What Do Interns Want?

Those engaged in college and university recruiting recognize that as fall transitions into winter, another transition is also taking place. But rather than being driven by falling temperatures, the other transition is driven by the type of recruiting effort. You see, fall recruiting has traditionally been dominated by organizations who are trying to hire college seniors for entry level, permanent positions. Winter recruiting, on the other hand, is split between organizations who are trying to hire the same types of people as well as organizations who are trying to hire juniors and sometimes even sophomores for internships.
As we move through the fall and into the winter, I thought that it would be helpful to summarize some of the key factors that college students look at when deciding whether to pursue and perhaps even accept an internship opportunity with one organization versus a similar opportunity with the employer across the street.

Interns are just like the rest of us in that they place a high value on being able to do meaningful work. We’ve all heard the stereotypes of interns being locked in the mailroom for the entire summer and being grateful to have had the, ahem, experience. Well folks, that type of an internship went out style when the last of the Gen X’ers graduated from college as the changing demographics caused a fundamental shift from the power resting in the hands of the employers to the power resting in the hands of the candidates. Quite simply, there are far fewer Gen Y’ers than there are opportunities for them so they can and are choosier than their Baby Boomer and Gen X parents.
Today’s interns have grown up on project-based work and see themselves as free agents. Rather than fighting this attitude, embrace it. Design your work flow so that it is project based and make it not only possible but also likely that your interns will each complete at least one project during their internship.
Many hiring managers issue requests to their human resource departments for a batch of interns because the managers view interns as cheap sources of labor. They’re not. A successful internship program is one in which the intern accepts a permanent job immediately upon the completion of the internship. If the manager is not willing to train, supervise, and perhaps even mentor the intern properly then that intern will not accept and perhaps not even be offered a permanent position. Human resources needs to be firm and not assign interns to poor managers or those who have a history of misusing interns.
In many ways, Gen Y most resembles the Beat Generation, also known as the G.I. Generation, which was the generation that fought the Second World War. The Beat Generation was incredibly community focused and willing to make incredible sacrifices for the betterment of their families, friends, communities, and country. Gen Y is also community focused and few will be inspired by the opportunity to work 60 hours a week so that maybe, just maybe, they’ll inherit the corner office and then a month be laid off in a corporate downsizing move that has nothing to do with their competency. If you want to stand out on-campus and recruit more than your fair share of high quality interns and then retain them, give them even a few hours off paid time off each month to do the volunteer work of their choosing.
Another way to ensure that you recruit and retain more than your fair share of intern stars is to bring them into contact with your senior executives. Have your CEO call the interns to encourage them to accept their offers. Bring your interns to meetings at which senior executives will be present. By all means counsel the interns that they should not be outspoken or even speak a tenth of the time if there are 10 people in the room, but allow them to rub shoulders with the top guns and you’ll have interns who will be much more understanding of your organization rather than just their just their job and those are interns who are much more likely to accept their offers of permanent employment and refer you to other stars on their campuses.
One of the struggles that this generation faces is incredibly high student loan debts. It isn’t unusual for college tuition and related costs to be rising at average of 11 percent or more year-after-year. What that means for students attending those schools is that their cost of education is doubling every seven years. If your children attend college two or three decades after you did, their cost is likely three, four, or even more times as much as yours was. When you graduated, you likely had to make lifestyle choices such as having a roommate or driving an old car. But you were able to work in whatever field you wanted to. When this generation graduates, they are being forced to work in fields that do not interest them simply to earn enough money to pay back their student loans. That leads to job dissatisfaction and turnover, but if they quit and go to work in a fulfilling yet low paying position, they won’t have enough money to pay their bills so they’re forced to quit and find work that is higher paying yet not fulfilling. And so the cycle repeats. If your firm offers fulfilling work, and every organization that properly targets its candidates does, then look hard at the student loan debt balances of your ideal candidates and find a way to reduce that burden. Perhaps expand your tuition reimbursement program so that you pay a portion or even all of the student loan payments once your interns are working for you as permanent employees. If effectively paying them more isn’t an option, then see if you can reduce their costs of working for you by finding a way for them to do their work in a metro area or facility of their choice. Do your interns really all need to move to New York City for the summer or can you get them together for a couple of extended weekends and allow them to work near their campuses during the rest of the summer?
Mentorship programs are incredibly important but don’t assign employees who are unwilling or unable to effectively mentor an intern. Some older employees look upon mentorship programs with disdain. You want to find those employees who recently graduated and who are excited about having the opportunity to mentor an intern. If your intern is in the marketing department, there’s no need for you to find a mentor who is in or used to be in the marketing department. The point isn’t so much finding someone who will help the intern with their work as it is finding someone who will help them navigate their way through the corporate world.
Many organizations talk about the importance of diversity and many of those put their money where their mouth is and do a good job of recruiting a diverse candidate base, including a diverse group of interns. Yet many of these organizations fail their diverse hires by failing to appreciate that with diversity comes, well, diversity. If you’ve hired an observant Moslem intern, you need to understand that her religious holidays, dietary rules, and cultural beliefs will differ from her Lutheran classmates. If you want diversity, and you should, then you need to be flexible enough with your diverse hires after they’re hired so that you not only respect their diversity but you embrace it.
Have fun, but don’t have too much fun. Many organizations make the mistake of wining and dining their internship class all summer and taking them on lavish and extended retreats. While few interns will turn down such perks, the reality is that they’re counterproductive. Your interns are smart enough to understand that they will not continue to receive this golden treatment once they’re permanent employees. What they want more than anything is meaningful work. If the fun escapades detract from their ability to do a lot of great, meaningful work, then you’ll have done a disservice to them and to your organization.
Article by Steven Rothberg, and courtesy of Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching entry-level jobs and other career opportunities.)