What it's like to intern at one of Silicon Valley's billion-dollar startups

Intern Graffiti Group MRGN0291

In the world of competitive Silicon Valley internships, there have been plenty of rumors about the crazy perks of being an engineering intern: luxury boat cruises, secret concerts, and trips to Disney Land top the list.

But what is it really like to work at one of the Valley's tech giants or unicorn startups? Do interns really get massage Mondays and summer stipends higher than what hourly workers earn in a year?

Business Insider asked Lyft, the $5.5 million ride-hailing startup based in San Francisco, about their internship program.

Here's what we learned.

Lyft finds its interns through pretty traditional routes: employee referrals, internship fairs, college campus visits, and the famed "Internapalooza."

Internapalooza is a huge event for about 3,000 20-somethings that happens each year. Students can network and hand out résumés to some of the biggest tech firms in the Valley.

When it comes to visiting colleges, Lyft tries to visit smaller, more diverse schools.

And when it comes to choosing the summer class of interns, diversity remains top of mind, the company says.

"We have 17 interns, half of which are from underrepresented backgrounds, which is an actual goal for us," Peter Morelli, Lyft's vice president of engineering, told Business Insider. "We’re definitely looking for a diverse group because Lyft itself is diverse, our customers and our drivers are very diverse, so we’re trying to mirror that as well."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider