Our internship program has become a key strategic priority for Adelsberger Marketing. We talked about the why of an internship program in a previous episode of the podcast, but I wanted to talk about some of the hows that we’ve pieced together along the way that have led us to what I feel is a successful internship program.
The first point to note is consistency. At Adelsberger Marketing, we are going to hire interns to work with us through every semester, summer, spring, and fall. This allows it to become a pattern for us and part of our identity as our company. Also, by keeping it consistent, it allows us to keep learning from our internship program and to avoid becoming rusty at any point in the process. We get referrals from teachers. Building relationships with teachers allows us to get a better quality of student to apply for the program and to spread word about our program to more potential students. Another potential benefit is that it allows us to receive instructor recommendations about specific students that we may not pay enough attention to otherwise. Instructors know students way better than we’re going to get to know them through a series of interviews.
We treat them like adults, and some of them are. Our interns are all college students and likely late in their college experience as well. But not always. Some may be earlier in their college journey, but we try to focus on late college experience interns. We want to treat them like adults. Because of our remote working environment and the working style of our company, we all work somewhat independently, and so the interns do too. We try to communicate with them regularly and check in with them, but they are entrusted to go and do, to learn and to be successful through their own motivation. But we let them start with internal work. All of our interns start with an internal project. Internal projects give them a safe space to start working, both for their self confidence and for our trust in them. We have had interns in the past work on video editing for our company, editing our podcast, working on our onboarding materials, and working on branded slide decks. These types of activities give them a chance to prove themselves in a way that does not endanger our customers’ businesses and allows them an opportunity to make mistakes in a safe space.
After earning trust, we allow them to start working on additional projects, some of which may involve client work. As they earn trust and respect, they earn more responsibility. We want to be an environment, as one intern described, as safe and friendly. We want our team to treat them with respect, but also to give them the freedom to learn. Let them develop new skills in a situation that won’t result in a stressful situation if they make a mistake. Many interns who come to us are having to learn to do something differently from what they usually do, or are taking on their first public facing projects. There is no need to make this a high wire act for them. But we also want interns to be able to see multiple areas of the business. To help with relationships with the staff and allow them to see more of the world of marketing, we have each intern spend time with each staff member learning about their work and how they do it. This builds a relationship and exposes the students to new things. We use this later in the semester as well to see if students want to spend more time in different areas of the business.
And who knows, this could be their opportunity to learn about a role that they love that they never knew existed. We check in often with our interns. I put in an effort to talk with them directly every week or every other week to make sure that they have what they need and to see what they are learning. Being able to interface with leadership is an important way for interns to feel valued, but it also gives me a chance to make sure that we are doing a good job of supporting their learning experience. Sometimes there is a debate whether you should pay interns. You should absolutely pay interns. If you are not in a position to pay interns, even a small amount, you should reconsider starting an internship program. Maybe consider just having job shadow opportunities instead. Paying interns is fair because we expect them to produce some work for us. We also look for ways for them to help us beyond simply being around. Maybe it’s making a delivery or helping us on set. Pay your interns because it increases the commitment between both the company and the intern. A successful internship program is mutually beneficial to both the company and the student.
This should be the goal when you start your program. Think about what values you can bring to one another and how you can bring those values to fruition. With these thoughts in mind and a little bit of leg work, you’ll be on a good track to having a great and successful internship program. If you’re looking to start an internship program, I would love to just chat with you about that. Thank you for listening to the Content Machine podcast. Be sure to subscribe and share this with your friends if you found it helpful.
