Over at the Intuit QuickBase blog today, I give some tips on managing your interns, including finding out what they’re hoping to get out of the experience so you can help them get it; assuming they won’t know some really basic stuff about how offices work and giving more guidance than you normally would; and not cutting them too much slack just becuase they’re not being paid much.
You can read all the details here.
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I love the title of this post.
I tried to find a ridiculous picture that would work well to accompany it, but failed.
For some reason I expected a picture of lemurs from the title.
No idea why.
Typo in point #2
“…employee. Make sure you’re your expectations and goals for their time…”
Good article.
I have interns working for/with me at my job in a global nonprofit organization and am also interning a day at week at another organization, so I see it from both sides.
I think interns, or at least good interns, should like clear and frequent feedback. And the feeling that they are either learning something new or contributing in the organization in some way.
One thing I missed in my last internship was lack of connection to staff apart from my direct supervisor, so at my job I try to have interns attend as many meetings with me as possible, just to get exposure to different aspects of our organization.
This is a really helpful post on something I really struggle with as a team manager. I am constantly in fear that my interns aren’t getting anything out of their experience. So much so, that I think sometimes i give them BETTER tasks than I give staff because I want them to be fulfilled. I’m trying to reign that in and realize that part of what they are learning is that every job has some not fun stuff associated with it. Thank you.
And remember, too, that the people you most care about retaining aren’t your interns, but rather your full-time staffers (assuming that they’re good and worth retaining). So while it’s good to pay attention to your interns’ fulfillment, it can’t be at the expense of your regular staffers!
Like what AAM stated above, most of the time, interns just want to and are willing to do anything to get their hands on something. When I did an unpaid internship, I was rarely given any work to do and the work I did do only took like 10 mins, which I had to make it last a whole week. I didn’t mind copying, answering phones or anything. With that said, any practical experience would help interns to, not just the most glamorous projects.
I like the point Alison made about teaching them the basics of office protocol – it can be easy to forget that we weren’t all born knowing how to navigate the workplace.
And it’s the little things they don’t cover in school.
1. If your print job used the last of the paper, refill the tray even if you don’t need any more copies right now.
2. Initiative is great, but until you are granted authority don’t take it upon yourself to make “improvements.” Suggestions, fine (if made politely) but there may be reasons things are done a certain way – you don’t have all the information. Maybe you’re right and then you get the green light to make changes and everyone will love you – that’s why you ask.
3. Show respect for the hierarchy; fake it if you have to. Don’t roll your eyes when the COO is speaking to you and don’t joke about how you’ll get something done tomorrow if you aren’t too hung over. You can be friendly to the people for whom you work, but you aren’t friends. Learn this distinction early and you’ll be way ahead of the game.
4. Watch and listen. I’m sure you have fabulous ideas and tons of theory – but if you watch and listen more than you talk you’ll learn both what to do, and what not to do. I dare say at this stage in the game you may learn more from the knuckleheads at work than the performers…take advantage of the cautionary tales.
and most important of all – and I cannot stress this enough…get this tattooed if need be, but…
5. Just because you have a Facebook page and a smart phone does NOT qualify you for IT. DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING! (without consent)
“5. Just because you have a Facebook page and a smart phone does NOT qualify you for IT. DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING! (without consent)”
haha. This could also be directed at the managers, however. Just because your intern (or any employee under 25) has Facebook and a smart phone does not mean they know how to fix the server when it goes down, or how to retrieve that document that you forgot to save. Please stop asking!!
Also, for #1. The do not teach clearing paper jams from industrial sized copiers in school.
(1) is fine if the printer is such that you can easily see when collecting your print job that it has used the last paper. For all the tray-fed printers I’ve worked with, the “out of paper” light only comes on when you try to print something after the last paper has been used. One would have to explicitly yank out the tray and look for it being empty.
It you’re making more than 100 copies, CHECK THE PAPER TRAY! It only takes a few moments, and even an engineer could do it! (I can say that because I work with engineers and some of them do refill the paper trays.)
Hmmm. I like #5. I feel like there’s a story there.
Please show interns where the restroom is located!
Tell them if you want them to answer the phone
I really wish you;d added a Satan’s Intern reference.
I love this post!
Reminds me, when I was at the beginning of my internship, my manager asked me that he needed help cleaning/organizing the papers off his desk and dusting his shelves with a big grin on his face. I said, “sure” since I didn’t have anything else to do and plus, I secretly thought his office did look like a mess and I’m such a neat-freak, thank goodness. About a week later, I mentioned it to him again since he hadn’t let me help him out yet. To my surprise, he said he was only teasing me. It was after this that I actually started to get some good projects to do.