If you can land an internship at one of Silicon Valley's major tech companies, you're likely going to have an awesome experience doing innovative work while making a great salary.
The perks aren't too bad either.
We recently found a Quora thread detailing firsthand some of the coolest intern perks in tech. We've pulled out some of our favorites below from three of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley and one nearby powerhouse.
Here's what you'll get along with an amazing internship opportunity:
Google intern Debarghya Das says the company hooks them up with free luxury housing, and the office campus itself also has a ton of fun things to do:
"Google gives us free, and in my opinion, luxury housing. Although we share an apartment we three others, it's equipped with a nice TV, a patio, a kitchen with a dishwasher, 2 baths, a washer and dryer, and biweekly cleaning. We also have access to a 24-hour gym, a hot tub, a swimming pool, a games room, and a park."
"Everyone is less than 100 feet away from a microkitchen, stuffed with all sorts of snacks, fruits and drinks. They also come with a automatic coffee machine and an espresso machine. If there's something you want in your microkitchen, it can be asked for."
"Chess tables, board games, pool tables, table tennis tables and swimming pools can be found frequently around campus. You're encouraged to use them, during work."
Facebook intern Ryan Landay emphasizes the importance of being free to choose your own hardware and inclusive company organized events that you can use to show off for your friends:
"You can choose between an iPhone and an Android phone."
"Foxes on campus (and the ability to participate in endless debates over whether they’re becoming too domesticated from eating tater tots)."
"Events to bring friends to like the Facebook Intern Carnival with a zip line and the Facebook Summer Party with a petting zoo."
Dropbox intern Bogdan Cristian Tătăroiu loved the company's in-office music room and restuarant-grade grub:
"Giant music room with everything from grand piano to electric guitars and drumset."
"The Tuckshop (our in-house restaurant) literally makes better food than I find in most restaurants I eat in over the weekend in SF."
"The major event that stood out to me this summer was Parent's Weekend, where they flew out all intern parents down to their San Francisco office, housed them for 2 nights, organised a bunch of talks explaining Dropbox to them, where we stand now, our future products, our vision etc. and basically helped them understand why all of us working here are so excited about what we're doing."
Microsoft intern John Stevans says the company takes advantage of its Seattle location with exclusive intern-only concerts and awesome local food:
"Each year, Signature Week is culminated by the Signature Event, the details of which are kept a secret until the very last moment. Interns are herded onto buses and taken to some mystery location. This year, we arrived at an interns-only concert at Boeing Headquarters ... The concert was opened by Macklemore (who is, not coincidentally, a Seattle native) and finished by Deadmau5 — and each intern walked away with a 256GB Surface Pro."
"Most interns got an office to themselves, and the rest shared an office. Some interns ended up working in shared spaces with their entire team because of some big pushes, but even those interns had an office assigned to them. No setup that I saw had less than two monitors, devs had two computers, and as I understand it you could ask for whatever else you needed."
"The cafeteria hosts local restaurants that change each day. The pizza place was a permanent fixture, and I honestly think I miss it as much as the work."