Interns at Big Tech companies remain hopeful amid economic downturns

Tim Cook has said Apple plans to be more deliberate for hiring within certain areas of the company in 2023, but summer interns are optimistic about their prospects at Apple and elsewhere.

After two years of confusion and changing targets, big tech companies haven't slowed hiring of interns. A report on Thursday sheds light on some interns, offers, and the things that they have to go through to get hired.

Interns at Microsoft mentioned their happiness with the number of permanent job offers available at the company. Some top interns at Meta have already received return offers, made earlier in 2022 than the historical pattern for the company.

One college senior interning at Apple received a verbal offer for a permanent job at the company, just before her internship ended in the middle of August. Talking to The Information for Thursday's report, she called Apple a "port in the storm," a good place to weather economic troubles.

Big Tech interns are optimistic

Interns are a valuable source of fresh talent and are typically paid less then employees as they find their strengths in their chosen companies. For example, Google said it had over 3,500 interns working for it in 2021.

Although interns are typically only at a company for three months, some companies view their roles as an extended interview for a permanent job position. Summer interns heading into their final year of college often receive these job offers, and they help each other stay competitive.

Microsoft's most recent summer intern class saw spreadsheets circulated by the interns with compesation figures for permenent jobs within the company, according to three interns. They continued by saying virtually everyone on their team received a return offer.

According to one of these spreadsheets at Microsoft, the company has offered software engineers approximately $118,000 in the past, with a $35,000 signing bonus and $120,000 in restricted stock over four years

Interns at Meta have also compiled spreadhsheets with anonymously-submitted information about job rates. As an example, the median salary for software engineers is $136,000 with a $75,000 signing bonus and $220,000 in restricted stock over four years.

At other companies, interns who aren't involved in programming may have a different experience. One senior from Carnegie Mellon University said that she hasn't received any permanent job offers from Meta despite taking on extra work and making sure she had good feedback.

In a July session with employees, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said these job offers would be sent to a smaller percentage of the company's intern class than usual.

Meta froze its hiring process in May 2022, blaming iOS 14 privacy changes that could impact its revenue. Meta CFO David Wehner said that it faces slower revenue growth but remains optimistic.