For recruiters, an internship program can be a prime opportunity to show off company culture and employer brand, get people excited about what you're building, and to grow a diverse org. For managers, this means gaining an extra team member (or a few), tackling those projects you've been putting off, and giving employees exposure to management experience.
Hiring your first intern can be confusing – deciding which teams to hire for, how to compensate, getting executive buy-in. We spoke with Entelo's Loni Spratt, who developed the student program at her previous company, to learn the tricks for building one designed to hire.
Kat: Hey Loni, great to have you on another Entelo webinar. It's been a while! Tell us – what have you been up to?
Loni: I'm very excited about this webinar! I've been busy recruiting for my own team and preparing for some upcoming speaking engagements. I presented at Gainsight Pulse in May, Greenhouse Open last week and will be speaking at Wonder Women Tech and PIHRA's HR Talent & Technology.
Well I'm glad we were able to lock you down for our event! That's awesome. This webinar comes just in time for graduation season. Can you share a bit about your experience hiring interns?
I may be the head of Entelo's customer success team now, but I also have experience managing an intern team. That was my first management role earlier in my career when I worked for a boutique entertainment talent management firm in Los Angeles. I built the intern program from scratch and managed the interns directly. I'm also currently working on building an intern program for my team at Entelo.
The biggest challenges for me when I did this the first time around was having limited access to resources and tools. There weren't a lot of useful ways to find interns years ago as there are now. I remember posting Craigslist ads and hoping someone great applied. These days, you have sites like Looksharp and The Muse to help you with the heavy lifting.
How do you think many of today's companies are missing out on this rich talent pool?
I've learned three key lessons managing an internship program.
Ready for the full story on how you can start building your own internship program? Join us for the webinar!