[shubb]

Wow... this sounds kind of irrational. I mean, these are close to senior salaries annualized - Sales force is around 70K, while a senior gets about 100K across most of the US.

Are 4 interns really more useful than 3 seniors? Really?

[nickbarnwell]

"Get 'em while they're young" is as valid for recruiting as it is brand preferences ;)

Those interns will turn into salaried FTEs whose first three year's annual compensation – amortised signing bonus, stock grants, and performance bonus included – will be ~150k. Compared to new graduate FTEs, interns are positively cheap!

The ~6.5k, housing inclusive, perks out the wazoo also all come from highly profitable, competitive companies falling over each other to recruit from a highly constrained pool. There are only so many Stanford, MIT, and CMU graduates a year, and an even smaller number of hackathon winners, open source contributors, inveterate interns, etc. For many, this is the last time they'll ever openly be on the job market.

[thedufer]

Salaries in SF/NYC are much higher than elsewhere, which is where most of those salaries are from. 100k is typical for a dev with 0-3 years of experience in those areas.

You're paying for more than the intern's time - you also get first crack at hiring them full time (with a 3 month interview to decide who you want). In the current job market, that's worth quite a bit.