👋 we are still here!

In our November 2023 update, I lamented…

Who would have thought 2023 would see a lower demand for interns than 2020?

Ha! Past me didn’t know what was coming down the barrel of 2024, that’s for sure. But we are still here! Yep, those macroeconomic and public sector job cuts are real, making 2024 an even worse time to be searching for an entry-level job in digital/technology in Aotearoa.

Once again, we’ve had record candidate engagement this year, the highest number of people seeking internship and grad roles since our programme started 18 years ago. Our downsized team plus up-sized volunteer crew hustled up a storm of support for students getting ready for recruitment and for the small number of intern and grad roles on offer.

Amazing candidates

Once again, a record-breaking number number of live candidates on the Summer of Tech platform. Engagement with our events has also been high, and we have had the highest number of engaged volunteers helping our small team support candidates to prepare for recruitment and work.

Well Attended Events

Alongside 100+ volunteers, we delivered 78 free events with 1,352 unique student/graduate attendees.

• The average number of events attended by all candidates was 2

• The average number of events attended by successful candidates was 5

• Industry volunteers helped us deliver 780 individual CV/portfolio reviews, and 660 mock interviews

Insights from our first 100 placements

Keen to join the AI hype machine, I delved into the data. The first internship that mentioned “AI” was in 2019… it looks like Summer of Tech employers are well and truly on the hype curve, the % of roles that mentioned AI in their job title has more than doubled to 5% this year:

Seriously though, we have seen another significant increase in data roles, both on the candidate interest side, and the roles listed side of the equation. The majority of Summer of Tech roles are still software, but we have great diversity in other related tech disciplines. Interesting to note that security has dropped well down the list this year.

2024 First 100 Placements by Job Category

So far, 41 organisations have hired (40% fewer than last year, which in turn was 40% fewer than 2022), with the average number of hires per organisation down from 2.8 last year to 2.5 this year.

Gender diversity is 41% non-male, which is still well above the industry representation of 25% women, but significantly below last year’s 51% non-male hired through Summer of Tech.

We are worried about the lower numbers of educational pathways: although candidates from 36 institutions participated in Summer of Tech, only 14 institutions with successful placements this year. It’s usually 25+!

Only 10% of our placements are 1st year students (so far) this year (compared to 18% in 2023) with an increase in the proportion of 3rd years (34% this year compared to 25% in 2023) and graduates moving up slightly from 18% to 21%.

This lack of diversity in interns and grads hired, with majority male, nearing the end or completed their qualification, and majority from a small number of institutions, indicates a conservative or low-risk hiring strategy by many of those hiring new tech talent this year.

This is in NO WAY a criticism, and in no way true for every company. We have so many employers who are hiring strategically and making a huge effort to diversify our tech sector. We just wanted to highlight the trends this year’s first 100 placements, compared to last year.

On a positive note… wages have increased ever so slightly, up 18c/hr compared to last year. We attribute this to the Living Wage increase, which both ourselves and Callaghan Innovation have set as the benchmark for intern wages.

Ngā mihi nui

We want to thank EVERYONE who participated in our programme this year, with a special shout out to our Super Mentor volunteers who have provided many hours of coaching and encouragement to candidates struggling with career decisions.

2 months to go!

The good news is, if you’re still looking to hire Aotearoa’s top tech talent… WE CAN HELP! We have very capable candidates, who are keen and ready for their first tech job. Please join us to give them valuable work experience and offer space for our abundant tech talent pipeline to flourish and contribute to our tech industry.

Employers can register, list jobs and engage with candidates on our platform until 31 December 2024. But mid December would be less stressful for everyone, please and thankyou ;-)

If you have a project and someone keen to mentor a newbie, don't hesitate to contact us - we’d love to connect you to an intern or grad in 2024 or sign up now to show you’re ready to grow in 2025!