It’s no secret that tech giants are offering up crazy perks and nice paychecks to attract young talent to their companies.
But now some interns as young as 16 years old are reeling in more dollars per month than a typical U.S. household.
As detailed by Bloomberg today, interns at companies like Twitter, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon are making around $6,000 per month — that’s almost $2,000 more than the median U.S. household income, which was $4,280 as of 2012.
In February, Glassdoor listed the highest-paying companies for interns, a large majority of which were in the tech industry. Bay Area-based Palantir ranked highest with an average monthly intern salary of $7,012, while Twitter ($6,791), Facebook ($6,213), Microsoft ($6,138), Google ($5,969) and Apple ($5,273) all made the top 10.
The amount of money offered up to people not even old enough to drink alcohol — or buy weed in Washington — speaks to the priority of attracting young talent.
But it’s also indicative of a lack of skilled workers. Chris Dixon, a veteran entrepreneur and investor at Andreessen Horowitz, noted that it’s “insane how few college students study computer science”:
What's insane is how few college students study CS. 10x more study "communications" where job prospects are dim.
— Chris Dixon (@cdixon) July 9, 2014
While there still may be more students interested in studying communications over computer science, we found last month that demand for gaining software engineering skills is reaching record levels at schools across the country.
On the surface, this is an encouraging trend for the tech industry, which can’t get enough new engineers. But beneath the surface is a problem: College students want to become computer scientists, but in many cases there isn’t enough room or faculty to meet the demand.
It remains to be seen how universities in the U.S. will manage this new demand. For now, though, the tech giants are doing everything they can — like flying 17-year-olds out to Facebook’s HQ to meet Mark Zuckerberg — to ensure they have the best and brightest young minds that can help sustain a company’s future success.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 12:50 p.m. PT to reflect the median U.S. household income.
