Great Internships Attract Great Interns

Have you ever wondered how to get interns to beg to work for you company?  Every wondered why some businesses have a line of interns waiting to be hired while you struggle to get one measly resume?

Setting up a great internship program by providing educational opportunities to your intern and on the job training will go a long way in helping you with recruiting interns.  There are several factors involved in being sure that a company sets up an internship program that will attract great interns.

First, and foremost, your internship program must offering challenging work.  By definition, an internship (like an apprenticeship) is an opportunity for an intern to learn on the job and take the skills he or she learns on to future employment.  A good internship, where interns are put on projects that can be included on a resume will go a long way towards attracting top notch talent.  Work that includes photocopying, filing, data entry and taking notes, no matter how big and impressive the company is likely to not attract many interns.

Second, by going directly to colleges and universities for recruiting interns a business owner is going to have the best opportunity to find the best talent.  By creating relationships with university and college career services centers the business will have direct access to the students who want to take an internship in the specific field the business owner is offering an internship.  Additionally, these relationships with college career services will provide a steady stream of interns for the business owner long term.

Third, by providing access to decision makers within a company and advertising this in the job posting will increase the chances of getting both more and better candidates applying for an internship.  The more an intern can be involved in how a business actually runs by working side-by-side with decision makers (versus low level management or even simply employees) the better (and more desirable) the internship opportunity becomes.

So by creating an internship program that provides an incredible learning opportunity for the intern, a business will inevitably attract great interns.  In turn, as the internship program grows and word gets out to both potential interns and the schools’ professors and career services centers that an internship with your company is one that the intern will learn and grow at, more interns will be scrambling for an opportunity to work with your business.