Graduate Interns: New Roles, Rules and Resources

My Dear Reader,
As a facuty who see graduating students and as on who has recruited graduates over the years whilst doing duty in the corporate world , there has been a change in the kind , type and quality of the graduating lot.

However to know what are the seemingly ,'New roles , Rules and Resources enjoy your read below as you come across some significant shifts.
Happy reading
A.S.Prasad


Graduate Interns: New Roles, Rules and Resources
by Greg Williams and Stuart H. Weinstein

Most companies have made bad hiring decisions because they weren't able to validate an employee's performance. Since today's interns may be tomorrow's employees, getting access to and a sneak peek at potential talent provides progressive organizations with a distinct competitive advantage.

One of the best indicators of future performance is past performance. Yet many companies are not aware of all the skills and experiences interns have, let alone what new roles they might conceivably play. Given increasing competition for interns, talent managers must move beyond traditional mindsets and recruiting approaches if they are to set the stage for successful intern experiences. When coupled with recommendations from university faculty members, internships provide an excellent means by which to assess potential candidates' suitability and to see how graduate students perform in the workplace.

Graduate students who have progressed from undergraduate to graduate studies without a period of full-time work may have little or no related experience to include on their resume or curriculum vitae. Thus internships become an advantage to both parties, as they bridge a gap - between what the students have amassed in terms of completed coursework and on-the-job experience - by offering opportunities to learn and exhibit real-time application of skills, knowledge and attitudes.

Recruiting Practices Then and Now

Full-time employee recruiting practices have changed a great deal in recent years - for instance, with the advent of social networking - but intern recruitment practices have not. Traditional processes are still the most popular.

Typically businesses recruit interns by contacting a college or university career planning or internship office and indicating they would like to host interns in their work units. Students apply for the available positions and are interviewed. This passive approach is similar to traditional recruiting and interviewing processes, but companies cannot rely on this method alone.

They need to build ongoing relationships with colleges and universities that go far beyond internships. This approach usually has a number of similarities with corporate business development, a strategy that emphasizes building long-term relationships with clients, subcontractors and other enterprises. Forward-looking companies provide guest speakers in classes, access to resources and equipment in their industry, service on college and university committees and boards, and more. For example, Booz Allen Hamilton is taking this approach and has built a successful partnership with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

In most companies, it would not be necessary to commit a dedicated resource to oversee the internship program; however, most colleges and universities welcome a coordinator for these activities so they have a single point of contact. Further, if the program follows the procedures employed for in-processing, supervising and evaluating regular employees, the intern's supervisor will be more comfortable with the process, and this will better enable the intern to blend into the organization's daily routine.

Colleges and universities are more inclined to look favorably upon businesses that meet their academic needs, and they are equally willing to provide additional services in exchange for meaningful student internship placements. Therefore, the aforementioned approach takes a more long-term outlook, which may be too slow for many commercial organizations. However, it does seem to prove to be more effective.

In the past, graduate interns were stereotyped as young and lacking any paid professional experience, with few relevant skills, such as formulating job expectations, navigating workplace politics or demonstrating professional etiquette. It was often assumed that they had little idea what they wanted to get out of an internship and thus had few, if any, goals for the experience. This led many employers to think interns were of little value to their organizations. Subsequently, interns were relegated to sitting around unsupervised with little meaningful work to do. In a worst-case scenario, interns were given clerical tasks or work on projects that no one else wanted to do. Things are different today.

"Project teams were pleasantly surprised to discover that graduate interns were able to make significant contributions to training projects because of their expertise in instructional design and adult learning theory, as well as their maturity and wealth of other work experience," said Deborah Petska, director of workplace learning at Danya International Inc.

To provide the most realistic experience for the intern, it is beneficial to mirror a job setting, including a resume or curriculum vitae review, which may include courses taken; interviews; task assignments; formal and informal evaluations and feedback; and recommendations for improvement. Tasks should be assigned that will provide the intern with opportunities to reinforce academic courses taken. This likely will require some pre-planning. Supervision and follow-through will provide a relevant and meaningful outcome for the intern as well as the sponsoring organization.

The New Intern Profile: What They Want

Some talent leaders may not think internship programs are a good strategy to recruit experienced candidates. But one of the fastest-growing segments in the college demographic is graduate students of a nontraditional age. Today's interns may be in their late 20s or older, working full time, attending classes part time or potentially married and have other responsibilities besides their academic studies. These students also may possess a great deal of work experience. For example, at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, some of the graduate interns are so experienced that they could teach some classes in their program.

Graduate interns are typically career oriented and motivated to succeed. They're usually interested in capturing genuine learning experiences that will add to their knowledge, skills and competencies. Further, they want to gain experience working on projects in which they can claim a legitimate experience, one they can use to enhance their professional portfolios. In some cases, interns may actually have had more experience in one particular area, such as technology, than a number of employees at the internship site.

What Companies Want

Ultimately, companies want the opportunity to find qualified interns who they can potentially hire as full-time employees. They want interns who are capable of doing professional-level work. But many talent leaders charged with running intern programs underestimate the amount of time and effort it takes to recruit, select, supervise and evaluate quality interns. Further, if the only opportunity organizations can see in hosting interns is to procure various sources of free labor, they are taking the wrong approach, one that will only hurt them in the end.

Internships used to mean staff augmentation, with or without compensation, for the organization providing the opportunity. That approach yielded little benefit to the students if the work they performed was not challenging or their presence was viewed as a burden to the company's managers. The most unproductive results came from companies that thought of interns as an extra pair of hands to do errands. The organizations that benefited the most from hosting interns made an effort to create learning environments that reflect the same work assignments - usually on a smaller scale and under supervision; performance assessments; and outcomes their regular employees receive.

They Work if You Work Them

Managing interns effectively is not much different than managing full-time employees. It's critical that interns have an effective orientation to the organization as well as an initial training period in which to get up to speed. This is especially helpful to establish ground rules and set a positive tone for the experience. As with regular employees, clear, effective communication with interns is critical to promote their success. It's important to establish regular meetings to assess interns' progress, give them the opportunity to ask questions and assist them with any challenges they may be experiencing.

It's also helpful to ask the intern what he or she hopes to gain from the experience. This can help to clarify the intern's goals and determine which ones or how many are feasible to accomplish during the internship.

First and foremost, interns should have meaningful work to do. Since meaningful is a relative term, it is important to know that everyone's motivation is different. What motivates one person may not motivate another. Interns should have appropriate resources, information, supervision and support to complete any assigned work successfully. They should have close supervision, ideally by someone who can mentor them.

When it comes to internships, there are a number of benefits for both sponsoring organizations and interns. Interns benefit by getting professional-level experience they can add to their career portfolios. Companies benefit because interns provide them with fresh perspectives, new ideas and necessary competencies. More important, talent leaders have the opportunity to connect with prospective employees early in the recruitment cycle in a low-risk situation.

The hiring process to bring interns onboard full time doesn't need to be different from that of a regular candidate. Interns who complete their internships successfully should have to interview for full-time positions. However, each intern would have the benefit of documented experience within the company, a period of performance and a strong idea of what the company really wants from its talent. Effective organizations already have processes in place to orient and support new hires, so talent managers could conceivably adapt these same systems and use them to support interns.

Successful companies are approaching intern recruitment from a business development angle. They are engaging universities in a wide variety of ways that go far beyond the actual internship. The biggest challenge talent managers face when engaging this demographic is ensuring their organizations sincerely believe interns have new skills to offer and can play engaging and beneficial roles in the company.


[About the Authors: Greg Williams is director of and clinical assistant professor in the instructional systems development graduate program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Stuart H. Weinstein is a senior managing consultant with IBM human capital management training solutions.]