According to Indeed, internships can be a great opportunity for your company to gain a fresh perspective and provide leadership for those who are less experienced. In addition, it can help improve the efficiency and morale of current employees who may be overwhelmed with their workload — and even provide a pathway for new employees to start their own careers in your industry.
This will also improve your company’s relationship with local colleges and young people in general. When your interns have a good experience at your company, they will be willing to spread the word about your impact.
An internship is about more than just busy work or an extra pair of hands. It’s a learning experience for young people and college students who are interested in your industry. Especially if you’re offering an unpaid internship, you should ensure that the learning experience you provide is somewhat structured and overall beneficial to the intern’s career growth.
Businesswoman Eva Chen says, “My advice for young people is, study what you love and intern in what you want to do. And I think it’s okay to pivot as many times as you need to.” When you hire an intern, it’s important to remember that they are still learning and experimenting with your career, and part of their boss or mentor’s job will be to guide them through that growth process. Here’s how you can do that.
1. Determine the Goal of Your Internship
Since summer internships only last a few months, it’s best to assign interns to a particular project or campaign. While keeping your intern busy with repetitive work that is too time-consuming for other employees can be tempting, make sure you’re using your intern’s time wisely. Consider assigning them to a project that aligns with their career goals, and even if some of the work is repetitive, give them an opportunity to lead and make changes within the scope of their project.
“When a company hires interns, they want to lift a weight off of their own employees but also to guide that intern towards success,” Jin Young Woo, CEO of Like Dreams says. “The best way to do that is by figuring out that intern’s strengths like you would with any team member and finding out where they fit best. Sometimes you find those strengths outside of the job description, and that’s okay.”
2. Consider Your Future Hiring Needs
If you’re looking to hire full-time employees but are encountering lots of qualified candidates who can only intern or work part-time, you may be able to hire them as an intern and bring them back full-time later on. If you’re looking for a new employee with marketing experience, for example, consider hiring an intern who is studying marketing and communications — even if you intend to hire your intern to do admin and organizational work initially.
“When you hire a new intern, they tend to bring a lot of passion and new ideas to your team. Once they learn to exist in a professional space, they could be an equally great choice for a full-time position. Your interns will be grateful that you took a chance on them if you do hire them full-time,” says Natalia Morozova, Partner at Cohen, Tucker & Ades Immigration Law Firm.
3. Offer Competitive Rates
While unpaid internships are an option, you may lose out on your best internship candidates. Especially if your interns are doing administrative work and performing the same tasks as your other employees, it’s important to pay at least minimum wage. If you do, you’ll avoid legal trouble, bring in a strong pool of candidates, and prove that you respect your employees.
“Everyone was a young professional at one point in their lives,” Ryan Rottman, Co-Founder and CEO of OSDB says. “Being valued for the work you do is important, and when interns see that you respect them, they’ll be more likely to speak positively about their experience and contribute positively during their time with your company.”
4. Be Realistic
When hiring interns, be candid about your expectations for their time commitment and any wages or stipends you might provide. Younger interns will likely still be in school full-time and may also be working part-time. It’s unrealistic to ask an intern to work full-time hours, which is why so many internships are seasonal.
This could also benefit your company if you decide to hire interns during your busy season. If your interns struggle to balance school and life in addition to work, encourage your employees to offer their own mentorship and advice.
“It can be tough to decide how to structure an intern’s schedule when they might lack some of the experience and time management skills of your other employees,” says Asker A Ahmed, Director of iProcess Global Research. “They’re still learning, but everyone has been there. Internships are a growth opportunity not only for that college student but also for your team members and their mentorship skills.”
5. Think Outside of the Box During the Search
When you’re hiring interns, you’re going to be targeting a specific audience of job seekers. While hiring platforms and ordinary job postings can still be useful, you’ll want to make your internship opportunity stand out to college students. This could include using social media, recruiting on LinkedIn, or putting in an appearance at a university job fair. You could even specifically look for interns from your employees’ alma mater.
“When looking for interns, adding a personal touch can strengthen your pool of candidates. It’s great to have a recruiter, but if one of your team members has a personal connection with a strong applicant, you won’t want to miss that opportunity to build your team,” says Andrew Chen, Chief Product Officer of Videeo.
6. Find Quality Candidates
In addition to offering a competitive rate and creating a personal connection with your applicants, building excitement around your brand and company can also bring in high-quality candidates. Introducing your team and company mission on your website and social media will tell your interns what your company is all about.
“Hiring interns is so fun because they all have such varied backgrounds and experiences,” says Shelley Hancock, Chief Beauty Officer of Shelley Hancock Consulting. “So many of them are eager to learn and eager to lead.”
High-quality candidates will also come from unexpected places. If your full-time employees have similar majors and work histories, it may help to bring in an intern or two who specialize in a different area. If your current employees have lots of business experience, consider bringing in someone with more communications or tech experience.
© Adobe Stock
7. Ask About Their Goals Upfront
Just as you will be upfront about your company’s expectations for your interns, you want your interns to share their goals with you, too. While an intern might seem like a good fit for your company, you want to make sure they get the most out of their experience.=
“An internship is a learning experience, and just as a professor holds office hours for their class, it’s important to make sure that your interns are benefitting from the experience your company offers,” says Drew Sherman, VP of Marketing at RPM. “Helping your intern set goals ahead of time can help manage those expectations.”
What do they hope to gain from the internship? Do they want to network with professionals in the industry? Do they want the opportunity to lead a project, or do they want to expand a particular set of skills? Once you figure out your applicant’s goal, you can tailor the internship to suit them as you see fit.
8. Use Social Media
As mentioned earlier, when you’re seeking interns who are still in college, you will want to look beyond the usual job boards. If you want applicants who are young and eager to learn, you will want to seek them out on platforms that they use. Using social media is an excellent opportunity to show off your company culture and understanding of trends.
“Social media is a greatly under-utilized resource when it comes to finding good talent,” says Matthew Morein, VP, Brand and Creative at Psycho Bunny, a company that offers stylish polo shirts for men. “When an intern applies for your position, you want them to do so because they’re invested in who you are as a company beyond what you can provide for them. Social media is a great way to showcase that.”
9. Invest Time Into the Job Description
Writing a clear and concise job description will increase your team’s efficiency when it comes to the hiring process. Being transparent about the wage you’re offering and your qualification expectations will save you the pain of answering questions and turning away underqualified candidates.
“When writing any job description, include the benefits and learning opportunities that your company offers in addition to expectations for the candidate. This applies to interns just as much as other employees,” says Cody Candee, Founder and CEO of Bounce.
10. Collect Hiring Feedback From Your Team
Your hiring team probably already has a set of best hiring practices, including sending out acceptance and rejection emails, not ghosting candidates, and keeping track of applicants. As you prepare to hire an intern or two, it could be helpful to see what the rest of your team has to say. What did they like and dislike about the hiring process, and what would they suggest to make it smoother? What would they like to see in an intern’s job description?
“Your employees are your best resource when it comes to figuring out what you’re doing right and wrong in the hiring process,” says Dan Potter, Head of Digital at CRAFTD. “They’ve been through it and can make recommendations based on what they personally expect from an intern.”
Finding Candidates Who Make an Impact
When you hire an intern, you do more than bring on an extra pair of hands. You’re choosing someone in the entry-level stage of their career and shaping their expectations of your company’s industry and the professional world as a whole. A proper internship structure and a streamlined hiring process will ensure that you bring in the best internship applicants — and your industry’s future leaders.
