Interns at some of the top tech companies in Silicon Valley can earn mega bucks. No joke.
20th Century Fox
If you thought being an intern meant scraping by on a pittance while you worked all hours and slavishly made tea then, surprisingly, you might be wrong. A recent survey revealed the disgustingly high salaries Silicon Valley interns are commanding as they chase their dream job, with some at over $10,000 (£6,855, €8,827) a month.
The revelation will make most of us rethink our life choices, ten times over, after claims interns at tech companies such as Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook are earning jaw-dropping monthly salaries of $10,000, $9,000 and $8,400 and $8,000 respectively. Yes, you read that correctly – as an intern.
And that's not all. On top of the envy-inducing wages, interns will also benefit from thousands of dollars in housing benefits and relocation bonuses, not to mention all those games of ping pong, creative Frisbee and Red Bull by the bucket-load.
The findings came from a report by Rodney Folz, a student at Berkeley University in the US, who created an anonymous online survey asking those who have been given intern offers to reveal all.
The idea behind it is to help graduates choose which company they should apply to (and accept offers from) as well as provide useful insider knowledge, such as what companies applicants were able to negotiate better base salaries. As to how accurate the results actually are (above) is hard to tell, with Folz himself admitting some answers raised eyebrows. But, from the 503 people surveyed, he took the most mentioned companies and cross-checked the answers through websites like Glassdoor to firm up his results.
But before you jack in your job, put on a trucker cap and head to Silicon Valley in search of intern riches, you should probably consider a few things first. The life of an intern is a short-lived one and comes with its fair share of stress. The usual length of employment is around three months and those who are selected from a gruelling selection process are expected to work long hours under immense pressure and competition. Think the Vince Vaughn comedy, The Internship, but without the jokes and slapstick humour. That was easy, wasn't it?
Also, those cash-rich wages also won't stretch as far as you think, as rent prices in the Silicon Valley area remain notoriously expensive and in high-demand, plus all those daily Frappuccinos will surely tally up. Still, it's not a bad haul of coin - providing you can get it, that is.