Autorejected!
I received an automatic rejection message from the IBM Extreme Blue automated application system today. I just applied to the internship several days ago. The email has a real person’s name at the bottom, but it reeks of “form letter” all over. It’s really too bad. I didn’t have my hopes set very high based on what I had already heard about their overly-rigid application process, but this just confirmed that they’re EXTREMELY hung up on 2 factors:
That’s right folks. C++ or Java, at least 6 months industry experience is absolutely required. If you don’t have it, then your application doesn’t even get through to a real person, apparently. This industry practice of automatically rejecting internship applications based on nonsensical criteria really bothers me. There are a couple things that I find really irking about it:
- I have lots of experience in other languages and could easily pick up a new one in 1-2 weeks.
- I’m applying for an internship to learn new things. Companies are apparently looking for people that already know everything…
- I have lots of other valuable experiences and abilities, like communication and teamworking abilities, that aren’t even taken into account. You don’t have significant experience in a specific language? Then obviously you’re worthless.
Now, I do understand that Extreme Blue is somewhat of a special case since most of their projects involve bringing a project through to completion in one of those two languages. However, my argument still stands. I feel like I could handle this internship (and actually do really well thanks to all of my project experience), but all qualifications are moot in the face of one little (read gigantic) missing qualification. I just ask one thing, really: if it’s an internship, then consider students that don’t already know everything. Otherwise, call it a job, not an internship.
Oh well. Perhaps there are Speed Team projects that are more suited to my current resume…
Comments (2 So Far)
1
Cousin Kate says:
Sean,
I totally agree if the experience has to be post college than call it a job and not an internship. I deal with that kind of stuff all the time when applying for jobs. You need three to five years experience. AHHHHH some days it makes me nuts, I have two years of experience and being an administrative assistant on a PR account isn’t that hard. Microsoft doesn’t know what they just passed up, “THATS WHAT!!!!” Can’t wait to see you next week.
2
Steve says:
I just came across this post in kind of a roundabout way today, looking through referrer logs on my blog, I found a link here from BlogPulse (http://www.blogpulse.com/search?query=%22extreme+blue%22&offset=0&operator=&start_date=&end_date=&sort=&max_results=&x=25&y=8) and even though it’s almost six months later, I thought I could clear a couple things up. I manage systems for Extreme Blue in Austin, TX, as well as recruiting for Extreme Blue at several schools in the Central US.
Extreme Blue is an upper level internship at IBM, and is really only a very small part of our overall intern and co-op programs. We hire roughly 60 technical interns in the US each year for Extreme Blue. So, based on volume of applications, we don’t autoreject applications. Our recruiting manager does review each application individually.
The requirement for six months of Java or C++ experience could easily be met by two previous internship or co-op jobs, so the experience doesn’t have to be post college. We actually look for interns who are between Junior and Senior at the undergraduate level, or first year Master’s candidates.
The reason we look for Java, C, and C++ experience is because most of our projects will involve those languages. The program sets some pretty aggressive schedules and deadlines, and each project is a full life-cycle development from concept through prototype and business plan, so experience is a critical requirement for Extreme Blue.
Speed Teams do have a lower requirement for experience, although it’s very likely that they will look for Java, C and C++ skills as well. Also, there are lots of regular intern positions at IBM development sites across the country. I’m guessing you have applied for those as well?
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