
Tech’s coveted internships are getting canceled due to Covid-19 - sidhanthp
https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/25/internships-are-getting-canceled-due-to-covid-19-heres-why-you-should-care/
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GoatThompson
Hey, this happened to me today at 9:30AM. I’d lined up an absolutely dreamy UX
Research internship with an incredible Chicago company — smart coworkers,
awesome office, rigorous interview process, the whole 9 yards. Then my phone
rang and everything evaporated due to forces beyond my control. I spent an
hour sitting on the floor wanting to throw my laptop through the window before
I counted the ways I’m lucky and made pancakes. Today has been terrible but
I’ll be ok. I did it once, I can do it again :)

~~~
trimmedarticle
For whatever it's worth - after the "Great Recession" of 2008-2009, I
graduated university with a 3.7 GPA and couldn't find a job... at all.
Granted, I was in a small market and wanted to stay there but nobody wanted to
hire me for any full-time job I applied for.

Finally, I found something for the city doing data entry. The salary was
poverty-line level. I drove down the morning it was supposed to begin, but the
door was locked. I got home and checked my voicemail - they canceled the
position.

I had a decent business idea or two, and ended up becoming an entrepreneur out
of just frustration really, and within six months I had meetings with
executives of businesses I couldn't get an internship with about partnerships.

Just keep working and solving problems.

~~~
cvhashim
Write a blog about this.

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throwqwerty
basically this same story was posted last week and i commented on that one as
well.

i have a summer internship with FB and i reached out to both my recruiter and
team lead. both said that it's still on but possibly WFH. from what i've heard
Google isn't cancelling software internships (the cited cancellation is for UX
design) and doing online onboarding and WFH _at the discretion of the
managers_.

if you're in the same boat you should probably email your recruiter and your
matched team lead.

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frutiger
As a counterpoint, Bloomberg (a medium-sized tech company) is still hiring
interns as well as FTEs. We are all WFH but the positions, hiring, internships
are proceeding as usual.

Disclaimer: I am a team lead at Bloomberg.

~~~
sheikheddy
What about interns outside of US/Canada?

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ethanzh
I got an email from my recruiter at a medium-sized VC-funded startup in
Mountain View basically saying “if things don’t change by June we won’t be
able to continue move forward with your internship”. I appreciated the
transparency and that’s about as good of an an answer as I could’ve expected
given the sheer uncertainty of everything going on right now.

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jimmaswell
Shame on any company too stuck in 1950 not to embrace WFH in this time for
work not abdolutely requiring physical presence.

~~~
cameronbrown
WFH will seriously hurt any internship. I think it's for the best, but it
won't be nearly as good as actually being in-person with engineers.

~~~
jimmaswell
WFH being worse is debatable, but people entering the workforce need
internships now more than ever. Companies canceling them are failing in their
social responsibility unless they suddenly can't afford the interns due to
lost business.

~~~
throwqwerty
>Companies canceling them are failing in their social responsibility

do you really believe there's a single incorporated entity on the planet that
makes decision based on social responsibility? companies that continue to have
internships are doing so because if they do not then they won't meet hiring
quotas for next year (and will then be short-staffed because of churn).

~~~
jimmaswell
> do you really believe there's a single incorporated entity on the planet
> that makes decision based on social responsibility?

By proxy when the unpopularity of a decision impacts revenue/public
perception. We can choose not to do business with companies that are
especially unconscionable.

And once in a while someone at the head of a company does just do something
good too.

~~~
throwqwerty
>By proxy when the unpopularity of a decision impacts revenue/public
perception. We can choose not to do business with companies that are
especially unconscionable.

do you really live in a fairy tale?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_haemophilia_blood...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_haemophilia_blood_products#Continued_sales)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster)

[https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/oct/04/ontario-
six-n...](https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/oct/04/ontario-six-nations-
nestle-running-water)

[https://theintercept.com/2020/03/23/gilead-sciences-
coronavi...](https://theintercept.com/2020/03/23/gilead-sciences-coronavirus-
treatment-orphan-drug-status/)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire)

just off the top of my head

~~~
jimmaswell
none of that disproves anything I said, and the fact PR departments exist
proves perception matters.

~~~
throwqwerty
>none of that disproves anything I said

i love people like you. gets presented with evidence to the contrary and just
completely dismisses it. have you ever considered that you might let it roll
around in your head before you make the call that none of it disproves
anything you said? have you really done the due diligence on the examples i've
furnished?

~~~
jimmaswell
I'm familiar with most of it. Yes, obviously companies do bad things all the
time, often get away eith it, and sociopaths are more likely to rise to high
positions. How does that mean we can't judge companies for their actions and
try to hold them to standards? Especially in this age where information
travels so easily?

Here's one case of public reaction doing something:
[https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/social-media-
sha...](https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/social-media-shaming-can-
outrage-be-effective/)

How slavery free diamonds became a selling point works too. Because people
didn't want to buy blood diamonds so the business had to change.

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navidr
I got email yesterday from a midsize company, they cancelled my internship
too.

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alephnan
Didn’t Yelp also rescind full time offers ?

~~~
sushid
Yelp's case is also more situational than the rest. They entirely depend on
people shopping/eating out to search and make posts. That's clearly not
happening right now and I'm sure SMBs are scrambling to cancel any ad
purchases they already have with Yelp.

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robbyyy
Remember, this is an emergency on an epic scale. Hopefully it will pass any
things will return to normal (or something like it).

~~~
lonelappde
Hopefully WFH stays.

