"I'm sure you’ll be surprised by what you can learn from an intern."
You might not realize it yet, but you NEED an intern. I’m sure some of you have an assistant or someone in your office that helps with administrative tasks, but there’s a lot more you could be doing with an intern who wants real-world experience.
This summer I have had two interns. One was a college student who spent 6 weeks helping with all sorts of projects from basic busy work to marketing campaigns to company policy guides to customer surveys. Not only was she enthusiastic about doing anything I gave her, she applied herself to every task and got them done. My other intern is a high school student who has been showing the same type of enthusiasm for whatever I throw at him. Right now I’m having him take care of researching and setting up our social media network.
Why do you need an intern? Two reasons: to teach and to learn.
I was very fortunate in high school. My mother’s boss at IBM met me and liked me so well that he created an internship program just to give me an internship! (Talk about nepotism.) The summer before I went to college I worked for the VP of Software Development and learned more about using computers, software engineering, company dynamics, executive roles and politics, and what it meant to work in an office. That experience has done more for setting my direction for success than anything else I have done. And now you have the opportunity to do the same for some lucky aspiring youth. You have a lot to teach, to provide insight about and to inspire. Hiring an intern is one way to give back to others.
Believe it or not, an intern can teach you a lot too. For example, have you figured out what social media networking is all about? Who else can teach you more about social media and networking than an intern who lives and breathes this stuff?!? Like asking your kids for help using a computer, an intern will actually do all the grunt work you don’t like doing (e.g. signing up on the social sites, setting up your profile, etc). I’m sure you’ll be surprised by what you can learn from an intern.
There’s no time like the present to get started, so here are a few options for how to find an intern:
1. Contact Lauren Berger, the “Intern Queen” to post your internship -www.quarterlife.com/intern
2. Talk to your employees and see if you can hire their sons or daughters
3. Tell your professional networks what you’re looking for
4. Contact the career center at your alma mater
Thanks for reading,
Richard Walker
