On February 20, Handshake—the largest career platform for Gen Z—released its 2025 Internships Index, which provides key insights into the evolving internship landscape and highlights industries and roles experiencing significant growth. The Index surveyed 6,000 students and recent college graduates to identify internship trends to watch this year.
Industry Trends
- The report reveals a surge in demand for interns across technology, healthcare, and sustainability sectors, with companies actively seeking early-career talent in areas like data science, cybersecurity, biotech, and renewable energy.
- On Handshake, September and January are peak months for intern recruiting in general, but internship hiring timelines tend to vary by employer size and industry. For example, smaller employers (<1,000 employees) and larger employers in certain industries (e.g., government and transportation) are more likely to extend hiring into the spring or year-round.
Student Preferences
- The majority of students said they seek out internships to build valuable skills (87%) and identify potential career opportunities (72%). While some colleges have added internship experience as a degree requirement in recent years, only one-third (32%) of students said this was their primary motivation. [Inside Higher Ed]
- Most students would prefer an internship with an in-person component—49% say their ideal internship work arrangement is hybrid, while 40% prefer fully in-person. Only 11% would want to be fully remote.
- Students are not just looking for paid–but fairly paid—internship opportunities, proportionate to the volume and type of work and location. This is increasingly influencing whether or not students accept full-time, post-grad offers: students who felt they were fairly compensated during their internship were more likely (75%) to accept a full-time offer from their internship employer than those who did not feel their pay was fair (55%).
Access Challenges
- Students reported that the greatest barrier to internships is opportunity (33%). Internship postings dropped by more than 15% between January 2023 and January 2025, but applicant volume continues to grow (41% of the Class of 2025 vs. 34% of the Class of 2023), indicating a shortfall of available opportunities. [WorkingNation]
- Internships are also more competitive than ever, as the average number of applications per internship has more than doubled since 2023. Competitiveness varies from industry-to-industry, but is most pronounced in technology and professional services—internship postings for these industries have declined by 30% and 42%, respectively, and both industries receive nearly double the amount of applications than the overall average.
- Equally difficult to surmount is the challenge of limited time (33%). Students are already often pressed for time, having to juggle coursework, other jobs, family matters, and personal commitments—adding an internship into the mix isn’t always possible. The majority of students who have completed an internship reported that they dedicated at least 20 hours a week to their internship, and about 1 in 8 said they worked 40 hours or more per week.
- Not all internships are compensated (be that fairly or at all), meaning some students with financial constraints (14%) can’t justify pursuing them. To adapt, employers are expanding paid internship opportunities, recognizing their role in attracting top talent.
Why it matters: Internships help students get real-world experience and skills and establish valuable industry connections. Additionally, employers use internships to recruit and suss out candidates—and according to Joshua Kahn, associate director of research and public policy at the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), internship experience often means the difference between getting a job and not. Ensuring students have access to internship opportunities in their field of study or preferred industry is therefore critical to their long-term career success. [The Hechinger Report]
