Take Internships Out of a Board's Hiring Count

When a funded startup's careers page lists "26 open roles," that number often includes internships, open applications, and rows that will never become an agency search. If you repeat the raw number to a client or use it to rank targets, you overstate demand. Humble Robotics is a clean example. Its Lever board on November 9, 2026 had 26 postings. Two were 2027 internships, and Lever's commitment field labeled both "Full-time." A public aggregator listed the company with 26 open roles. The hiring count a recruiter can use is 24.

Board: Humble Robotics Lever postings API, accessed November 9, 2026. Aggregator example: theaiwins funded-and-hiring list, accessed November 9, 2026.

Why the internship rows slip through

The two rows are titled "Electrical Engineer, 2027 Internship" and "Embedded Software Engineer, 2027 Internship." Both were created on October 20, 2026. Both sit on the Hardware Team, in San Francisco, onsite. Lever's commitment field, the one most tools read to separate full-time from intern roles, says "Full-time" for both.

So a script that filters on commitment keeps them. A person who scans the careers page sees them listed alongside senior engineering roles with the same "Apply" button. Only the title tells you what they are.

Humble Robotics' Lever board listed two 2027 internships with the commitment field set to Full-time. Count titles, not fields, when you remove interns.

The playbook

1. Pull the board and list every title.
2. Search titles for "intern," "internship," "co-op," "new grad," "apprentice," "fellow," and graduation years such as "2027."
3. Search for open-application rows such as "General Application" or "Don't see your role."
4. Remove those rows from the count you share. Keep them in a separate list.
5. State the adjusted count with its method: "24 roles, excluding two 2027 internships, Lever, November 9."

Why this matters for agency work

Internships are almost never agency searches. They are hired through university programs. Counting them inflates the size of the opportunity, and it can also skew the function mix. At Humble, both internships are hardware rows. Removing them changes the Hardware Team count from 14 to 12. That is still the largest team, but the gap to software narrows.

The same logic applies to "Don't see your role? Send us your resume." Humble's careers page carries that line with an email address. That is not a requisition either.

Fields can be wrong in other ways

Commitment is not the only unreliable field. On the same board, four Software Team rows are marked remote while still carrying "San Francisco" as their location. That may be intentional, meaning remote but tied to a Bay Area hub, or it may be a default. A filter on location alone would treat them as San Francisco onsite. Read the workplace type and the description together before you decide.

Aggregators inherit whatever the board says. If the board counts internships, so does the aggregator. Do not take a third-party role count as a hiring signal without opening the board yourself.

Other rows that rarely become searches

Internships are the most common inflation, but not the only one. Watch for these patterns when you clean a board:

1. Evergreen talent-pool rows, often titled "Future Opportunities" or "Talent Community."
2. Duplicate titles in different cities, which may be one seat with flexible location.
3. Rows that have been open for more than a year without edits.
4. Contract or part-time roles, if your desk only places permanent hires.
5. Roles marked for a specific university program or graduation year.

You do not have to delete all of them. You have to label them. A board with 24 full-time roles, three of them open for over a year, tells a client something different from 24 fresh roles.

At Humble, the oldest posting, ML Software Engineer, was created on November 5, 2025. That is a year old on the day of the round. It is still a real role, but it has been open long enough to ask why. Note it, then ask the hiring manager.

A worked count

Starting from Humble's 26 rows on November 9: remove the two 2027 internships, which leaves 24. Flag one year-old row. Flag four remote rows that still carry a San Francisco location. The client-ready line becomes: "24 full-time roles in San Francisco, 20 onsite or hybrid, 4 remote; one open since November 2025; two internships excluded." That sentence takes thirty seconds to write and saves a wrong pitch.

Reporting the number

When a client asks how many people a company is hiring, give the adjusted number, the exclusions, and the date. "Twenty-four full-time roles on November 9, plus two internships" is honest and useful. "Twenty-six roles" is technically true and practically misleading.

When you track a company over time, track the adjusted count. A board that grows from 24 to 30 full-time roles is a different story from one that adds six summer internships.

Fields to keep

Raw row count, adjusted count, excluded rows with reasons, source URL, and access date. If you rely on an aggregator, record its count next to yours and note any difference.