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Intern insights Architecture, engineering, and environmental firms looking to bring on interns – that might lead to full-time employees – should make friends with universities. B E S T & B R I G H T E S T
Four steps to success Allyson Willoughby is senior vice president of people and general counsel at Glassdoor. She leads the company’s HR and legal departments and advises that before you undertake the important task of recruiting interns, consider these four tips for success first: ❚ ❚ Develop an internship plan. The best interns are looking for a valuable work experience, and they don’t want to waste their time with an unorganized or disjointed internship experience. Before you offer a student or recent grad an internship, make sure you know exactly what that internship will involve. For instance, the best internships are project-based with clear goals and timelines. Sit down and talk with staff to determine which departments could use interns and how many. Next, brainstorm potential projects that an intern could work on and realistically complete (or at least complete a portion of) during a semester’s worth of work. ❚ ❚ Make the work meaningful. Ask yourself what potential interns will gain from their experience with your company. In addition to possible income, the best interns will expect to receive work experience, connections, knowledge and skills that they can leverage to help them get their next jobs. Many interns hope to get an opportunity to contribute to or create a work product that they can show other potential employers. Regardless of how much you decide to pay your interns, make sure you can articulate why this opportunity is valuable to them. If you’re going to offer something unpaid in exchange for college credit, don’t forget to check to make sure you’re in compliance with labor laws. ❚ ❚ Use internship recruiting sites. Once you’ve determined how the internship will be structured and the value it will offer to potential interns, start communicating the opportunity online, just as you would with other job openings. But in addition to posting it on places such as social media sites, job search sites and your company’s careers site, check into internship-specific job sites or go directly to university career centers. ❚ ❚ Build relationships with higher education venues. Especially if you’re interested in hiring local talent, go close to the source: the colleges and universities located nearby. Get to know faculty members in the departments where you’re most likely to find interns that fit your needs, as well as professionals in the career center. Invite these people to lunch or to take a tour of your office, provide guest speakers from your company for their classes or career programs, and participate in campus career and internship fairs. When you need an intern, ask your higher education contacts for referrals.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
I nterns can be the lifeblood for many compa- nies. They’re eager, closely connected to new technologies, and willing to share ideas. Interns can be the future of your company, so it makes sense to hire the smartest and most capable. But how? “One of the many benefits of a summer internship is that it is really a three-month interview for both the student and our managers.” BUILD UNIVERSITY RELATIONSHIPS. Kim Pattillo, uni- versity relations, CH2M HILL (Englewood, CO), a 25,000-person global consulting, design, design/ build, operations, and program management firm, says that they have a centralized university relations team that works with targeted univer- sities to help students learn about CH2M and the opportunities they have to offer. “Students respond really well to our global in- ternship program which is designed to supple- ment the hands-on learning of their internship with professional development,” she says. “Per- sonally, I believe one of the best strategies is to understand what students are looking for in an employer and a career. It’s important to know that it can change with each class and there can be regional/school difference.”
Kim Pattillo, University Rela- tions, CH2M HILL
Heidi Thiede, Director of Marketing & Business Development, BLT Architects
See INTERNS , page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER AUGUST 31, 2015, ISSUE 1118
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