So, You Think You Want an Intern?
We’ve had seasonal interns, year-long and multi-year interns, unpaid interns, paid interns, and interns who have been moved to full-time paid positions, for a total of 13 interns over the last 6 years.
Needless to say, we’ve learned A LOT about how to find, manage, and effectively use interns in a mutually beneficial relationship.
IN THIS ARTICLE WE’LL COVER
3 questions you should ask yourself before hiring an intern
Top tasks to delegate to an intern
Pro tips for managing an intern
Will interns work for free? How much do they cost?
Where to find the right qualified intern
INTERN MYTHS
Before we dive in, let’s clear up a few myths:
Interns are easy, free labor
Interns are a catch-all or “extra pair of hands”
Interns are basically entry-level employees
INTERN TRUTH
The truth is, hiring an intern can be a great, low-cost way to augment your team while giving a young professional valuable experience and connections, but it requires thoughtful planning and management to make the relationship mutually beneficial.
With that out of the way, let’s get going…
The 3 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Hiring an Intern
Do I have a common set of tasks that need to be completed consistently that don’t require a high level of skill or specialized expertise?
Do I have at least 2-3 hours per week to train and manage an intern?
Do I have valuable skills or connections that a young professional might benefit from?
If you can’t answer “yes” to all 3 of these questions, do not proceed!
What Type of Tasks Should You Delegate to an Intern?
Content
For example: responding to emails, creating social media posts, and updating your website
When delegating content tasks, the two most important things to remember are:
You need to provide your intern with the right tools to be successful
You need a way to review and approve the content BEFORE it is shared in order to manage quality (Once your intern is trained and trust is built, you can eventually move to a system where content is periodically reviewed afterward instead of pre-approving)
Social media is my favorite task to delegate because many college students are social media naturals.
You’ll want to develop a shared content calendar so they know what to post as well as tone of voice guidelines. I recommend using a tool like Planoly so you can review and approve the content before it’s posted.
Administrative
For example: Managing your CRM, codifying expenses, and scheduling
Administrative tasks are "back of house" tasks that are easiest to delegate. These are the tasks that need to get done but don't need to be done by you. When delegating admin tasks, I recommend using tools that allow you to create separate accounts vs. sharing your login information. This is for your privacy and theirs - so they aren't entrusted with the information they don't need, and you can track activity by the user.
Interns may also need their own email account - don't have them use a personal account. I recommend setting up a global address like hello@yourcompany.com so that you can reuse the account with multiple interns.
Research & Analysis
For example: market analysis, competitive research, or sales breakdown
Research tasks are great for college interns because they're already in the habit of researching for school. The analysis part might be more tricky (asking them to not just record the data, but make sense of it), but this is trainable and a significant growth opportunity.
Managing An Intern
When managing an intern, the most important thing for you to understand is what motivates them. I'm generalizing here, but for the sake of argument, I've listed their motivations in priority order:
Intern Motivations
Money
Experience to put on their resume
Connections
Learning new skills
ESSENTIAL TIPS
Before we go farther, here are my two essential tips for managing an intern:
Set a weekly status meeting, but establish a way for your intern to reach you on a daily basis. I recommend Slack over email because it will keep your inbox from getting cluttered, and it's more real-time and chat-like.
If you have a team, I recommend having your interns report to someone other than you, especially if you have more than one. Make sure you have this structure in place; your intern should know that they reach out to their manager before reaching out to you. He or she should never feel like you're inaccessible, but your time should be reserved for questions only you can answer. This is a valuable skill for your intern to learn that they'll use in future positions.
Job Title, description, and Tracking System
Your intern is not a "catch-all" or "extra set of hands"
There's a tendency to think of your intern as someone who can take care of all of the things you don't have time for or don't want to do. But, while this may be useful to you, it's unmotivating to them.
Be sure to have a clear job title, description, and task tracking system.
Job Title
"Intern" doesn't look great on a resume.
You should always be thinking about how working with you will help them land a job in the future. Craft a meaningful but not overly lofty title. I prefer titles like Coordinator or Manager that imply that they aren't senior but still valuable to the company. This will excite your intern and develop trust in anyone who interacts with them.
Job Description
Your intern should have a clear job description that outlines what's expected of them.
I like to structure descriptions in 3 parts:
Culture: How they are expected to "show up" to work each day
This could include dress, energy level, attitude, and/or willingness to ask for help. Remember, if they are in college, late nights may be typical, so you need an agreed-upon understanding of how you expect them to act while on the clock. This is probably one of the best lessons for them to learn and carry with them to future jobs.
Routines: On-going tasks that they can self-manage
Routines can include things like responding to social media comments, codifying expenses on Fridays, or tracking sales data. These are tasks that you can train them on and then expect to be done without you asking or checking in.
Daily Tasks: To-do items that have deadlines
College students are primed to react to deadlines since that's how their professors manage their tasks. Spend a few minutes briefing your intern on a task, and be sure to set a deadline so there's no confusion on priority.
Task tracking
Resist the temptation to hurl tasks over the fence to your intern via Slack or email. Have a task management system (this can be as simple as a Google Spreadsheet or a more robust system like Asana). It doesn't really matter what you use as long as everyone can commit to using it. Documenting tasks helps to ensure things are completed on time. Plus, seeing the completed tasks is very rewarding for your intern and makes writing those little bullet points on their resume much easier.
Will an Intern Work for Free? How Much Do They Cost?
Money is a primary motivator for most college interns. I recommend that when at all possible, you pay an hourly rate (could be as little as $10/hour) or have a bonus/commission structure where they can earn money based on completed tasks or goals achieved. If you do it this way, keep it simple. You don’t want to set up a complicated system that’s difficult or time-consuming to track.
Many colleges offer college credit in exchange for an internship. This is one of the best ways to hire a low cost or no cost intern.
Non-Monetary Ways to “Pay” an Intern
If you can’t pay your intern or you can’t pay them as much as you wish you could, make a list of any non-monetary benefits you can offer. For example:
A letter of recommendation
Inclusion as a contact on their list of references
Warm introductions after graduation
A review on their LinkedIn profile
Help with improving their resume
Help to improve their LinkedIn profile
Mentorship
Helpful books you’ve read that they can have or borrow
PRO TIP
At the start of the internship, I recommend writing their job description as it would appear on their resume after the internship is completed. This way, you can both see what tasks you need them to complete, and your intern can see how valuable the next few months will be to funding future jobs.
Where to Find Qualified Interns
The best place to find interns is through your local college. The first option is to reach out to the college directly to learn about their internship policies and pipeline. They will most likely have a system where you can post your job listing.
The second option, and what I find to be more effective, is to reach out to the school’s professional groups, for example, “Women in Business” or “Young Leaders.” You can find these groups on the college website or in a Facebook or LinkedIn search. Since these are smaller groups, your job posting may be seen faster. Plus, I find that students who are active members of a group are the type of people you want to hire. If you go this route, the student can connect you to the right school administrator to formalize the internship (so they can get college credit if that’s a possibility).
I recommend that your internship be “officially” recognized with the school - it helps the school manage its students and it’s for everyone’s benefit and safety.
Closing Thoughts
I love working with interns. The young women who have worked for my two companies - a boutique marketing firm, The Show & Tell Co., and a membership organization, Women Entrepreneurs Inc., have brought so much joy to my life and genuinely contributed to our success. While it’s so rewarding to impart new knowledge and skills to younger generations, I’ve also learned so much from listening to them.
College women don’t view the world as you do, which can be really refreshing and useful. I’ve never regretted the extra time I’ve spent pouring into our interns, nor have I regretted the time I’ve spent listening to them.
If you’re a passionate, self-motivated college professional looking for a rewarding internship, email me. We’re always looking for new team members, and our 250+ Women Entrepreneurs Inc. members are too! I’d love to make a warm intro.