My rendezvous with internship programs
About the Author: Amartya Gupta is pursuing B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Karnataka and works as a content writer at Emflux Motors. Varun Mittal (Co-founder & CEO) talks about his experience of working with interns and shares some insightful details.
The corporate world is a cut-throat one – not really one to forgive laziness and ineptitude! One either learns to do it right or you get left behind! An intern is a very important and functional cog in the intricate network of the company. Since most interns are recent college graduates or are in a college, they often bring a whole new fiesta of ideas and practices into a company. They have their own unique perspectives and modus operandi that keeps them a notch apart from normal employees. It is no hidden truth that an adept and effective internship program can do wonders for a company.
When you go through over 250+ resumes of potential interns, spend hours to select the best possible options, and then finally choose the one who seems to be the right fit for your startup, you will realize that hiring is not everybody’s cup of tea. It takes a good measure of skillful understanding & resource management and big portions of patience to select the best possible intern for your company. A good employer understands the potential of the right candidates and taps into the immense pool of talent.
I myself have had a mixed pot, full of working experiences with interns. I have worked with great people with amazing ideas who had the zeal to do something. But then there have been those few who never really settled into their job requirements. I guess, this is the part and parcel of hiring interns for your company. I remember my initial recruitment processes, how daunting it seemed then. There is that constant pressure to select the right intern and not goof it up.
I believe recruiting interns is one of the perfect job cultures in a company. The most useful thing about it is that you can actually see how the interns function in a professional corporate situation. It helps you in understanding the various strengths and shortcomings of the interns. In the end, you can hand pick the best interns with a pre-placement offer. For a company to be stable, it needs to have a well-balanced team. Just as a vehicle cannot move if it has wheels of different sizes, similarly the tempo of a company is imbalanced if the team is not the right fit.
In order to have the best interns, there are a couple of pointers that should be kept in mind like:
• No Freeloader policy: Never hire someone who is incompetent and has bad work ethics. A single rotten apple can spoil the rest. An intern who doesn’t put in his best and still takes the pay is a major de-motivator to the entire team. Such an individual can easily obliterate the team’s focus and work. That is not something you ever want in your company. And in case you do hire one, don’t be scared to cut them loose. Always stick to this policy if you really want a balanced trustable team.
• Clearly define the job requirements: This will help both the company and the candidates in getting legitimate considerations. And while selecting interns try to conduct tests that give them an idea of what they are getting themselves into. This will help you in getting the most motivated and work-ready interns.
• Be involved in the recruitment process: I also feel that as the CEO of my company, it is my duty to hire people no matter what the post. It gives me the satisfaction of living with my choices. Hence, I would suggest that as the executive head, make those hiring choices rather than completely giving over the reins to someone else.
It is impossible to get everything right, so be ready to make mistakes while hiring. However, always learn from your mistakes and never stop figuring out the right decision.
Planning to hire interns for your company? Please post your requirements here.
