Hire Interns Today!

Do you have reduced budgets? Are you getting pressure to offshore work? Are you restricted from hiring full-time employees? Consider hiring interns.

In tough financial times, it can be very hard for new college graduates to find employment. I have been very successful at both helping new college graduates get training and get a foot in the door as well as helping companies get more affordable help and have a chance to qualify future employees.

Here are some tips in using interns:

• Look at graduates from non-name schools with degrees in the areas you need
• Find people with good attitudes and good communication skills
• Don't do long interview cycles
• Find a contract house that will manage their employment
• Free up more senior full-time staff from doing ineffective tasks
• Expect to spend some time training
• Hire a group at one time

In tough times, employers hiring full-time employees often pick employees with the best pedigrees. There are a lot of great candidates with great skills that went to lesser known schools. I often find candidates through referrals from someone who knows a graduate working at a local gym or restaurant. The candidate much rather be working in a job that will provide them with experience pertinent to their long-term goals.

I typically will interview candidates for at most 30 minutes on the telephone before making them an offer. You cannot expect them to have great expertise in your product. The idea is that you will train them. I most screen for basic knowledge (tell me about a college project) and I screen for attitude and communication skills. You should know fairly quickly if they will be effective and you will not risk much if you learn there is not a match after a month.

I tend to find these interns through referrals but have them managed through a contract house because they are not full-time and they have already graduated from school (so it is not a co-op). Reputable contract houses can provide low end management including paying employer contributions and workman's comp for about 25% overhead. Many also will provide the employee with the ability to purchase their own healthcare.

You should be able to have the interns target work that frees up senior full-time employees to work on projects that require their experience and skill. While you will have to train the interns, a little investment will go a long way. Try to hire them in groups so you can train many at one time thereby lowering the overhead. In the end I have hired many of the interns for full-time employment at the end of 6-12 months.

This will be a win-win for the intern and for your company.

More later ...