Intern and Co-op Wages
An internship or co-op position pays wages, and also adds value to your resume. Employers look to their own programs as a resource in their hiring programs.
| Average hourly wage for undergraduates |
| Co-op |
$16.39 |
| Interns |
$16.33 |
Average hourly wage for graduates by field of study
| |
Work Type |
Average Hourly Wage |
| Nontechnical major |
Co-op |
$14.97 |
|
Intern |
$15.60 |
| Technical major |
Co-op |
$17.15 |
| |
Intern |
$17.39 |
| Business major |
Co-op |
$15.10 |
| |
Intern |
$15.62 |
| Engineering major |
Co-op |
$17.18 |
| |
Intern |
$17.79 |
| Sciences major |
Co-op |
$17.00 |
| |
Intern |
$16.45 |
In The Right Place for Full-Time Jobs
If you're looking for an internship or want to find a co-op, on-campus resources will deliver the most value. The top recruiting methods for interns and co-ops are:
- Career fairs
- On-campus recruiting
- Referrals from other interns/co-ops
- Job listings in the career services office
- Faculty contacts
- On-campus information sessions
From the class of 2007, employers offered full time employment to
- 73.3 percent of co-op students, and
- 69.6 percent of interns.
Benefits
Some employers reported offering benefits to their interns and co-ops including:
- planned social activities
- paid holidays
- relocation assistance
- internship/co-op counts as service time if hired full-time
Other facts
Full-time new hires coming from an intern or co-op program are generally "more successful" as employees. A larger percentage of these employees are employed by their original firms after five years than nonintern/nonco-op hires.
More than three-quarters of employers said recruiting entry-level hires is the primary focus of their intern program; 75 percent of employers said the same thing of their co-op programs.
Source: NACE's 2008 Experiential Education Survey