>even though I could've spent my summers doing internships, I think it would have been rather pointless.
>I can't see how it helps much. Seems mostly like a way for Google et al to fish for young talent before they graduate.
There is tremendous value in summer internships. You get to "test out" companies to work for after graduation. You get to learn a ton about actually using technologies in production and/or at scale. You get to learn from engineers who have years of industry experience. You get to work on technologies you would otherwise never work with (e.g. big data) by yourself. By the time you graduate, you will already have 9 months work experience, rather than 0, which makes starting a startup a more feasible option than before. I'm a little bewildered as to why you (or the culture in Europe?) find these internships pointless.
If what you say about the culture in Europe is true, I find this to actually be a competitive advantage for students/companies in the US.
>I can't see how it helps much. Seems mostly like a way for Google et al to fish for young talent before they graduate.
There is tremendous value in summer internships. You get to "test out" companies to work for after graduation. You get to learn a ton about actually using technologies in production and/or at scale. You get to learn from engineers who have years of industry experience. You get to work on technologies you would otherwise never work with (e.g. big data) by yourself. By the time you graduate, you will already have 9 months work experience, rather than 0, which makes starting a startup a more feasible option than before. I'm a little bewildered as to why you (or the culture in Europe?) find these internships pointless.
If what you say about the culture in Europe is true, I find this to actually be a competitive advantage for students/companies in the US.