Is it really about the money? Exploring the effects of industry internship experiences on students’ well-being and confidence in computer science

Abstract

Industry internships are recognized as transformative experiences in undergraduate computing education, supporting professional skill development, identity formation, and persistence in computing careers. However, little is known about whether having internship experience is associated with the well-being and confidence of computing students in their fields. This study uses a quantitative study, complemented by qualitative responses to an open-ended design, starting with quantitative comparisons of how computing students’ prior internship experiences connect to student self-efficacy (SE) and the impostor phenomenon (IP), while exploring students’ interpretations of their internship experiences connecting to demographic, academic, and internship-specific variables. We surveyed 455 computing students ( internship = 215 , no-internship = 240 ) from a Southeastern University in the United States to explore the interplay between their internship experiences and measurements regarding IP and SE levels. Quantitative comparisons and exploratory analyses examined group differences and associated variables, conducted both within the internship group and throughout the entire sample. These were complemented by a reflexive thematic analysis of open-ended internship descriptions considering demographic patterns. Our findings suggest that internship experiences are meaningfully associated with students’ SE but not with IP, highlighting that professional experiences may build confidence without necessarily alleviating feelings of inadequacy. Student voices also suggest that computing educators and program designers should consider structured mentorship and meaningful project assignments in order to maximize internships’ psychological benefits, to account for students coming from various backgrounds.