In addition to that good news, the study also indicated that most interns are very satisfied with their internship experience. Some 83 percent of undergraduates and 79 percent of MBAs ranked their internship experience as a four on a five point scale. Reasons cited by interns accepting permanent offers from their internship employers:

• Interns’ work assignments were challenging and mission-critical;
• Interns received plenty of exposure to full-time work responsibilities;
• Interns had exceptional managers overseeing their program;
• Interns started their programs with greater interest in working for the company full-time;
• Interns received significant exposure to upper management;
• Interns were mentored throughout their internship and received formal feedback on their performance;
• Interns received better compensation packages; and
• Interns received full-time offers soon after completion of the internship.

So what is that employers and interns want out of their shared internship experience? Successful employers clearly want to convert their interns into permanent, full-time employees upon graduation. These employers effectively view their interns as temp-to-perm employees. Many and perhaps most interns also want to convert their employment status from temporary to permanent, but that isn’t their primary goal. Instead, 70 percent of undergraduates seek internships primarily to get additional training in their chosen career field while 80 percent of MBA students seek internships primarily to help them transition into a new field of work. Undergraduate and graduate students are only secondarily motivated by the goal of securing a permanent, full-time, position with their internship employer.

The message for employers of interns is clear. Provide meaningful experiences for your undergraduate and MBA interns. That will allow you to secure the best possible interns for your program. But do not assume that your interns share your goal of them becoming permanent, full-time employees with your organization. Just as you sold them on why they should intern for your organization, you need to sell them on why they should remain with your program. With more and more students receiving multiple offers for positions upon graduation, employers need to adjust their thinking from assuming that any job offer that they extend will be accepted to competing for the best candidates. There are few job openings right now for which employers are not receiving enough qualified applications, but there are never enough true stars available in any field. Successful organizations are driven by their star hires, not their qualified hires. So if your organization wants to succeed, then it needs to hire the stars. And an incredibly cheap way of hiring those stars is the creation and management of a successful internship program.