Attracting great interns can be a challenge. Many college students are looking for a way to get their foot in the door of a potential employer. It’s not as easy as they may have anticipated, and they’ll often have a difficult time trying to determine which company they want to intern with.
As a business, your goal is to find interns who will bring value to your company, and ideally who you can shape into devoted and talented future employees. Consider the methods you’re using to attract interns, and modify your techniques to ensure you get the best candidates. Here are some ideas on how to find interns for your business:
If you want an honest recommendation about who you should recruit as an intern to your company, start asking college professors. A professor will be able to recommend his or her best students to you directly, and you can approach those students using the professor as a middleman. In general, professors are happy to do whatever they can to help their star students find the best opportunities. As long as you have the success of their students in mind, you should have no problem accessing them via their teachers.
Serious interns want to make the most out of an internship. Offering them simple assistance, such as help crafting a great resume, can sweeten the deal. Think about promises you can make that would appeal to serious, ambitious grads. If you’re recruiting for an unpaid internship, think about a quid pro quo. You can’t expect someone who’s really looking to make a name for themselves to do all that work for nothing but experience. You should be just as grateful to have an intern as they should be to have an internship.