It's no secret that today's top employers want to hire the best interns and entry-level employees. Conversely, today's top students want to secure the best possible internships and, after graduation, the best entry-level jobs with these top employers.

When asked to explain how former interns have been instrumental in recruiting future interns, our experts were once again in total agreement with each other. The consensus is that word-of-mouth is the biggest help of all.

"Interns that are provided a good experience while working with Aflac will most likely express that to their classmates and sometimes their academic advisors/professors," said Keyla Cabret, university relations supervisor for Aflac. "In addition," she said, "when recruiting on college campuses we ask former interns who are now full-time employees of the company to participate in campus presentations and highlight their internship experience with Aflac."

The same holds true for Scottrade. "Some of our interns speak to professors and other students about their experience with Scottrade and this helps our internship program spread," said Scottrade Intern Recruiter, Chrissy Glover.

"Several Alpaytac interns have transitioned directly into full-time positions at the end of their program," said Junior Account Executive, Brian Saunders. "One former intern now handles the screening, interviewing, hiring, and training for our entire internship program." Does it get any better than that?

The Art Institute of California-San Francisco has had a slightly different experience. "Often times if an employer has a positive experience with an intern, they will contact me again for another. I also have a lot of alumni who are working in the industry and call us up looking for interns themselves. If students had a good encounter with a company, they will also spread the word to their friends and classmates and many times will recommend them when they are finished, " said Katie Layous, internship coordinator for the Art Institute.

IDEA HALL's former interns not only passed on their experiences via word of mouth, they wrote about them on their social networking pages as well, said APR, CEO, and company president, Rebecca Hall.

David Kowalczyk, co-director of Career Services at Assumption College summed it up nicely, "A campus reference is a valuable asset for employers. They help create an internal marketing source."