Two similar questions about non-academic jobs/internships — one closed as off-topic, the other was not: what gives?

Question

Inspired by recent meta questions (Are question about job outside academia but related to on topic? and Are questions regarding academic internships off-topic?), I'd like to get some feedback on two very similar questions related to non-academic jobs/internships which were handled very differently.

The first question, Does your university name matter?, was closed as off-topic.

The second question, Does name of university matter for internships?, was not closed.

These two questions seem to be quite similar to my mind (perhaps, one is a duplicate of the other, but that is another matter). However, the outcomes of the two questions above is inconsistent and, I must say, confusing (to me, anyway). Why were these two questions handled so differently by the "powers that be?"

Answer 1

I am one of the voters who voted to close the first question and voted to leave the second question open. I feel obligated to answer your question from my own perspective.

However, I can only speak for myself. Please take my answer as my own opinion.

My vote to close the first question was because it is about an undergrad student seeking jobs outside Academia.

My vote to "Leave Open" the second question because of the word "internships". To me, an internship job is temporary. The OP will go back to school at the end of it. In my opinion, it's on the borderline between Academia and industry. This is what was on my mind at the time I was reviewing Close Votes.

If I remember it correctly, I did hesitate to leave open the second one because the OP is an undergrad student. It seems that it was an undergrad question. Then my thought was that the same could happen to graduate students. So, there was my vote.

Come to think of the whole thing, the first question deals with the issue "prestigious school vs. average school" while seeking industry jobs. This is an important question because everyone needs a job, whether in Academia or industry. We do have questions concerning Academians' job hunting in industry on this site. If expanding the question to undergrad students, I am not sure our community would accept it.

The above is my opinion and mine only.

Answer 2

You ask an excellent question. I don't know how they ended up with different dispositions; they should either both be left open or both be closed on the same grounds. I would tend to lean towards them both being left open.

One thing to note, though—the "powers that be" are all the users that have sufficient representation to cast close votes. Also, close votes expire after a certain window. So it may be the case that "critical mass" was achieved in one case but not the other.