Companies can give interns a ‘chance’ to shine – or whine
They aren’t just ‘stand-ins’
NEW YORK, May 10, (AP): Fresh face or long face? Which one you see on interns at small businesses may depend on whether the boss gives them a chance to shine or do only menial tasks.
As business owners prepare to take on interns for the summer or the next academic year, many may not realize these young people aren’t just stand-ins for regular staffers. Owners can quickly learn that interns need mentoring in addition to training, ongoing feedback as well as supervision and perhaps a few life lessons. They may also need to be paid.
“Interns are hoping to take the knowledge and skills they learned in their coursework and see it come to life,” says Sarah Curry, internship coordinator at Marquette University’s Klingler College of Arts and Sciences.
For many, that means work that’s an integral part of a company’s operations, or projects designed to help them learn more about the business and its industry. Owners sensitive to interns’ hunger to learn will make sure they have a worthwhile experience.
“We want to give interns meaningful activities,” says Casey DeSain, digital marketing coordinator at GMR Transcription, whose services include transcribing and translating. That means interns at the Tustin, California-based company get opportunities to learn about digital marketing, and tasks that “can vary from simple blog editing to more complex ones like analyzing marketing campaigns to ensure they’re working well,” DeSain said.
Interns may be high school or college students who earn credits for the work they do. Many others get internships independent of their school work, looking for experience in a field they’re interested in, and hoping, if not for a position after graduation, then for a recommendation to help in a future job search.
It’s not known how many students get internships while in college, but it’s safe to say the number is in the millions. The federal National Center for Education Statistics estimates that 17.5 million people enrolled in undergraduate programs this academic year.
Many companies are motivated to hire interns for altruistic reasons, wanting to give young people experience and a taste of what working in their industry is like. Owners are also often on the lookout for the next generation of talented staffers.
Even companies with nontraditional operations — for example, those that are virtual, with employees working online — can create internships.
Cristina Hermida’s companies, Green Hopping and Inside Crowd, which are involved in public relations and have an app that promotes wellness, hire interns throughout the school year. Most of the students aren’t in Miami or New York, where the businesses have offices. Interns complete their work and communicate with staffers online, and also have “check in” phone calls. The plus for the companies is they’re able to get talented interns anywhere in the world, Hermida says.
The lack of “face time” hasn’t been a problem, Hermida says. “We take a hands-on approach, walking them through the process (of what they’re working on) as many times as necessary until they are confident to do it on their own.”
Businesses with budget constraints may look upon interns as a resource that won’t cost as much as an employee. In such cases, interns can find themselves doing drudge work other staffers won’t do. But treating a student like a warm body to fill an empty slot or pick up the slack during vacations is a mistake, Curry says.