If you’re a college student, don’t underestimate the importance of internships, even if graduation is years away. They remain one of the best ways to increase your chances of getting the kind of employment you want once you hit the job market. The myths about interns doing nothing but fetching coffee and making copies don’t apply so much to IT professionals, and the benefits are deep and long lasting. Not only will you come away with substantive work experience, your contact and reference lists will become that much longer and more valuable. According to the recent survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 63 percent of paid interns received at least one job offer when they graduated. A whopping 75 percent of those who were hired out of their internships were still at their jobs after a year. And despite slow, albeit steady, economic growth, average salaries for interns who hold a bachelor’s or master’s degree should remain steady though 2013, NACE says. Many internships pay, also. If you’re an engineer with a bachelor’s degree, you’ll receive an average hourly wage of $20.36. Computer scientists are worth $18.96 per hour and mathematicians $18.15 per hour. For interns with master’s degrees, engineering majors earn $24.43 an hour, followed by physical scientists at $23.58 per hour, and mathematicians at $23.40 per hour. While NACE provides a lengthy list of businesses that participated in their survey, Fortune and Glassdoor published breakdowns (which have appeared on many sites) of both best places to intern and their monthly base salaries. I broke the lists down even further to identify tech-centric companies, prioritized by salary and work environment.

•  Google: Average monthly compensation: $5,800 - $6,400
• Amazon: $5,600
• Microsoft: $4,700 - $7,000
• Qualcomm: $4,700 - $5,000
• Intel: $4,300
• Cisco: $3,600 - $4,100
• IBM: $4,600
• GE: $2,900
• Accenture: $3,500
• Scottrade: $1,800