The career paths for most people start with an internship which offers mutual benefits for both the student or graduate and the company. It offers interns exposure to a professional setting and an opportunity to build their prospects.
Internships are also beneficial to businesses as they need to attract top talent and a chance to find young and fresh ideas.
The hiring process for interns is fairly similar to the normal one but a lot of things could go wrong if the goals of the internship are not clearly defined.
How do you go about recruiting interns to your company?
- Define a well structured internship program
It is important to determine whether your company needs an intern and whether they are getting valuable experience from intervening in your company. You need to also consider whether it’s going to be paid or unpaid and get a coordinator that would oversee the internship process. Outline the duration of the internship, pathways to a full-time job, departments that need interns, and experience certificates that would be given at the end of the program.
- Develop a training program
Your interns expect to gain certain benefits during the program especially if it is an unpaid internship. It is important to develop an active training program where they learn relevant soft and technical skills that would help them later.
- Define the requirements you expect of the intern
It is important to know what you are looking for in a prospective intern. As they do not have industry specific experience, you should outline other things you expect your intern to have, be it volunteer experience, proven soft skills and relevant technical skills. Make the hiring process more about the attitude the candidate brings with them.
- Advertise your internships program
To attract the right candidates, build a well crafted internship program description highlighting the goals and expectations from the internship. You can make use of online and offline mediums by partnering with a university, or clubs in that school and through social media.
- Evaluate interns to recruit outstanding interns
Set an evaluation system for interns to keep an eye on those that can be added to your company’s talent pool. Take note of interns that perform their tasks diligently and add significantly to any matter. Also, keep an eye out for that who have potential but need a little push by encouraging them and giving relevant advice.
Recruiting interns is beneficial for the parties involved as the interns would have the requisite career growth and the company would be involved in building a culture of skill development.