The Best Companies For Internships

Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California

Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California

However, Google isn’t just an adult playground for interns. It’s also a place to develop some serious skills. “I felt very involved and invested in everything my team was working on,” one intern wrote, “even though I only directly worked on a few things. My manager also made sure I could choose between a few intern projects according to my goals. I ended up working on something that I was deeply interested in, allowed me to build important skills (that have been extremely valuable in searching for future internships)…and it shipped! I became close to other design interns, and many of them had stories about their managers searching out projects and opportunities where they could make a—excuse the cliché—substantial impact.”

Across the board, Google interns also cited the firm’s staff as both a source of wisdom and inspiration. “The attitude is really relaxed,” wrote one Google intern. “People are very willing to chat with you about anything and they really want to share their knowledge with people.” Another seconded these sentiments. “The design community within Google is extremely welcoming, and I met some great designers across the company who were very willing to give career advice. There were tons of internal resources to help me learn the ropes and teach myself some new skills.”

Another intern characterized his experience this way: “For a prospective software engineer who is in college, I do not think there is a much better place to work. Unparalleled internal learning resources, very smart team members, very good pay, great perks.”

BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP PERFORMS THE MOST DIFFICULT INTERVIEWS

Generally, the top companies were split by a tenth of a percentage point, with only a half point separating number one Facebook (4.6) from number 25 Broadcom (4.1). Quicken Loans, eBay and Yahoo (tied at 4.5) rounded out the top five.

Recent interns praised Quicken Loans for their teaching-centered culture and opportunities. “Great structure to the intern program,” wrote one intern, “[with a] progressive culture, opportunity to get reduced rate housing during internship, community service and outreach opportunities.” When it comes to training, Quicken Loans interns often touted the caliber of the people. “The team leaders are very well trained and very open teaching to you new skills,” one intern noted. Another commended the firm for having “friendly people everywhere” and providing “One on One time with Team Leader.” And such an approach pays big dividends over time. “[I] loved my experience so much that I came back for a second summer,” one intern cooed.

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The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was been consistently ranked as one of the best places to work by Forbes. They are also considered among the world’s best consulting firm due to their technical skill and client focus BCG accepts nothing short of excellence, so it should surprise no one that they are considered the most difficult interview in the top 25 at 3.8 (ahead of Procter & Gamble and Google at 3.3 each).

What makes BCG’s interviews so difficult? Well, they required a lot of steps, thought and preparation, says one summer associate.

“First round interviews were on-campus and consisted of two 45-minute interviews with Project Leaders,” the associate writes. “Both spent 5-10 minute upfront on behavioral questions before jumping into cases. BCG cases are very candidate-led, so having a strong structure upfront is key to being able to crack the cases.” The associate also noted that some questions got straight to the point, including “Why BCG?” and “Why consulting?” (along with more scenario-driven questions like  “Tell me about a time you had to work with a difficult person?”).

For the second round, the associate was cautioned that “fit with the firm” had greater weight at this point. Not surprisingly, this round was slightly less formal. “Second round interviews were on-site at the BCG office. My decision round interviews were the same format as my first round (two 45-minute interviews–apparently format can vary between each office though) and were with partners in the office. In my experience, my interviewers in the second round spent a lot more time casually chatting/asking fit questions than my first round interviewers. The cases were also lot less structured than the ones I saw in the first round, with partners often deviating from calculations, etc to ask me to brainstorm ideas.”

GOOGLE TOPS GLASSDOOR’S OVERALL RANKING FOR BEST PLACE TO WORK

While interns may rank Facebook as the best place for an internship, the firm drops to 13th overall when all employee reviews are factored in. In Glassdoor’s “2015 Employee’s Choice Awards” for the United States, Google came out on top with a 4.5 score overall (just 0.1 points below its internship score). While the BCG jumped from number ten among interns to number five overall, three newcomers cracked the top five in employee’s choice: Bain & Company (4.4), Nestle Purina Care (4.4), and F5 Networks (4.3).

While Chevron only dropped from second to sixth when employees were included, several firms dropped out of the top 50 altogether in this situation. They include Quicken Loans, eBay, Yahoo, and Epic. At the same time, Procter & Gamble jumped from 20th among interns to 11th overall – and Qualcomm remained relatively stable (16th to 14th overall). Conversely, Apple and NBC Universal scored a bit higher among interns, going from 11th to 22nd and 9th to 31st respectively.

Other noteworthy companies that performed well overall include: Southwest Airlines (15th), Adobe (18th), Nike (25th), Ford Motor Company (35th), Monsanto (39th), and ESPN (48th).

To see the top 25 employers rankings for interns and employees overall, go to the next pages.

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