Yelp cancels internship program due to Covid-19 outbreak

Yelp cancels internship program due to Covid-19 outbreak(techcrunch.com)

38 points by gtmtg 6 years ago | 21 comments

froindt 6 years ago |

This is terrible timing for the class of 2020 and 2021. Classes are online or canceled, many are paying rent on apartments they aren't living in (staying with parents after spring break), losing income from their university town/campus jobs since campuses are shutdown, and many companies are on hiring freezes while things shake out.

I know internships were the difference between me taking out loans and graduating debt free. I also converted my last internship into a full-time offer. I feel for anyone directly affected by this.

I wonder if 5 years from now we'll see the classes of '20 and '21 significantly hindered in their workforce progression and pay as was seen of the 2008 era?

snailmailman 6 years ago | |

Class of 2020 checking in. Finishing up my degree. I’m pretty worried. I don’t have something lined up yet, but am actively interviewing with companies. (Over webcam and phone, lately) Was previously feeling good about my odds, but now I really don’t know. It feels out of my control.

No idea what’s happening with my classes or grades either. Haven’t heard from any of my professors yet, and I can’t imagine the transition to online going smoothly. I just hope to god I can still graduate at all this semester.

Also found out today I probably need to move out of campus housing by the end of the month, so that’s fun. “Probably” because I guess it’s determined on a case-by-case basis and there’s no details yet about what that means.

quangio 6 years ago | |

This is a stressful time. My school just sent out an email to kick us out a few days ago (we have one week to move out). As an international student, I have no place to go. After seeing this, I am even more worried as I don't know my internship at CloudFlare NYC can happen or not.

jgrahamc 6 years ago | | |

Hey. John Graham-Cumming (CTO of Cloudflare here). We're reaching our directly to you.

lopmotr 6 years ago | |

But isn't Yelp that company that extorts businesses into buying their advertising and punishes them with bad reviews if they don't? Any student would might have contributed to that racket deserves to miss out.

xyzzy92 6 years ago | | |

It is hard to end up with an internship, let alone at Yelp. Having an internship has many advantages for a student: - Converting it to a full time - Money - Experience

Things get much harder for students on an F1 visa. Most often, a student may need to look out for themselves than the company's policies.

natrik 6 years ago | | |

https://www.yelp.com/extortion

Lot of misinformation out there.

throwqwerty 6 years ago |

this thing is causing me a lot of anxiety lately. i finally landed a FB summer internship in menlo park and now i can't tell if it'll actually happen. recruiter is saying everything is still on track but i'm sure there's no way they can predict whether that'll change soon.

i know google is doing virtual onboarding and wfh for incoming interns according to the whether the team that hosts is still game. does anyone have any idea about FB?

runawaybottle 6 years ago | |

Yelp is very much tied to the Restaurant industry. It may be an outlier with respect to this pandemic. Of all the tech dominos to fall, Yelp and Groupon (trading around 50 cents today) sound like the first to be hit.

throwqwerty 6 years ago | | |

i'm sure FB isn't going to fail but i am wondering if it logistically won't be possible. i mean menlo park is under shelter-in-place and if you asked me a couple of weeks ago i would not have imagined an intern class could be productive on WFH.

bobthepanda 6 years ago | | |

Given the immense pressure on the cashflows of small business and real estate, I'd say WeWork might also be subsceptible.

agakshat 6 years ago |

This is a kneejerk reaction from Yelp that will hurt their hiring efforts in the future as they cease to be a reliable option for good candidates. It would not have been difficult for them to ask the interns to work remotely, maybe even reduce stipends if they’re hurting for cash. But canceling internships at this point deeply hurts these candidates’ prospects. Anyone job hunting and in a position to pick and choose should withdraw their job applications from Yelp and let them know why.

austhrow743 6 years ago | |

The businesses that make up Yelp's customer base are crumbling by the day. They're a "help you find restaurants and bars" app in a time when governments are either telling their citizens to not go to restaurants and bars, or just straight up forcibly closing them. I don't see how you can call this a kneejerk reaction, like at all. A virus caused recession is the world thing that could have happened to Yelp economy wise. Withdraw applications and let them know why? Lol. They aren't going to notice. Those applications aren't happening. If people with applications haven't been told that yet it's only because HR is either too busy getting the mass layoffs in order or job hunting themselves.