If you have two people in front of you looking for a position, (all other things being equal), one of whom has quantifiable experience and one does not – who would you choose?
I’ve been responsible for hiring people (directly and indirectly) in companies for over 15 years now, in various positions.
There is nothing that will shoot a resume into the garbage bin faster than not having any kind of work experience (paid or unpaid, internship or not.)
Once those have been weeded out, I go through and look for those who have relevant work experience. Are you applying for a customer service position? There better be some sort of customer-facing role on there. Security Researcher? Show me your bug bounties list.
If you have managed to go through years of school without managing to ever do anything outside of those hallowed halls – my companies aren’t likely going to be the place to break you into the workforce.
There are plenty of options for that- places that have strong training and research programs. Universities tend to have great relationships for recruitment.
I work in Startup-land, though, and if you took the time to get a Bachelors, Masters and maybe even a Doctorate without even bothering to get any work experience, you likely won’t last long.
Originally Posted: https://www.quora.com/How-important-are-internships-when-evaluating-new-grads-for-job-opportunities
Originally Posted On: 2016-05-10