Interns From Ivy Leagues Or Private Schools Are Unwanted (opens in new tab)

(forbes.com)

18 pointscamz12y ago17 comments

17 comments

> To be fair, there are bad apples in every college and it’s likely that expectations from Tier 1 schools are higher. But, below are a few stories that you can judge yourself.

This is a terrible article and the above line confirms that it's essentially collecting some bad anecdotes to paint a broader picture of "tier-1" interns.

canistr12y ago

I agree, particularly with the anecdote of the intern countering for a $15/hour wage. NYC is by no means a cheap city and even I was making $15/hour as an intern many, many years ago. $10/hour is rather insulting and barely makes a dent in the living costs of a student yet alone their tuition costs.

greenyoda12y ago

If you're working as an intern in software development, chances are you're already making a positive contribution to the bottom line, and $15 might even be way too low. However, if you're a marketing intern, like the person in this story, you might actually have a negative worth to the company (the time it takes others to teach you what you need to know could exceed your productivity), in which case the $10 per hour might be extremely generous.

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mathattack12y ago

It depends on the field. Software and Finance? Yes, terribly low for NYC. Fashion or Advertising? Perhaps par for the course.

eli_gottlieb12y ago

Wow, I'm interning at a software company in the Bay Area and my normalized hourly wage is way more than $15/hour. Is it just me, or do a lot of firms these days just exploit cheap labor as a way to avoid admitting that their business models are actually quite low-value?

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mathattack12y ago

I think part of the issue is the screening and mentoring. If you just screen for the school, of course you won't get a good intern. If you accept falling asleep once, of course it will become a pattern.

My experience with people with difficult majors from top schools is they are workaholics if you pay them good money and give them real projects. If you hire a lacrosse playing English major from an ivy league, and pay substandard wages, don't expect to get the cream of the crop.

gohrt12y ago

"Interns who want to get paid > $10/hr to do professional-quality work are unwanted."

Is there a browser plugin that erases Forbes and Medium links from HN?

nextstep12y ago

Can we stop posting stuff from Forbes' blogging platform? This kind of content is rarely well-researched (or interesting).

TrainedMonkey12y ago

All the smart/hardworking interns from tier 1 schools end up in tier 1 companies. So chance of getting a bad apple for an average company is so much higher.

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ethanazir12y ago

There is this issue: if you go to school to learn- you pay the school big bucks; if you go to a company and still need to learn a lot before you are worth anything; and there is little expectation of you staying with the company long enough to be worth anything... its why the military requires 4 year commitments before they pay for your training.

habosa12y ago

Yeah! All Ivy League kids demand to be paid too much and then just fall asleep at their desks and lie about deaths in the family!

Disclaimer: I go to UPenn, but that doesn't make this article less of a pile of bullshit.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

17 comments

steve-howard12y ago

> To be fair, there are bad apples in every college and it’s likely that expectations from Tier 1 schools are higher. But, below are a few stories that you can judge yourself.

This is a terrible article and the above line confirms that it's essentially collecting some bad anecdotes to paint a broader picture of "tier-1" interns.

canistr12y ago

greenyoda12y ago

1 more reply

mathattack12y ago

It depends on the field. Software and Finance? Yes, terribly low for NYC. Fashion or Advertising? Perhaps par for the course.

eli_gottlieb12y ago

2 more replies

mathattack12y ago

gohrt12y ago

"Interns who want to get paid > $10/hr to do professional-quality work are unwanted."

Is there a browser plugin that erases Forbes and Medium links from HN?

nextstep12y ago

Can we stop posting stuff from Forbes' blogging platform? This kind of content is rarely well-researched (or interesting).

TrainedMonkey12y ago

All the smart/hardworking interns from tier 1 schools end up in tier 1 companies. So chance of getting a bad apple for an average company is so much higher.

1 more reply

ethanazir12y ago

habosa12y ago

Yeah! All Ivy League kids demand to be paid too much and then just fall asleep at their desks and lie about deaths in the family!

Disclaimer: I go to UPenn, but that doesn't make this article less of a pile of bullshit.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse