Interns
Celeste Blackburn SPHR
248 Posts
Just read an interesting article about interns from the [URL="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703312504575141770276871524.html?KEYWORDS=when+interns+make+sense"]Wall St. Journal, "When Interns Make Sense."[/URL]
The author argues that interns can be a real asset, especially to small companies, because they bring a fresh perspective. One of the points of the article is that if a company brings on interns, it has "an obligation to give interns a good learning experience, whether they're working for money or school credit."
That takes me back to my last semester in college when I spent two days a week interning for a division of our state government. Most of what they had for me to do was clerical work. Sometimes, I got to go down to the legislature w/the boss. I can't imagine how the actual work that I did there could be considered a "learning experience."
But that was OK by me. The internship was getting me the final credits I needed for a political science minor and I was spending 80% of my brain power that semester writing my senior thesis for philosophy. So I enjoyed the downtime.
I did learn a lot hanging out with the boss. At least once a week I would sit in his office for an hour and we would talk about state politics and political ideologies. Sometimes, the two of us would join another intern from my program and her boss and we would all go to a long lunch where the interns stayed mostly silent and listened to these two well-educated, thoughtful, and irreverent department heads talk about what was going on back at the office. So in that way, it really was sort of like the best poli sci class ever.
I have friends who had internships literally change the course of their careers. Most found an unexpected passion. One realized that she was on the wrong career path.
Do you have interns? What do they do for your company? How much responsibility do you give them?
What's the best/worst experience you have had with an intern?
The author argues that interns can be a real asset, especially to small companies, because they bring a fresh perspective. One of the points of the article is that if a company brings on interns, it has "an obligation to give interns a good learning experience, whether they're working for money or school credit."
That takes me back to my last semester in college when I spent two days a week interning for a division of our state government. Most of what they had for me to do was clerical work. Sometimes, I got to go down to the legislature w/the boss. I can't imagine how the actual work that I did there could be considered a "learning experience."
But that was OK by me. The internship was getting me the final credits I needed for a political science minor and I was spending 80% of my brain power that semester writing my senior thesis for philosophy. So I enjoyed the downtime.
I did learn a lot hanging out with the boss. At least once a week I would sit in his office for an hour and we would talk about state politics and political ideologies. Sometimes, the two of us would join another intern from my program and her boss and we would all go to a long lunch where the interns stayed mostly silent and listened to these two well-educated, thoughtful, and irreverent department heads talk about what was going on back at the office. So in that way, it really was sort of like the best poli sci class ever.
I have friends who had internships literally change the course of their careers. Most found an unexpected passion. One realized that she was on the wrong career path.
Do you have interns? What do they do for your company? How much responsibility do you give them?
What's the best/worst experience you have had with an intern?
