Barriers to Securing Industry Internships in Computing

Industry internships offer CS students an opportunity to explore computing disciplines, evaluate self-interests, understand professional expectations, and secure future employment. However, less than 60% of CS students pursue an internship before graduation. We have a limited knowledge of why students do not participate in industry internships and the impediments they face to secure an internship position. This paper presents findings from our multi-institutional study aimed at understanding the barriers CS students face to secure an industry internship. We discuss these barriers through the lens of agency from Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory and the Social Cognitive Career Theory. We surveyed 302 CS undergraduate students who did not intern across two universities in the United States and used thematic analysis on the open-ended survey responses. We found four themes: low self-efficacy, actions, alternate priority, and application process challenges. These themes suggest that CS students who do not intern self-evaluate them as not qualified, are applying but not securing an internship position due to lack of preparation or reliance on coursework, lack the knowledge pertinent to the internship recruitment process, and are not applying for internship positions due to alternate priorities or less developed agentic resources. This paper contributes to the fields' growing knowledge of CS students professional development. This knowledge has the potential to develop strategic support programs to increase students' competitiveness to secure internships as well as full-time employment.