Apple and other big tech companies are scrambling to update their summer intern roles in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.
Google, Microsoft, Twitter and IBM all revealed to Axios that they will be moving all of their internships to online-only positions for the summer. One of the only major companies that plan to have on-site roles is Apple, but many of them will be online too.
Internship positions provide a huge opportunity for students to gain experience at major corporations before entering the job market. How valuable that experience will be from an online-only perspective is still up in the air. The gigs are highly coveted and usually pay pretty well. In 2015, Apple was paying its interns $7,000 plus full benefits.
Apple’s summer internships live on
According to an Apple spokesperson, the company plans to hire more than 1,000 people for a mix of online and in-person internships this summer. It’s unclear which physical locations those on-site internships will be located at. The company said it promises to provide interns with “the same precautions and care that we’re extending to all our other personnel as a part of the ongoing COVID-19 response.”
Apple has pledged to pay online and on-site the same wages, as have all of the other tech companies. Amazon, Uber and Intel said they are hopeful that they will be able to move their virtual internships to on-site roles if the COVID-19 pandemic improves.
Microsoft and Amazon plan to have their biggest intern class ever this summer. 4,000 students will be invited to join Microsoft’s virtual intern program. Twitter says its downsizing its program.
