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Hiring Interns

Question

What are the ins and outs of hiring interns? For how long? For how much? What's expected? What can I expect? And caveats?

Answer

Hiring interns or apprentices can take on many forms and there is no cut and dried formula, but here are a few guidelines based upon our experience:

  • Sourcing interns - interns can usually be easily sourced from large "educational pools" such as local universities, junior colleges, homeschool groups, etc.  Once you start an internship program, it is usually fairly easy to keep it going because existing interns will usually recommend new intern candidates from the same pool they were recruited from.
  • Managing interns - interns need ever bit as much management oversight as a regular employee and often more due to their usual lack of general business experience, so plan on investing the necessary time to coach and mentor them.  It is also best to have published guidelines in terms of expectations, development and training sessions, feedback sessions, compensation, benefits, etc.
  • Compensating interns - in some valuable or highly-sought after experiences, interns or apprentices will be required to pay their mentor for the education they receive (the more time spent "educating" them the more they pay, the more time they spend "working" for you, the more you pay them for their time).  However, in most cases, the employer/mentor pays them a stipend.  The stipend will normally need to cover their cost of living and other general expenses, but usually is not a market wage since you are typically investing more time and energy into them than a regular employee and they typically have a more flexible schedule as they are often attending classes or performing other duties outside of the internship.  Most internships pay exactly the same for all interns to eliminate any concerns with hard feelings over any differences in compensation.
  • Timing of internship - most internships coincide with school schedules as most interns are in an educational program.  As a result, most internships are for one semester or one quarter, i.e. for 3 - 4 months.  Many internships are summer internships between school years and last 10 - 12 weeks.  For interns that are not on a school schedule, 4 - 12 months is a typical timeframe.
  • Converting interns to employees - many internship programs result in a full-time employment offer for the intern.  The main benefit of the internship is the employer and intern can test out the relationship and move to a full employment relationship once certain goals are met or skills demonstrated.  It would typically be best to understand this potential relationship up-front.

phillip bradrick September 13, 2007

For the past several years I have been pursuing higher education and the training that I will need to be a successful business man and entrepreneur. Although I have done college studies I have found that some of the most practical and long lasting knowledge that I have gained has been through internships. Three benefits to internships are: 1) they allow you to master the knowledge you acquire; 2) they allow you to see your own academic areas of weakness as they apply to the real world; 3) they allow you to build valuable working relationships with talented men in your field of interest which often can open doors for further employment opportunities. Although pure academic study is vital, the need for practical exposure to the real world is a must. When the average college graduate gains a position in his field of training, more often then not he has to relearn much of the business because he either did not achieve mastery of the concepts he was taught or what he learned was not relevant to the real working world.

Jonathan Lewis October 5, 2007

Jonathan Lewis:

Thanks so much for this post.
At Seraphim Energy we did an "internship" with a friend of the family 2 summers ago and it was very beneficial for all of us but I was constantly wondering if I was doing it right. We did find that there are some insurance and compensation issues that are mandated on a state level - but pretty easy to deal with. Having the internship package and expectation worked out before hand is really the key. When what you really need is a full time employee, the internship can be painful. You spend a considerable amount of time training someone to work with your system and then the internship is over and they must go back to school. I think it would work best to have project based internships - the intern is doing something that supports normal operation, or enables normal operation to get to the next level.

Another huge consideration for family businesses is bringing someone else into your family life. Make sure that proper boundries are established and the character of your intern has been carefully checked. Let them know that terminating the internship at any moment is completely at your discression.

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