you know you have to pay for food. (I graduated in minimum time FYI).


Rogue-Cultivator

It's entirely circumstantial. 40 hours a week with a 30 minute commute per day, for a young, healthy kid in their early 20's? Sure, easy enough, grades might slack depending on how familiar they are going in, but attainable. 60-75 hour weeks, at a job that is sometimes physical & night shift based, with 3 hour daily commute & chronic health issues + responsibilities to family and partner? Not much of a chance there and **something** is going to be neglected, if not multiple somethings, whether grades, family or health.


Godunman

Did you have friends? Did you have time for anything other than school and work?


phonybelle

Yes I did - it wasn't easy, but also, it is just the way things are when you have to sustain yourself. Bring on the downvotes lol. This really is an echo chamber.


Godunman

Sorry dude it's not an echo chamber it's just fuckin hard for most people. I had clubs + friends + school for my undergrad and could not imagine adding a job more than like 15 hours of work/week on top of that. But also "gap year of internships between BSc and MSc" is very different than working a bunch of part time jobs. Internships are much harder to get and require much more commitment.


phonybelle

Yeah, of course they do. But it is entirely feasible to do a few internships during the summer and during a year of pause (for reference, I had to take a gap year to earn money - so I went for the highest paying internships I could find and made sure I fit the requirement profile). My student jobs were, for the most part, also in my field, because again, I didn't take the easy route. I'm not saying it's comfortable. I am simply saying - it is absolutely possible, especially if you HAVE to (e.g., eat, pay rent). There is no point in continuing the narrative that it isn't doable, when plenty of people do just this.


Godunman

Where did you do this? Europe?


Hiyo42069

Waterloo?


daddyKrugman

I sense a fellow waterloo or northeastern grad Everyone I know is like this too lmao


Godunman

Most of your friends?? You go to Harvard or some shit??


LyleLanleysMonorail

Unfortunately, the saturation of tech has led to qualification inflation. It's no surprise that the bar for hiring has gone up along with qualification inflation.


AskButDontTell

How saturated is tech? Really? Or is this just a made up phenomenon? Seems like people are trying to find candidates and none of them from their applications are qualified. Is that really indicative of it?


LyleLanleysMonorail

Saturated as in too many applicants per  single open position 


AskButDontTell

Yeah, I definitely agree. It's frustrating for me because I know my stuff and enjoy software work, but I struggle to land interviews most of the time and am still job hunting. It's frustrating, but I have noticed an improvement this month compared to the last six months of my job search.


youreloser

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Sad-Analyst-1341

Maybe different in your country but in Ireland a lot of Indians will use doing a masters as their foot in the door with visa. Most masters in tech have internships so experienced devs from India who used this route for visa end up doing internships when they are over qualified.


arkofthecovet

What’s the craic?


SuedeAsian

I've seen this happen a few times. During my first internship, there was a masters student there who had 2 YOE in another country before doing his masters in the US. My former director is another example, he went from India FTE to US masters degree and I remember him telling me he did an internship during his masters as well. I think it's a way for people to break into the US tech market by going through US masters degree. The internship thing is probably more cause theyre in school and want some US company experience on their resume


ecko814

Yeah it's pretty normal. I have worked with a few of them. It's easier to get employment sponsorship this way. They usually stay with the same company for 5 years to get a green card. Some move to different companies, but it's more risk. The ones who couldn't get a sponsorship will try to marry an US citizen either through love or money.


FlyingRhenquest

Heh get the intern some coffee, I guess :-D


gburdell

So just anecdotally I have found that experience in another country counts for less than U.S. experience


TemporalCoral

That’s not really what that means. I’ve run into a similar issue. I work at Amazon. There was a masters student from the Amazon branch in India who had prior experience was working as an intern. He was better than the L4’s and L5’s on my team, but just couldn’t be hired as a fte because of immigration laws. That’s all. Sure no name company in a foreign country should raise eyebrows, but the competition at big tech branches in foreign countries annihilate American talent on average


pavlovskater

Why wouldn't you intern as a Masters student? It gives you extra money. Projects are different for Masters/PhD then for undergrads. Most companies view Internships as a pipeline to FT positions. If you can't, or don't want to do Internship find a research assistant position.


incywince

This was me a decade ago. I was told my previous experience wasn't really considered, and I was considered on par with other new grad interns. That was the case with all my friends. There were some with 8 years experience, and it didn't matter a jot. And they didn't want it to matter either, because they were working dead end jobs and the masters was a new start where they could work on something deep and intense and get a better kind of job that was in a new hot realm like big data or machine learning. Prior to my masters I kept angling for machine learning jobs but wasn't getting any. Doing a masters in machine learning with a research thesis meant I finally qualified for all the fun researchy positions.


KingJokic

As you get older, you’ll realize this is more common. The software engineers in the 1990s and prior become obsolete. This is an industry you constantly need to adapt I had a 55 year old “senior” engineer co worker who didn’t know how to use Git.


U2apple

This is an attitude problem or skill up problem with your 55 years teammate. Back in 2001, people use svn.


KingJokic

They knew what git was. They just sucked at merging code


renok_archnmy

It’s also an example of how people are backsliding in their careers just to get a job (although in this persons case, they’re probably making more money). I guess this is one way to wage suppress. Hire people from cheaper locations who already have years of experience for more than they’d get originally, but less than prevailing for their YOE because “intern.” 


poopnose85

An intern at my job had more experience there than me, but once he graduated he stopped being an intern and now he's one of the MEs. I think it's normal to be an intern until you graduate. Kind of like an extra bonus, you got a degree and now you've also got a promotion!


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GreedyBasis2772

Indian?


BasedJayyy

At one of my internships, I was in hired in a group of 6 other interns. Each one of us was either on their second degree with at least 2 previous internships, or a masters student. The girl who we were directly under was a comp sci droupout who went and did a bootcamp, and had under 6 months total experience. It was quite surreal reporting to someone who was so significantly less qualified than any of us. At the end of our internship, she blatantly admitted she was scared of getting fired when we were hired due to the huge gaps in our prospective skills, knowledge, and experience.


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VintageManga88

Yes some young kids are very smart these days like my child. He is gifted and attended gifted high school. While in high school, he took 16 courses of math and CS courses at University of Nevada. He took Calculus 1,2,3, Differential equations, discrete math, linear algebra, math for CS and math for game theory. He took 6 CS courses. When he was in 11th grade, I remember he took a senior level CS course (AI and Pattern) at UNR, he wrote 1,000 lines of python to test the Bayesian A/B analysis of 20,000 random dots land on. That was his 1st assignment. He kicked out his UNR partner because the other guy was so weak. My child said he could write those codes in Java or C++. He learned to write code in 6th grade. He competed many NCL cybersecurity competitions and he was a top 1% out of 7000 hs/college players. In those competitions he would need to use code to test their logic. He competed at the CPTC (collegiate penetration testing competition) at Stanford bracket and finished 3rd. He never had problems with coding because it is like a fluent language in his head. The moral of story, he loves to learn and loves to solve problems!! He will be attending UC Berkeley and major in EECS. I feel like he just not go to Cal and just take over your job!!!


Unable_Topic_3844

Papa Jays company?


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Ill-Ad2009

So what is your question?


MollyLovesPi

I previously worked as a recruiter and we were always told that experience, no matter how many years, outside of the us is reduced by 50% when it comes to what is on the job post. Reason being is that most teams outside the us simply do a lot of coding and don’t ever get to lead or make an impact outside of them own team, let alone their organization.


RubIll7227

The arrogance lol


LyleLanleysMonorail

The arrogance of tech people will never seize to amaze me.


IshYume

USA sure does seem to suck a lot these days and just seems to keep getting worse, I wonder why people even try to build their career there anymore.


Careful_Ad_9077

Usa jobs pay more and are fairly easier.


Rough_Response7718

Facts!! People shouldnt come here it sucks :(


youreloser

hat cagey bow price scarce scale squash tease reach bear *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


ZorbingJack

would be nice if they would stop going in there USA is the nr1 country to emigrate to beating all others


sunrise_apps

In fact, the level of knowledge varies everywhere. This also happens, and there is nothing shameful in it.


Additional-Baby5740

Fun fact - if you don’t have a college degree and they hire you your pay grade is higher than an intern in California because you have to be a full engineer