Working for an IT staffing firm, I’m continuously amazed by how well our consultants are paid. But of course, they’re worth it! Living in the information age, the demand for qualified IT workers has never been greater. What does amaze me, however, is this article I came across on www.informationweek.com, entitled, “25 Most Lucrative Internships: Tech’s Big Spenders.” The article talks about how in the tech industry many interns – who in most other industries are unpaid – are paid quite well. The article then goes on to list the 25 highest paying companies for interns. Of those 25, 19 are technology firms!
Again, coming from the IT staffing industry and seeing what our consultants are able to command, this isn’t that surprising. However, the surprising part was to see just how well compensated some of these interns are. According to this article, which cites Glassdoor, the average range for paid interns fell between $2,400 and $3,100 per month. The highest paid were making more than $7,000 per month! Considering that the median US household income per month is $4,251.42 (or roughly $51K/year) that’s pretty remarkable. According to the article the top three companies who compensated their interns the best were, Palantir Technologies, VMware, and Twitter. Surprise, surprise – the top two are technology firms! However, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the well paid interns at Twitter were in the software engineering field.
So, if given the opportunity to speak with today’s youth, I would strongly urge them to consider pursuing a career in the technology industry. Now, all we need to do is bolster our STEM education – studies in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – but that’s a post for another day.
Link to article:
http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/team-building-and-staffing/25-most-lucrative-internships-techs-big-spenders/d/d-id/1114054?itc=edit_in_body_cross
