Recruiting Georgia Tech Interns and Co-ops
In the ATDC CEO Roundtable today, we had a presenter from the Georgia Tech Division of Professional Practice which oversees the Internship and Co-op program. Georgia Tech has one of the oldest internship programs in the country, over 100 years old.
I’m a big fan of hiring Georgia Tech students for internships or part-time employment. It’s a great way to find full-time employees. Plus Georgia Tech students are high-caliber and can contribute meaningfully during their internship.
The internship program is typically for just one semester, while the co-op program is an alternation of three semesters of school interleaved with three semesters of internships. Single semester internships are the most popular.
I’ve never used the official internship or co-op channels to hire students. I’ve always had success looking for students by putting up flyers around campus and networking with other students.
This week we interviewed a student looking for immediate part-time work. I was excited about the prospect of hiring him until I found out that he planned to go to Microsoft for the summer. No matter how attractive the offer, there is a class of student that is enamored by the big gorilla companies and cannot be pried away to consider a long-term plan with startups.
To get the best students, startups have to compete with the big west coast companies that fish from 3,000 miles away. When hiring for startups, we often end up pitching the values of startup-life just as much as we pitch our specific company, compensation, and culture. Unfortunately, Georgia Tech does not have the pervasive startup culture that some other top engineering schools have embraced.
We’re looking to hire many interns (less than 11 though) this summer, so if you know any ace developers, send them my way.
Note: We’ve recently had success hiring from Georgia State too. They have an excellent computer science program too that should not be overlooked when recruiting.
What do you do to recruit from Georgia Tech? How do you find good candidates?