Match Group CEO Revives Internship Program for Gen Z Talent

Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff revived the company's summer internship program shortly after taking the top job in February 2025. The program had been canceled the year before to reduce costs. Rascoff said the decision to eliminate it was surprising given the company's focus on dating apps used primarily by people aged 18 to 22.

"We build apps for Gen Z," Rascoff explained. com and OkCupid, brought back the program known as Tindership. Rather than run a formal advertising campaign, Rascoff posted the opportunity on his LinkedIn and social media accounts. The company received more than 30,000 applications for the 27 available spots.

That acceptance rate of less than 0.09 percent is lower than the admission rate of any Ivy League college. The program begins on June 1. The interns will work through August 28 alongside teams in engineering, product, design, marketing and analytics at Tinder.

The company has updated the program's curriculum to include executive coaching, mentorship and educational sessions. Plans also call for a pickleball event pairing interns with managers and hosting interns at Rascoff's house for conversations focused on mentorship.

Rascoff stated that even having young people in the office to interact informally would benefit product decisions for the apps.

Postings for early-career roles on the job platform Handshake fell 16 percent earlier this year and have declined since 2023. Several large employers have reduced or ended their internship programs. The share of workers aged 21 to 25 at major public technology companies dropped from 15 percent a few years ago to 6.8 percent last summer, according to an analysis by compensation software firm Pave.