Optimizing intern hiring and managing process – Our journey
About the Author: Shashank Shekhar Singh works as a Growth Hacker intern at Magicpin, a platform where the merchants and users in a locality discover, interact, and transact. He provides insightful details about the intern hiring and managing process of Magicpin.
“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”
Our whole internship program revolved around this concept – from initiation of the idea to the prompt execution, a vast network of over 300 young and enthusiastic market makers aka interns all over India helping millions to discover their locality in a new and best possible way.
The initiation:
For quite some time, we were looking for a way to market and reach maximum users in the easiest and most impactful way possible. One day, after a long discussion, we came to a decision that we need to restructure our Campus Ambassador program. Earlier we used to have few targets and interns needed to do just basic social media promotion. But sometimes, small hacks are enough to create a lot of value for a product in the user’s mind.
The process:
We immediately restructured the current roles and processes, posted the openings, and started the hiring process. It was preferred to be a work from home internship so as to ease the work for Market Makers in execution, and creating the value for our product. We used to take one telephonic interview to get an overview and then if shortlisted, it was preferred that the candidate come down for a face-to-face interaction, as it helped us in judging the communication skills in a much better way, and also helped them understand the core aim of the internship.
What were we looking for?
The interviews were more of an open discussion. We wanted to keep the students in their comfort zone, spot their strengths and weaknesses, and work accordingly. We had discussions regarding various growth hacks on how we can create a value for users through our app, what users need and do on a daily basis, users’ favorite spots, and how we can exploit these opportunities. We were looking for quick, street-smart, and action-driven interns with a strong analytical mind.
The journey:
We were able to hire around 74 interns spread across various cities – including Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Chandigarh, and Jaipur – in the first month (special thanks to Internshala). We used to have various WhatsApp groups for the interns to keep posting ideas like how they helped others, how someone did a transaction, what more they needed from our side and, of course, for the constant motivation they needed.
What we observed:
After 3 months, we realized that at times when we brought an intern and asked her to market the product in a certain locality or area, she was not able to do so to her best capability but when given the freedom to exploit her own resources – her surroundings, circle, and contacts – she was insanely active and contributed much more than our expectations. So, we shed all the restrictions from our side. Of course, we had a final goal to achieve but all the interns could lay down their own roads. We were just like support systems for them, and since then we have been guiding and helping them all along. We also learned a lot of new hacks and ways in which we can reach the current generation in a more organized manner.
Few words for the students:
All those who are looking out for an internship, or something creative to do in their life, they need to keep few things in mind:
● Prefer being action-driven rather than thought-driven.
● Try doing SWOT analysis for given tasks and act accordingly.
● Always be ready to take up challenges and challenge them back with your best efforts.
● Regular self-evaluation is necessary for better performance.
To summarize, we can just say that, “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.”
Planning to start an internship program for your company too? Please post your requirements here.
