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It’s summertime—or intern time in the business world—when organizations get help and energy from young people who are eager to gather work experience and show off their talents to prospective employers.
Internships have become such a vital part of students’ experience that more than 62% of college graduates in the class of 2023 had done at least one internship, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
“We tell our students all the time,” said Enjoli Hampton-Brown, senior associate director of career services at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Indianapolis, “that an internship should be about gaining real-world applications, taking all the theory and things that you’re learning in the classroom and being able to demonstrate that you can apply it when asked to do whatever that assignment or project may be.”
Meanwhile, internships have become one of the top ways for employers to recruit. Five years ago, roughly 73% of employers said they use a student’s grade-point average as a filter. Today, that’s about 40%, according to NACE. Instead, employers look at academic majors first, followed by internship experience, industry experience and students being able to demonstrate their skills and competencies.
IBJ asked employers, interns, internship coordinators and others about the best practices for bringing on interns. Here’s what they said.
Pay the interns—because not everyone can afford to work for free.
When Hampton-Brown talks to companies looking to hire interns, she starts with three points: Pay the interns, develop a solid program and have a designated internship coordinator.
“We tell them that to get quality candidates, you want to be able to pay the intern,” she said. “So they need to look at their budget, their structure, to see if that’s feasible for them to do. Oftentimes, we’ll get questions as to what’s the typical internship pay? So we do track that information to try to give them what their competitors are doing in that particular field when they ask those questions.”
The National Association of Colleges and Employers has called on Congress to pass legislation requiring internships to be paid.
“Students, institutions of higher education, employers and the economy will all benefit from interns being paid, and legislation is needed to make it so,” the organization said.
(The three internships mentioned in this article are all paid.)
Establish specific goals for your interns—and your company.
Hampton-Brown offers a list of questions to ask: What are the overall goals? Why does the company want to do an internship program? What is the return on investment for the company? Is it that you want this to be a feeder program, a sourcing program into your full-time hires?
As for student learning outcomes: What will the student get from it? What will they learn and be exposed to? “Because that’s really what students are looking at when they’re reading job descriptions,” she said.
Give interns a thorough onboarding experience, including setting expectations immediately.
Bryan Spisak, director of business systems and talent for the Indianapolis Indians, has been hiring interns for the team for more than a dozen years. He hires 12-15 full-time interns to work for the ballclub from February to the end of September when the minor-league baseball season ends, and he also hires game-day interns.
When interns join the organization, they go through a two-day orientation during which Spisak and another person on the staff go through all the expectations for the season. The interns get to meet the staff so they know whom they will be working with.
“My role in the process is to let them know what the Indians organization is in general, what the vision is of the company,” Spisak said. “For instance, we’re all about the fan experience. So I need to convey that during orientation and let them understand, what are the priorities of the organization and where do they fit in? Then, when they go to their departments, that’s where they really get into what they’re going to be responsible for.”
Provide practical experience.
Internships must be about more than filing and getting coffee. Ivy Tech Community College student Victor Tapia is interning this summer with Siemens, a technology company focused on, among other things, automation of buildings. Tapia climbed down from a ladder where he was changing a defective damper controller that regulates airflow to talk to IBJ.
“I went up there, changed it out and then we plugged into the thermostat, and we’re able to communicate with it,” he said. “That’s an example of what I’ve gotten to do. And there’s a variety of tasks that I’ve gotten to see already, and I’ve enjoyed all of them, and I’m glad to be here.”
Will Samples, the service operations supervisor who serves as Tapia’s internship coordinator, said a good internship starts with the relationship between the company and the college.
“And then it turns into meeting people that might be a good fit,” he said. “Victor is definitely a great fit.
“I let [interns] see the problems that I’m trying to solve and be a part of the solution, and Victor is certainly doing that,” he said. “I treat [interns] like a valuable partner of our team because they are, and I don’t just give them trivial tasks. I try to give them a guided learning experience.”
Find out interns’ specific interests and, if possible, tailor at least part of the internship to those interests.
Kylie Stine had three internships when she was a Butler University student from 2017-2020 and found them all rewarding in their own way. Now, she’s community marketing manager for Forty5, the company that owns The Vogue nightclub and presents the summer Rock the Ruins concerts, and she supervises interns. Stine tries to make the experience as comprehensive as possible for the students who work for her.
If her interns have a specific interest in some aspect of marketing, she makes sure they get exposed to that. If her interns want a lot of instruction, she provides it. If the interns have an opinion or observation, she wants to hear it.
“If someone’s interested in social media or email or influencer marketing, for example, I can give them more projects that fuel what they’re looking to learn,” she said.
Andrew Spegal, a Purdue graduate who’s interning this year with the Indianapolis Indians in business operations, said he wanted to learn as much as possible about the team’s finances. And he has.
“Looking into the invoicing side of our team just kind of gives you a whole perspective of all the accounts that are coming in and out of the Indians and basically how the whole business functions,” Spegal said.
Teach interns the lingo.
Stine said businesses need to remember that interns have to learn before they can talk the talk. “When I was an intern, and even in all of my jobs that I’ve had, I go in and I’m like, ‘I don’t know what these terms are, what these acronyms are.’ Now, I try to help the interns feel empowered to ask those types of questions but also give them a heads-up on things,” Stine said.
Have a handbook, software or webpage that explains company policies and procedures.
Give interns an organization chart so they can learn the different parts of the business and encourage them to meet people from all departments. “That’s always something that I loved in all of my internships,” Stine said. “Even if I had a marketing job, meeting with someone in the finance department or meeting with someone in sales, meeting with someone in leadership, just to find out how different departments work together.”
Give interns a long-range project.
In her first internship, Stine was assigned to plan a company fundraising event. She and the other interns were given the autonomy to work together and mold the project.
“It’s a really good way for interns to showcase their creativity and their unique skills,” she said. “Letting them shine and show their experiences and their strengths in a real way and an impactful way for the business is really cool.”
Provide mentorship and solid supervision throughout the internship.
“I think it’s important that the interns get that one-on-one time with their direct supervisor early in the process,” Spisak, of the Indians, said. “Without that one-on-one time, without the attention early on, the interns seem to drift because it is tough for a young individual to take the initiative without any type of guidance.”
Tapia, the Siemens intern, said one of the things he appreciates about his internship is getting regular, clear guidance.
“I had never done another internship before,” he said, “but I was in the military, and I did a lot of programs. Sometimes you felt lost, and you wouldn’t get communicated with until the very end. You were almost expected to know what you were doing. I think interns should definitely have a couple of people available to guide them and be available to answer any questions at any phase of the process.”
Get the intern involved in the company culture.
Almost everyone interviewed for this article made this point: If there’s a meeting, a social gathering, a luncheon, invite your interns and let them feel like a part of the organization.
“Even if I wasn’t working on a project, I had a lot of interest in learning,” Stine said. “Being able to be in on meetings and projects that weren’t necessarily part of the internship job details helped me. So now I tell interns, ‘If you’re interested in sitting in on this or learning more about that, that can be really helpful.’”•
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