How Internships Can Be a Strategy For Hiring Talent

As a business owner, when I first started out, I was wearing lots of hats! Trying to do everything and struggling to focus on I was actually supposed to be doing to grow the business. So I hired an intern from Interconnection (http://www.i4b.eu/), back in 2005, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.  Dounia went on to become our first employee, as Administrator and is now a PA for a senior Director in a Cosmetics company doing very well in her career.

Many internships are funded by colleges or universites and the interns come fully insured, usually free of charge to the company.  Since 2005, I have had 17 interns come through my business, from France, Spain, Poland, Germany, Austria and to date I have actually hired 3 of them!  Today's blog will give both angles - one from the candidate perspective and one from the client perspective and show you why Internships are a great strategy for your career or business and a path to great talent.

There are some great organisations out there who help people with work placements and internships such as the National Learning Network (www.nln.ie), who provide training and upskilling to those people who may otherwise find it difficult to gain employment.  They help people to develop the skills to move forward with their careers and are always looking for companies to take on trainees on an unpaid basis for work experience.

For Companies

If you are a company looking to grow your team, but not in a position to hire someone on a full time permanent basis, you should talk to an internship specialist.  I recommend that you take on interns who are looking for a 3-6 months placement as the time you will invest in training them will be worthwhile, although some interns come for 4-6 weeks. 

I have had interns in my own business help me with data entry, web research, reference checking, sourcing candidates, reporting, PA work and more... Interns are looking to learn the skills they need for the world of work, and they are looking to apply their knowledge from their education.  What better way to give something back and help someone launch their career.  

You may find that the person is brilliant and you can go on to offer them a job, leaving you to focus on what you should be doing!  Whether you are a company large or small then Internships is a path to hiring great talent.  I have just hired a fantastic new team member, who has been working in an unpaid work placement in HR, to gain experience.  Now she has a great job related to HR, Careers and recruitment which is what she wants to do. You can try before you buy with an internship student or work experience placement.  

For Candidates

If you are a job-seeker, then offering to do work experience or an internship with a company, even if you are not being paid is a great idea.  You will get to make valuable contacts in the company at all levels, so even if they are not hiring now, show them what you can do and they may just call you back in when the next job opening comes up. 

You can put the experience on your CV and you will learn new skills in any work experience placement.  An internship very often can lead to a dream job, or can help you refine what career you want to pursue.  You may think that you want to go into a specific industry, but the work experience will soon give you exposure to the reality of that particular field and you may decide to take a new direction. 

I did some work experience in London at 18 years old, in a Marketing agency, and within a week I was being offered a dream job! This launched my career and was the best strategy to get into a competitive industry.   

Has every single intern been fantastic, well no of course not, but I have learnt to really guage their level of interest in the company, the industry I am in and their reason for wanting to do the placement before accepting them into the company.  If they are a match, I then align their career goals with what I can offer them and give them tasks which fit with their goals.  It has to be win-win-win for everyone and you need to dedicate time to training them so that you can both benefit from the experience.

I would love to hear your own views and experience with internships and work placements, so please feel free to leave a comment below.