How to Get a Shopify Internship: Is It Hard to Get an Internship at Shopify?

A summer internship experience is an excellent way to build connections, mold career foundations, and gain experience in the corporate world. It’s also more than a simple job experience since, if you perform well, you might just receive a job offer. Plus, what better way to start an internship than working for one of the biggest dropshipping companies in the world. 

If you’re skimming the net for more information on how to get an internship at Shopify, this article is for you. In this post, you’ll learn about Shopify and its goal as a dropshipping company. You’ll get acquainted with the company’s internship program, along with its reviews and feedback from former Shopify interns.

What Is Shopify? A Brief Shopify Background

In its most straightforward form, Shopify is a tool that allows users to set up an online store where they can sell their products. While bloggers use WordPress to set up an online space to post their blogs, ecommerce business owners use Shopify to set up their ecommerce stores. 

Shopify is a subscription-based software allowing users to sell different products online or through physical locations. The latter is facilitated through Shopify’s hardware and point-of-sale (POS) platform. If you’re one of their merchants across both physical and online platforms, you can also sync your stock and inventory to manage your stores under one account and across different devices.

From a deeper perspective, Shopify is an ecommerce business platform that offers users a quick and easy way to start their online business. It shares its network with businesses to help build its network and increase its customer base. With the app’s help and its API, customers can create their store from the ground up and even optimize it. 

Shopify Internships: General Overview

The company’s internship program immerses professionals and students in real-life work environments where they assume fundamental roles. It’s not the type of internship where the interns run errands or make coffee for the regular employees. As a Shopify intern, you should be prepared to get your hands dirty as you work one-on-one with other Shopify employees as soon as the internship starts. 

The internship program usually runs for four to eight months, and it typically occurs throughout winter, summer, and fall. Internships with the company are highly in demand for a plethora of reasons. One is that any position you assume under the internship program is paid. Without thinking about your bills and expenses, you can focus on learning and nurturing your skills. 

As an intern, you will be paired with a mentor that will guide you through your stay with Shopify. You won’t regret spending time being an intern here as the company has been chosen and awarded as one of the best places to work in Canada, beating other companies like Amazon and Google. 

What Does a Shopify Intern Do?

As a Shopify intern, you’re expected to work hard as soon as your internship starts. This means that if you love what you do, you’ll have fun working at Shopify. Your efforts will surely be worth it as you watch yourself grow professionally and personally. Challenges are also expected, but they can be overcome. 

Becoming a Shopify intern equals endless networking opportunities. This means that you will be given a chance to attend industry conferences wherein you can network with other professionals and companies. These events are intended to further your knowledge, skills, and professional goals. 

You can also expect to attend internal hackathons, conferences, and summits, where you can get into a friendly competition with your coworkers. There are also company-wide events where you can meet other employees, known as “Shopifolk”, and see what they’re working on. The insights you’ll get through networking can help you improve upon your own work. 

Shopify Internship Reviews: What Is the Experience Like? 

On Glassdoor, Shopify employees claim that the company is one of the best workplaces for interns and full-time employees. A data science intern who worked at Shopify from May to August 2020 in Toronto, Ontario, said that they liked its friendly people. 

On the negative side, reviewers dislike that the internship is not completed in person. Because Shopify changed their future internships into fully remote through their “digital by design” program, interns now work from home. Current interns also advise that there should be more communication between different teams. 

Is It Hard to Get an Internship at Shopify?

It’s not hard to get an internship at Shopify if you know the ins and out of the application and interview process. You must go through three recruitment steps. First, create a Shopify store, then complete a technical challenge, and finally answer the application questions. After this, you’ll go through the formal interview process. 

The last step of the entire application process involves answering application questions. You might be asked to discuss the kinds of internship work you would like to do, alongside answering personal questions. Be direct as you answer these questions, as Shopify recruiters appreciate honest answers.

Shopify Intern Salaries: How Much Does a Shopify Internship Pay?

The average pay of a Shopify intern is $32 per hour. According to Glassdoor, the yearly compensation of a general Shopify intern is $68,086. User experience (UX) interns get $67,854 per year, while data science interns earn $55 per hour. 

How to Apply for a Shopify Internship: A Step-by-Step Guide

Earlier in this article, we explained that applying to be a Shopify intern requires three steps. You can also skip a step if you’re applying for a non-technical or non-dev-related post. Consider using the following steps to help you seamlessly get through the whole process. 

Step 1: Create a Fictional Shopify Store 

Part of the application and screening process for Shopify interns, regardless of the position you are applying for, is creating a fictional Shopify store wherein your knowledge about Shopify will be tested. This is also your chance to get acquainted with the whole Shopify platform. 

Step 2: Ace the Technical Challenge

Only interns who aim to occupy technical positions will be required to complete a technical challenge. This challenge will require you to build a graph data structure validator. You can use Python for this task. This challenge is fun because the job also relates to Shopify instead of another generic test where you work with algorithms. 

Step 3: Answer the Application Questions 

After you’re done with the preliminary requirements, you’ll need to answer the application questions. Here, you will be asked to share your insights into the whole internship application process. Exert an effort in answering these questions as it will reflect your passion and interest in the job.

How to Get an Internship at Shopify: Internship Opportunities in 2022

Here are different internship programs run by Shopify. Check out the details of these internship programs listed below. The programs have different skill and eligibility requirements, so make sure you choose accordingly. 

Development Degree Program 

• Eligibility Requirements: No eligibility requirements 
• Skill Requirements: No skill requirements
• Length: 4 years
• Start Date: August 2022 

There are no skill requirements or other eligibility requirements for this internship because successful interns will be given a chance to attend a course that will make them development degree holders. During the first year, you will be taking three university courses. Alongside this, you will also be spending less than 25 hours per week at Shopify. 

In the second and later years, you will be dividing your time between Shopify and the university. For every term, you’ll be taking university courses while also spending no more than 25 hours at Shopify per week. Through these years, you’ll be learning by doing, and five hours of your time at Shopify per week will be devoted to personal development. 

UX Internship Program 

• Eligibility Requirements: Not specified
• Skill Requirements: Knowledge of Polaris design system, hotkeys, Miro, Figma, Slack, and Google Apps
• Length: 4 months
• Start Date: To be announced

User experience (UX) design interns will work with Polaris design software to complete design briefs within strict deadlines, just like any other Shopify UX employee. You’ll need technical design skills for this role, plus you should be comfortable designing for a complex platform and receiving constructive feedback on your work.

Aside from the required skills, you should develop end goals you want to achieve through your four months on this UX internship program, with your main goal referred to as the “North Star goal”. This can help you track your progress as a UX intern at Shopify. 

Backend Development Internship Program 

• Eligibility Requirements: Not specified
• Skill Requirements: Knowledge of Github, Slack, and computer science principles
• Length: Not specified
• Start Date: To be announced 

According to a backend developer intern at Shopify, her normal day starts by opening Slack and Github to review and check assigned tasks. Her day goes by answering Slack and pull request (PR) messages and working on other assigned tasks. Before the day ends, she has to update her supervisors on her day’s work, so that her team in a different city will know of a task’s progress. 

Development Internship Program 

• Eligibility Requirements: Not specified
• Skill Requirements: Not specified
• Length: Not specified
• Start Date: To be announced 

Even without a technical background, you can still be hired as a Shopify development intern. The day of a developer intern usually starts with reviewing, checking, and addressing feedback on their PRs, checking their emails, and catching up with projects. Coding is also a huge chunk of their day. At Shopify, your people skills are as essential as your core skills. 

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Solutions Engineering Internship Program 

• Eligibility Requirements: Not specified
• Skill Requirements: Knowledge in building merchant proofs-of-concept and Shopify Plus
• Length: 8 months
• Start Date: To be announced 

In the solutions engineering internship program, you will be asked to sell Shopify Plus to different merchants. This is why even if knowledge of Shopify Plus isn’t required, it will help you get the job done easier if you have background knowledge of the concept. Aside from this, you will also be tasked to build merchant proof-of-concept. 

Design Internship Program 

• Eligibility Requirements: Not specified
• Skill Requirements: Proficient in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Sketch
• Length: 4 to 8 months
• Start Date: To be announced 

Shopify welcomes applicants from any background for its design internship since they provide on-the-job training. This design internship program runs for four to eight months and usually starts during the winter season. Unfortunately, the 2022 design internship hasn’t been announced yet. When hired as a design intern, expect to work with a mentor who will track your success. 

Web Development Internship Program 

• Eligibility Requirements: Not specified
• Skill Requirements: Knowledge in coding, React components, and modern frameworks and tech
• Length: 4 to 8 months 
• Start Date: To be announced 

Shopify’s basic requirement to be hired as a web development intern is to have a passion for learning. As a web developer, you will be working with the rest of the software engineering team, alongside product managers and designers. While the company provides training, it’s also good that you have an interest in and familiarity with popular coding languages. 

Data Science Internship Program 

• Eligibility Requirements: Not specified
• Skill Requirements: Proficiency in solving diverse business problems, use of test-driven development (TDD), knowledge of the open-source community
• Length: 4 to 8 months
• Start Date: To be announced 

In the data science internship program, you will be working with the engineering team to impact different Shopify product multipliers. You will be inputting more than 11 petabytes worth of data to make your merchants successful. Additionally, you will work to improve ad campaign suggestions, reduce credit card fraud, improve processing rates, optimize shipping rates, and impact merchandise delivery. 

Content Strategy Internship Program 

• Eligibility Requirements: Not specified
• Skill Requirements: Knowledge in UX writing, UX design, research, and information architecture
• Length: 4 to 8 months
• Start Date: To be announced

Under this content strategy internship program, you will be writing usable, concise, and clear content for Shopify’s communications, websites, and product interfaces. You will get all these started through Polaris. You will also collaborate with designers to plan, brainstorm, build, and improve existing features. 

Apart from that, you will also be planning navigation systems, nomenclature, taxonomy, and information architecture across Shopify communications, websites, and products. Lastly, you’ll be venturing into quantitative and qualitative research to make informed content decisions. 

Production Engineering Internship Program 

• Eligibility Requirements: Not specified
• Skill Requirements: Knowledge of Kubernetes deployments, software development, database building, and programming skills
• Length: 4 to 8 months
• Start Date: To be announced 

Because you’ll be working on different programming projects as a production engineering intern, you need to have awesome programming skills. You’ll perform best in this internship program if you have experience with Docker, Kubernetes, Azure, GCE, AWS, and other cloud infrastructure. It would also be best to be exposed to automating development processes like continuous delivery and continuous integrations. 

How to Improve Your Chances of Getting a Shopify Internship

You’re lucky if you’re accepted to be a Shopify intern. Aside from the above-average hourly pay, you’ll also get to learn as you study. You can also expand your network, making you career-ready as soon as you graduate from college. So, to improve your chances of getting accepted into Shopify’s internship program, check out these tips. 

Research Shopify 

Before applying to any Shopify internship programs, get to know the company first. Understand the company’s business, learn its values, mission, vision, and goals, and see if you can identify with them. In order to do well, Shopify’s goals and values should align with your own. 

Take the Application Process Seriously 

Commit the time and effort to answer the application questions and tasks. You may be inclined to impress the panelists, but it’s better to be yourself and be honest in your application. Show them that you’re passionate about getting hired and have what it takes to work for the company. 

Wow Them With Your Past Projects 

Although experience is not required to be accepted as a Shopify intern, it would surely add points if you compile all your past projects related to the post you’re applying for. Show them what you’ve got by putting your best foot forward through your portfolio. Thoroughly discuss what you can bring to this commerce platform during your interview. 

Should I Apply for an Internship at Shopify?

The decision as to whether or not you should apply as a Shopify computer science intern is ultimately up to you. While you decide, consider the perks and learning opportunities you can bag being a Shopify intern. You get paid as you gain experience and consistent feedback to equip you for a career after college. On top of that, the pay is also competitive. 

Shopify Internships FAQ