Last year, venture firm Kleiner Perkins debuted its plans for a summer internship program to place top engineering talent from colleges at the firm’s portfolio companies. The benefit is two-fold: students get to work at the startup level and are mentored (and have the prestige of Kleiner Perkins on their resume), and startups get access to young engineering talent. After a successful inaugural program this summer, the venture firm is now accepting applications for the 2013 class.
As Kleiner explains, the goal of the paid fellowship is to give engineering students the experience of working on tough technical problems at startups. Fellows are placed at Kleiner portfolio startups and are also invited to exclusive events at Twitter and Zynga where they can network.
The program is open to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at U.S. universities who are studying computer science, engineering, mathematics, physics, or fields related to software development.
In its inaugural year, the KPCB Engineering Fellows program received over 1,000 applications from students at over 100 universities in the United States. In its first class, 30 students were selected and paired with a number of Kleiner portfolio companies including Klout, One Kings Lane, Path, and Zynga. Based on the program’s success, more than 90 percent of the 2012 Fellows class will receive full-time career opportunities or internships for next summer at KPCB-funded companies.
You can apply for the fellowship here.