Thread: Job Opportunities for a 6-months placement

Hello. First post...

I have to do a 6-months internship (placement), from April - September, and I was wondering if you know of any good companies that offer this opportunity. I am not asking for small software houses, I'm sure there are many of them that can do that. I more asking about big companies, like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, IBM etc.

Does anyone have any idea if they offer placements for 6 months?

Have a good day!

EDIT: I'm looking for companies in the US...

...They all do...

The best way to get an internship is to go to a career fair at a local university, where these companies specifically come to recruit.

Originally Posted by Dush

I more asking about big companies, like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, IBM etc.

So, you want to skip the small company stage where you work in a closely knit group of friends who grab beers after work while producing amazing new stuff, and jump straight to the soul-crushing faceless monstrosity stage.

Hmm. Odd choice.

Originally Posted by brewbuck

So, you want to skip the small company stage where you work in a closely knit group of friends who grab beers after work while producing amazing new stuff, and jump straight to the soul-crushing faceless monstrosity stage.

Hmm. Odd choice.

Unless maybe you mean an oppressive bunch of nobodies to whom you will be serving coffee and forced to mimic in a friendly way, with little prospect of finding subsequent employment or gaining real experience. I have heard small organizations are more prone to abusing the possibilities of "internment" but I guess this will vary widely. Some people might rather "jump straight to the soul-crushing faceless monstrosity stage" in the hopes of avoiding "the soul-crushing, easily identified, tedious nowhere stage".

Originally Posted by brewbuck

So, you want to skip the small company stage where you work in a closely knit group of friends who grab beers after work while producing amazing new stuff, and jump straight to the soul-crushing faceless monstrosity stage.

Hmm. Odd choice.

At big companies like Microsoft, IBM, etc, interns work on fun stuff like unit tests, build environment scripts, and performance testing. At small companies, interns work on boring stuff like software design, critical bug fixes, and design implementation.

Oh wait...

At big companies like Microsoft, IBM, etc, interns work on fun stuff like unit tests, build environment scripts, and performance testing. At small companies, interns work on boring stuff like software design, critical bug fixes, and design implementation.

Not necessarily. I did my internship for a relatively large company, and my project as an intern was relatively large and included loads of new feature development. It was a fun project.

I pity those who have to write unit tests all day long every day...not that they aren't necessary, just that that's not what this job is all about.

Originally Posted by DavidP

Not necessarily. I did my internship for a relatively large company, and my project as an intern was relatively large and included loads of new feature development. It was a fun project.

I pity those who have to write unit tests all day long every day...not that they aren't necessary, just that that's not what this job is all about.

I admit my sample size is small, as I'm not in the habit of changing companies very much.

I started as an intern at a small company (12 people) and stayed there almost 9 years. By the time I left I was the technical overseer for a two million line project.

Now I'm at a somewhat larger (90 people) company but it still feels like a small company. My experience of huge companies is admittedly through what my friends have told me. I know many people who've worked for IBM and Intel.

Originally Posted by Dush

1. It the name of the company that counts in the end

Of the two reasons you give, this is the most devastating. I won't discuss the salary. You obviously associate big names to big salaries. A mistake you'll realize soon enough. No need for me to go into a tirade.

But less obvious is that idea quoted above.

Show me indeed a resume with names like NASA, NSA or Microsoft in there and I'll be impressed. But what did you do there? That will be the first question I will look for in your resume. And that is the one that will get you or not the job. Dig it?

Now, for you to even have a glint of hope to come out of a job at NASA that doesn't involve serving coffees, you had to have some sort of hands-on experience and revealed some sort of rare or extreme know-how. These are the skills and features you can only learn and train in obscure small to mid-size companies. Those companies that are indeed the backbone of technological development under most circumstances. Just so you have an idea, NASA doesn't do it anymore (heck! did they ever?). They buy it already done. So, it's those small companies the ones that under most circumstances will shape your future and will guarantee you a comfortable seat on a big company later on in your career.

...

If your desire is to show off your resume with big names, you are in for a short career. A big company cannot ever directly compete with the small companies development cycles, simply because there's too many of them. So under most circumstances they either buy them out, buy their findings or imitate. Only a handful of new technologies get to be developed by them. And guess who will be developing them? Not you. No sir. Remember? You don't have any of the experience or know-how you would have acquired had you worked for one of these small obscure companies you seem to like to ignore.

OK that is perfect, so you guys go and apply to those small companies and leave Google, Apple, Cisco, eBay etc to me. Because we all know that people who work there have boring jobs, and we all know that if we had the chance to work there we'd turn them down. Right.

Dude, we're just trying to impress upon you the fact that the name of the company you work for doesn't matter in the end, it's what you do and what you learn while doing it. Small companies often have just as good of salaries as bigger companies.

Last summer I was offered an internship at a relatively large company (about 5000 employees worldwide, but about 2500 employees at their main campus), but not near as large as some of the major players (Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc.). After considering this internship, I also received a call from Apple saying that they had an internship spot available. I asked Apple what I'd be doing. They said some sort of jibberish that in the end I took to really mean "data entry". I was like, "um.....bye", and I went and worked for the other company and loved my internship there.

1. It the name of the company that counts in the end
2. The salary won't be competitive

Most companies have very competitive salaries, regardless of size, otherwise it'd be hard to hire good programmers who get the job done.

When you say that it's "the name of the company that counts", that worries me. You sound like an MBA student who's sole intent is on "networking" and "getting your name out there"....and as much as you do that it won't help you an ounce in life unless you got some good experience to back it up.

1. It the name of the company that counts in the end
2. The salary won't be competitive

That is where you are mistaken. Sort of arrogant for you to assume you 'know' so much about every small company out there don't you think?
If you hadn't noticed it is the small companies that have weathered and are weathering the recession better b/c they usually have less overhead and less debt.