How Internships Work At Top Companies

Top-tier internships at companies like Meta or Google are structured, high-impact opportunities that can transform you into a confident, job-ready new grad. Here are the core points from this lesson:

• Legitimate internships at top companies have clear structure—interns are given managers, mentors, well-scoped projects, and timelines
• Interns are treated like junior engineers, often contributing to real production work and collaborating closely with full-time teammates
• Larger companies offer more formal evaluation processes for return offers, which helps reduce ambiguity and stress compared to smaller, less organized internships
• You’ll likely focus on one or two substantial projects to avoid context switching and to enable deeper, more meaningful contributions
• Adopt a collaborative mindset with fellow interns—success isn’t zero-sum, and sharing knowledge will help everyone grow and build stronger networks