Our Thought Process on Campus Ambassador Programs and How we run our own Internshala Student Partner Program
Background – Historically we have shied away from publishing Campus Ambassador (CA) programs on Internshala fearing that these programs may not provide a meaningful experience for a student – something which is core to Internshala’s mission.
This could be due to nature of work itself (some CA programs are purely based on students clicking certain links, getting likes for a page, or getting app downloads etc.) or because the program is not managed well (since this requires managing and mentoring a large intern sales workforce remotely).
And given a Campus Ambassador program recruits a large number of students (in hundreds), even one badly managed program can result in a lot of students getting impacted which will hurt their trust in Internshala. We thought it was better to be safe than sorry.
What is changing – The feedback from the community and our own experience of running Internshala Student Partner (ISP) program have made us think that a well-managed campus ambassador program could be a good starting point for many students, including those who are sincere but don’t have anything to show on their resume yet. Our current policy of a blanket ban on all CA programs may be resulting in some really good programs also getting excluded leading to loss of opportunity for students.
We are running a pilot where we would relax this policy and allow select few Campus Ambassador programs meeting our guidelines (see below) to be published on Internshala and see how it goes. We will be closely working with the companies running these programs and students selected for these programs to get feedback on their experiences before deciding on next steps.
Guidelines for Campus Ambassador programs to be accepted for posting on Internshala
Objective parameters:
a. The employer’s account on Internshala must be from an official id, the website link must be provided, the phone number and the Linkedin profile of the employer must be verified.
b. The company should have reasonable presence on the Web (10,000+ Fans on Facebook or followers on twitter; or 10,000+ app downloads; or Alexa rank in India in top 5000)
c. The program must provide for a remuneration (even if it is performance based) to everyone (and not just to say top 3 performers) and it should be clearly mentioned upfront in the post.
d. All the applications for your previous Campus Ambassador post on Internshala (if any) must have been processed and the applicant statuses updated for you to be eligible to post again in future.
Subjective parameters: A member of Internshala team will speak to you to understand these better.
a. The job description – We recommend JDs which are detailed and specific.
b. Learning opportunities in the program for students – programs which provide specific training and mentoring to ambassadors would have an advantage.
c. Selection process – Programs with a fair and well-defined selection process would have an advantage (vs. say those which hire every applicant or which attempt to get free work done from applicants as part of selection)
d. Previous history – The companies which have run successful CA programs in past and have student references available, will have an advantage.
How does Internshala run its own Campus Ambassador program?
We are currently in the 7th edition of our Campus Ambassador program (each edition is ~6 months long and the first one went live in Jan 2014) and we recruit ~1000 student ambassadors colleges all over India. The program is called Internshala Student Partner (ISP) program. We have an in-house dedicated team (3 members) managing every aspect of the program end to end.
The job description
The main responsibility of an ISP is to create awareness about power of meaningful internships and Internshala on her campus. They do so in following ways –
a. Through digital marketing (managing college specific FB page, emails, Whatsapp etc.)
b. Conducting workshops and seminars in colleges (we train ISPs on the content and delivery) or arranging for an online seminar for their college students which is delivered by Internshala team
c. Organising and managing Internshala’s presence in college fests
d. Word of mouth and offline marketing (posters, notices)
In addition, they also participate in various exclusive contests and learn ups organised by Internshala every month. On an average, ISP program requires a student to devote 2-3 hours every week to the program.
Rewards and incentive
a. ISPs are paid for every student registration (whether you get 1 or 100) on Internshala or for every sale of Internshala training programs (whether you make 1 or 100) that happens through them. Similarly, an ISP is also paid for each of the specified activity such as conducting a seminar, setting up Internshala stall during fest etc. The financial incentive for each of these is fixed upfront and communicated to them before the start of the program.
b. There are prizes (cash or goodies) for different contests that run throughout the program.
c. And finally, in addition to the base rewards (described above); the top performing ISPs receive bonus prizes too.
The payout for the ISP program happens every month. Every eligible (some are inactive from day 1) ISP also receives a certificate at the end of the program.
Selection Criteria
Students are shortlisted on the basis of their applications which consist of answers to questions like their motivation behind applying to the program, their past activities in college, and their feedback on Internshala. The shortlisted candidates are required to attend an automated telephonic interview post which they are hired (the selection rate is 5-7%).
Learning Opportunities
We conduct at least one learn-up (online webinars and workshops) every month for our ISPs for their professional development on following topics –
a. Career Kaleidoscope series (Different Internshala team members, say a Developer, HR, Digital Marketing, Graphic Design, Data Scientist give ISPs an overview of that particular career field and what a day in office for them looks like)
b. Workshop on Digital Marketing
c. Workshop on Public speaking & delivering a seminar in college
d. A session on Entrepreneurship and How To StartUp
e. Workshop on Android/Web development
f. A virtual tour of Internshala office and taking them through importance of culture and Internshala culture
In addition, we run different learning based contests (Logo/poster designing, Business Plan contest, Video making contest, Copywriting contest etc.) throughout 6 months and reward the participants and winners.
History
Currently, we are in the 7th edition of ISP program. Each edition is 6 months long and the first one went live in Jan’14.
Links to stories of some of our ISPs are given below –
Vinod Rathor
Govindu Fathima
Vaibhav Kurkute
Aaditya Gogia
Ayush Vatsa
How to post your Campus Ambassador program on Internshala – If you meet the criteria above and would like to invite applications for your Campus Ambassador program on Internshala, please submit the details on this link – https://goo.gl/forms/MZzwzU6x8bGm6cO43
Hope above helps you set up and run a great Campus Ambassador program yourself. Please do write to us on employer@internshala.com if you have any questions or need more clarity on our Campus Ambassador program policy or ISP program.
