Employers

Meaningful work

Their role could be joining an existing team as an entry-level team member, part of a new team of interns working on a new or existing project, or working on an individual project. There’s no restrictions, except we ask that you give them appropriate work to their skill level and career aspirations.

A technical mentor

Students & graduates will need a go-to person to answer technical questions. If you don’t have in-house technical capacity, then Summer of Tech might not be suitable for your organisation. A student or graduate as the sole Tech person in an organisation does not work out well! 

Support with on-the-job learning

Summer of Tech roles are entry-level, usually a student or graduate’s first industry job. Their studies have usually left gaps in their knowledge, so we ask you to expect and support a steep learning curve in their first weeks.  

Tools for the job

Students & grads need to sit with their mentor or team as much as possible. We ask that you provide all the necessary tools for them to do their job. Just like a normal employee.

If your whole team works remotely, remember that interns will need an appropriate level of support to adjust to this. This may be their first professional job, please be mindful and proactive in supporting them to feel part of the team.

A fair wage

Summer of Tech is a paid work experience programme. We support a Living Wage. Tech is a highly skilled industry, candidates have loans and other commitments, and SoT is all about welcoming and valuing newbies into the Tech industry.  For more background on why you should pay your interns and graduates, check out this blog post.

Yes! Summer of Tech candidates include final year & graduate students (you can search on this criteria).  Many internships roll into full-time, permanent roles.

Graduates are eligible for Summer of Tech, as long as they graduated less than 12 months ago.

Yes. As long as they’re studying at a NZ tertiary institution, and have a valid work visa for the summer. You cannot search on visa status, but if there are legal residency restrictions for your roles, please contact us to discuss.

This is the equivalent of your “Careers” section on your website. We suggest you include information about your business, what you do, how the tech team contributes, your work environment, and anything else you think is relevant for students and graduates who probably haven’t thought about your organisation as a potential employer before.

You can include links to your organisation’s online accounts, and an optional short video. We highly recommend you make a short video aimed at students and graduates – just a DIY office tour on a mobile phone camera is fine!  This is a great way to let students and graduates get a feel for your organisation and what opportunities you’re offering to interns and graduates.

This is a sales pitch! Securing our top candidates is a competitive process, so make an awesome first impression by giving them relevant and targeted information.  

Your organisation profile is visible to candidates and to other employers who are registered for SoT. (And when yours is live, you can check out the other employer profiles, too!)

Just like a standard job listing, we ask for a job title and job description. You have the option to put the wage or salary information on the listing.  We also ask you to complete a skills matrix, to let candidates know what technical skills are required (or desirable) for each role. If there are particular requirements for the job (for example, Callaghan Innovation grants have specific requirements for interns), PLEASE include this in the job listing.

Your job listings are visible to candidates and to other employers who are registered for SoT. (And when yours is live, you can check out the other employer roles, too!)

Any entry-level role is suitable for a student or graduate. Our most common role is web/software development, but we also have candidates with skills in:

• Data analysis

• Software engineering

• DevOps

• Digital design

• Business analysis

• Digital marketing

• Testing & QA

• App development

• Security

• User experience

• Database administration

• Project management

• Computer Graphics/Animation

• Mechanical engineering…and more

SoT’s “marketplace” system means candidates can find your roles and “apply”.  There is no obligation to respond to all applications, our system sorts that out for you.  

We do encourage you to provide feedback to unsuccessful candidates after an interview, as it is hugely useful for them to know where they can improve.

Yes! For summer internships, we encourage you to communicate with candidates after Meet & Greet, but you’ll have access to their contact information on their profiles. For roles during the year, communicate with the candidates whenever - the recruitment timeline is up to you!

Candidates do not have access to your contact information, you need to contact them if you want to arrange a job interview or technical test.

We do our best to keep candidates in the programme, but if their plans change and are no longer available for roles, they will disappear. We encourage you to communicate with your preferred candidates so they know they’re in the running, and don’t leap at an off-platform offer from an employer outside of SoT.

Sure thing! Just please don’t make it too long, or complicated. Most of our candidates are still studying, so try to keep it achievable.

Usually mid-November to mid-February, but the exact dates & hours are to be agreed between the employer and the employee.  Some students finish exams earlier than mid-November, some tertiary courses don’t finish until mid-December.  If you have particular requirements for work over summer, please talk to your candidate about availability during the final stages of the interview process.

We ask candidates to be available full time, Monday-Friday, for 400 hours between November and March.

For summer internships, we have a staged process. This is currently being reviewed by our team, so stay tuned for updates.

For short term contracts & graduate roles, there are no timelines to stick to - offer whenever you’re ready!