How to hire a Data Science Internship

How to hire a data science internship, step by step

Here's a step-by-step data science internship hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a data science internship job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new data science internship
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a Data Science Internship do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the data science internship you need to hire. Certain data science internship roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine Employee vs Contractor Status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a data science internship to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a data science internship that fits the bill.

   Here's a comparison of data science internship salaries for various roles:

   Type Of Data Science Internship	Description	Hourly Rate
   Data Science Internship	Market research analysts study market conditions to examine potential sales of a product or service. They help companies understand what products people want, who will buy them, and at what price.	$11-35
   Summer Analyst	Summer analysts are people who undertake an internship within a banking institution. These professionals perform analyses of detailed financial and corporate information... Show More	$20-49
   Business Development Internship	A business development intern is responsible for supporting the organization's goals and objectives in providing the best services to clients and ensuring a smooth flow of operations with maximum productivity and efficiency. Business development interns observe the operational processes of the department and perform duties under the supervision of a direct manager or tenured staff... Show More	$12-20

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common Skills:

   • Python
   • Visualization
   • Data Analytics
   • Java
   • Data Visualization
   • R
   • Hadoop
   • C++
   • Predictive Models
   • Analyze Data
   • SAS
   • Power Bi
   • Regression
   • PowerPoint

   Check All Skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Provide clinical staff with customize population health analytic solutions for tracking specific clinical quality measure and managing high risk patients.
   • Learned the essentials to C++ and Java to refine code and build the exterior layer of web pages.
   • Conduct secondary market research including: industry trend, data visualization, and competitor analysis.
   • Develop data visualization modules for the data collect from electrical, mechanical and chemical tests on batteries.
   • Create source code utilizing JavaScript and PHP language to make web pages functional.
   • Used SQL and pandas to predict doctor activity on the platform base their past activity.

   More Data Science Internship duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the data science internship job description is a good way to get more applicants. A data science internship salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a data science internship in Louisiana may be lower than in Delaware, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level data science internship. Additionally, a data science internship with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average data science internship salary

   $42,841yearly

   $20.60 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level data science internship salary

   $24,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 17, 2025

   Average data science internship salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. Salary	Hourly Rate
   1	Delaware	$74,584	$36
   2	California	$72,711	$35
   3	Washington	$69,638	$33
   4	New Jersey	$68,660	$33
   5	New York	$63,827	$31
   6	Massachusetts	$61,678	$30
   7	Oregon	$58,882	$28
   8	Pennsylvania	$58,339	$28
   9	District of Columbia	$54,268	$26
   10	Virginia	$53,762	$26
   11	Alaska	$49,770	$24
   12	Arizona	$49,626	$24
   13	North Carolina	$42,132	$20
   14	Minnesota	$42,122	$20
   15	Utah	$41,362	$20
   16	Texas	$40,663	$20
   17	Illinois	$40,234	$19
   18	Colorado	$40,080	$19
   19	Indiana	$37,652	$18
   20	Georgia	$33,611	$16

   Average data science internship salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
   1	Meta	$125,561	$60.37	548
   2	Google	$119,874	$57.63	133
   3	General Motors	$109,040	$52.42	10
   4	Bristol-Myers Squibb	$108,439	$52.13	36
   5	Dolby Laboratories	$106,153	$51.04	4
   6	HP	$104,625	$50.30	51
   7	Cradlepoint	$104,604	$50.29
   8	ZS	$103,220	$49.63	8
   9	T. Rowe Price	$102,582	$49.32	18
   10	RSM US	$100,409	$48.27	4
   11	Chubb	$99,609	$47.89	21
   12	Qorvo	$98,848	$47.52	16
   13	Intel	$98,462	$47.34	31
   14	Neustar	$91,490	$43.99
   15	Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.	$88,098	$42.35	346
   16	Capgemini	$87,704	$42.17	111
   17	Acxiom	$83,135	$39.97	85
   18	Los Alamos National Laboratory	$81,220	$39.05	29
   19	Discover	$74,371	$35.76	41
   20	State Farm	$73,520	$35.35	6

4. Writing a Data Science Internship Job Description

   A data science internship job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of a data science internship job description:

   Data Science Internship job description example

   TransUnion's Job Applicant Privacy Notice
   
   What You'll Bring:
   Currently enrolled in a competitive program in pursuit of a undergraduate (currently a junior or senior) or graduate degree in statistics, mathematics, engineering, operations research, economics, or a related quantitative field. Strong analytical, critical thinking & creative problem solving skills.
   Ability to conduct meaningful research with a high degree of independence. Advanced programming skills in one or more statistical languages, such as R, Python, or SAS. Highly proficient with Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Familiar with relational databases and “Big Data” technologies. Able to communicate effectively at multiple levels within the organization, both verbally and in writing.
   Demonstrated interest in applications of analytic methods in the financial services and insurance industries strongly preferred.
   
   Impact You'll Make:
   You will partner with internal and external cross-functional teams to drive new business initiatives and deliver long term value-added product propositions for B2B customers in the financial services segment at TransUnion. This includes but is not limited to the development of predictive risk management and business intelligence solutions for credit card issuers, auto & mortgage lenders, collections agencies and retail banks.You will participate in projects with statisticians & solutions consultants on analytic client engagements involving descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analysis through the consumer lending portfolio lifecycle, leveraging a variety of techniques (e.g., segmentation, logistic regression, survival analysis, principal component analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, scenario and sensitivity analysis).You will design and write programs for data extraction, segmentation and statistical analysis on large population datasets using languages such as R, SAS, Python, SQL, Spark, Hive, and Pig on Linux, PC, and mainframe computing platforms.You will deliver analytic insights and recommendations in succinct and compelling presentations for internal and external customers and an executive audience.You will develop project proposals, sales presentations and promotional collateral to enable the adoption of integrated customer solutions supported by TransUnion.You will identify strategies and opportunities for customers to test and adopt TransUnion's analytic products and services.You will foster a high performance culture and cultivate an environment that promotes excellence and reflects the TransUnion brand.
   What We'll Bring:
   This position is responsible for developing credit risk management and business intelligence analytic solutions through consulting engagements and research serving TransUnion's clients. This position requires an understanding of consumer lending and credit risk management practices.
   
   We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability status, veteran status, marital status, citizenship status, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by law.
   
   TransUnion's Internal Job Title:
   Intern, Data Science and Analytics

   Copy This Example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right data science internship for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with data science interns they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit data science interns who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your data science internship job on Zippia to find and recruit data science internship candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as swipe files, exit five, marketinghire, american marketing association.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with data science internship candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new data science internship

   Once you've found the data science internship candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new data science internship. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a data science internship?