Case Study
Advancing San Diego software internship program leads to full-time positions
ServiceTalent Pipeline Development
ServiceMarketing/Visibility
ServiceStrategic Partnerships
Ninety-eight percent of companies in San Diego have fewer than 100 employees, yet those companies employ sixty percent of San Diego’s local workforce. Oftentimes, smaller companies face barriers connecting with and hiring local talent. Through Advancing San Diego’s internship program, software companies Perspectium, Deckard Technologies, and WithHealth received fully subsidized interns from top, local education programs, and brought on five full-time employees without extra sourcing time and cost.
CHALLENGE
San Diego’s small tech companies face numerous challenges in attracting and retaining top software talent. Small companies generally have less ability to provide competitive internship wages compared to large corporations, and are usually unable to dedicate employees and time to talent attraction. Additionally, many small companies and startups have fewer connections to top education institutions and training programs.
This is where Advancing San Diego (ASD) was able to help.
SOLUTION
After a competitive application process, San Diego small businesses Perspectium, Deckard, and WithHealth were selected to host paid ASD software interns from top Preferred Provider training programs, at no cost to the companies.
ASD’s grant-funded internship program provided a competitive wage and stipend, as well as access to a vetted pool of emerging software talent. Additionally, these companies had the opportunity to work with ASD’s staffing partner, Manpower San Diego, which administered the interview process, administrative HR tasks, payroll, and more.
These businesses also had the opportunity to participate in promotional content across EDC’s website, email, and social media channels for additional visibility to potential future talent.
RESULT
Since the program’s launch in 2020, 69 interns have been placed at small companies to date, with 31 currently completing remote internships. After the inaugural cohort’s end, Perspectium, Deckard, and WithHealth extended full time employment offers to five total interns. Two additional hires are pending upon the latest cohort completion.
ASD has so far saved local companies more than $450,000 in payroll, overhead, and talent sourcing expenses.
Finally, EDC’s marketing team worked with Perspectium, among other participating companies, to tell its intern’s story. You can read more about the Perspectium experience on our blog and social media from its intern and MiraCosta turned Brown University student, Paul.
Advancing San Diego full-time hires:
- Ryan Lypps – Software Engineering Intern, Perspectium
A San Diego Code School alum, Ryan spent his internship working on Perspectium’s ServiceNow application, as well as Java-based microservice applications that run on cloud and customer environments. - Tuong Tang – Data Engineer, WithHealth
A University of California San Diego alum, Tuong spent his internship developing a database to track patient information, designing a web application enabling secure patient registration, and streamlining work and data flows across the team - Kevin Ngo – Data Engineer, WithHealth
A University of California San Diego alum, Kevin spent his internship supporting WithHealth’s WorkPlace Safety Program. - Loc Vu – Data Science Intern, WithHealth
A University of California San Diego student, Loc spent his internship user-testing WithHealth’s patient portal, automating client intake information, and modeling COVID-19 transmission within populations. - Brian Sanders – SW Engineer I, Deckard
A University of California San Diego student, Brian spent his internship working on Deckard’s property map filters, a trend simulation builder, and a tax payment portal.
“Advancing San Diego has helped us tap into young, local software engineering talent who have been able to contribute right away. The program helped streamline the recruiting process and have been a great resource.”
-Paul Nguyen, Sr. Director of Development and Professional Services, Perspectium