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Why doesn't Stack Overflow take interns? They have been one of my dream companies to work for since high school. They have single handedly changed the way people program, giving people who would otherwise not be able to program well, an incredible venue for learning new things quickly. They have brought to the programming world what google search has brought to the rest of the world: an unmatched pool of knowledge there for anyone to use.

So my question, why don't they take interns? I have checked every year to see if their policy has changed, and it doesn't look like it has. Why? There are plenty of other companies that are in the same stage as Stack Overflow, and even earlier, that take interns. In fact, even Fog Creek takes interns! Is there a specific reason that SE has decided not to have internships, or was it just never something that was deemed important to them?

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    Interns are a lot of work. They require a lot of time/energy from the company, and generally are seen as a talent pipeline. If you look through Stack Overflow's job postings you will see nearly none of them are reasonably considered entry level - nearly all require a fair bit of experience. Thus, it makes no sense for Stack Overflow to hire interns they likely wouldn't immediately convert to fulltime employees.... check out this answer for a detailed explanation of what an intern normally requires of a company.
    – enderland
    Nov 16, 2015 at 2:06
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    I think the SE interns are the Mods :P
    – Catija
    Nov 16, 2015 at 2:13
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    @Catija They're unpaid interns, of course :)
    – michaelpri
    Nov 16, 2015 at 2:17
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    Possible duplicate of Does Stack Exchange offer internships? Nov 16, 2015 at 17:51
  • @PeterMortensen - not a duplicate. That question was asked a few years, and is asking if they offered internships at the time (they didn't). This question is asking why.
    – Ephraim
    Nov 16, 2015 at 17:52

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We keep talking about starting up an internship program internally, but so far we never quite got to the point where that's doable. Making sure that the interns have a good time and don't just waste a few months of their lives is not as easy as it might sound. A few of us have been participating in various mentorship programs, speaking at conferences, etc. as we try to share what we know as much as we can. And we keep talking about internships...

Having said that, just because we don't (yet?) take interns doesn't mean you can't work here. :) What counts around these parts is what you can do rather than what stage of your career you're at on paper and we're hiring.

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