
Ask HN: Why are most software eng. internships not offered to non-students? - amazonavocado
With students, it&#x27;s recommended to take an internship before going into their first full-time job for a career. But such a path is less probable for a non-student. Ironically, the self-taught person is expected to apply to jobs with a portfolio which is a greater leap to take, without internships as a stepping stone. A portfolio can be a display of skill. But internships help build a connection to a company that would recognize them as a known quantity.<p>No other professional field comes close to computer science in being able to start learning and applying skills for free without a traditional learning institution. Yet, landing internships without being in school is way more difficult. Implying you can&#x27;t learn what CS schools have for yourself for free. University is great for a lot of people, but you might not need it. I do find more value in most internships, though. So why not make them open to anyone so long as they pass non-arbitrary requirements that don&#x27;t involve formal schooling?
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twunde
In the US, internships have very specific laws around who is eligible for
them, especially for unpaid internships[1]. This has been coupled with a large
number of allegations about unpaid internships being abused for free labor and
much more scrutiny from DA offices and other government orgs. There are state
laws that are applicable as well. There either is or was a requirement that
the internship be counted toward class credits.

[1] [https://www.symplicity.com/employers/campus-
recruiting/resou...](https://www.symplicity.com/employers/campus-
recruiting/resources/the-employer-guide-to-understanding-internship-laws)

~~~
wikibob
tech internships pay well more than the average American salary.

[https://www.levels.fyi/internships/](https://www.levels.fyi/internships/)

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gt565k
Because the world runs on merit, credibility, and risk reduction.

A student at a university has the credibility to be successful at the
internship and potentially turn into a full-time hire. The university in
essence has raised the bar of the candidates available to an employer by
filtering them through their acceptance criteria. If you got into a really
good school, you must have worked hard, had good grades, etc. The school has
done the first step of the vetting process for the employer.

In addition, a formal education can be easily verified, and also reduces the
overhead and risk for the employer having to train those employees.

If you're self-taught, and you can sell yourself as having the same skills and
understanding of the field, then it should not be hard to get an internship.
Unfortunately, the burden is on you to portray and sell yourself on your self-
taught skills, rather than relying on the merit/prestige of a university and
their acceptance process.

You also have to consider the population size of applicants. For every
job/internship a self-taught person is applying, there's probably an order of
magnitude more people with a formal education in that field. Statistically
speaking, the employer is more likely to select a person with a formal
education based on population size.

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csdtx
And what about those students who didn't take internships while going to
school because they don't like alternating between work and school?

