This is particularly true in the IT department, where good help is still in short supply. Many IT folks have learned to use interns quite successfully, and these experiences offer useful lessons for all IT managers. If followed, these practices hold the promise of providing IT managers with well-prepared, bright, fresh talent that has the ability to learn quickly and provide some temporary and even long-term quality staff.
If you are considering bringing an intern into your IT department, your first step should be to talk to someone in HR--internships are often arranged by your company, and many HR departments offer a variety of internships. There are internships that introduce high-school students to the tech world, skills-based internships targeting nondegreed workers, minority- and women-centric internships, and internships with the aim of recruiting soon-to-graduate new hires. You can find internship programs on the Web (see "Internship-Related Resources"). Universities often act as conduits between interns and businesses, focusing on job placement for the soon-to-graduate student. They provide direct competition to costly alternatives for meeting staffing needs--headhunters and Internet job-search sites. There are also what has come to be known as S-to-C (school-to-career) agencies, generally nonprofit organizations that are started by local businesses looking to meet their staffing needs while giving back to the community. Lesli Smith, work-based learning coordinator at the BayScholars Internship Project, an initiative of Workforce Silicon Valley in San Jose, Calif., places younger students, generally community-college and high-school students, in Silicon Valley enterprises. Although most of the student interns aren't looking for long-term employment, Smith says, the companies that use the service understand the greater benefit. "They tell me, 'We're building a work force,' " Smith says.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Although it is difficult to analyze the cost-benefit of an individual intern, the immediate financial benefits are clear and easy to document. Here's something to show when trying to convince your boss that your IT department needs an intern: Interns are paid less than entry-level, contract or temp workers--period. Add to that the savings in health insurance and other employee benefits. Even more attractive, some internship programs, such as the Student Development and Cooperative Education program at San Francisco State University, let your company put a one-time or biweekly "grant" into a university trust account, from which the student payroll is drawn. That means FICA, SSI (Supplemental Security Income) and EDD (Employment Development Department) payments are handled by the university, while your company enjoys a capital-expense tax deduction. And at San Francisco State, as at other universities, each intern is covered under worker's compensation, and term life and health insurance are provided.
Internships also provide a way for you to tap into the talent pool of highly experienced, well-educated international students who otherwise are not permitted to work in the United States. The INS provides for CPT (curricular practical training), which means you can arrange an internship in which an international student receives credit and may be compensated for his or her work. The student gets much-needed experience and makes invaluable connections, and you get to benefit from the special skills the student brings (for details, go to www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/index.htm).
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FYI
The computer and data-processing services industry employs the greatest number of IT workers: In 1996 CDPS companies employed 26.9% of all IT workers; by 2006 the CDPS industry is projected to employee 39.3%, or nearly two out of every five core IT workers. --U.S. Department of Commerce
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Then there are the benefits of having a newly minted graduate in place to try out as a potential hire. If you are looking to fill permanent staffing needs, this temporary agreement gives you the time to see if the fit is good. A student intern, unlike some contract or temp workers, brings the latest in knowledge and theory to your team, at a fraction of the expense. And how many little projects are being ignored in your department because no one has time to see them through? An intern might be perfect for short-term projects. At the same time, your experienced staff can be freed up to do more technical work.
Team Approach
There are three keys players in any internship -- the internship coordinator, the company and the student -- and each player has personal goals for the internship. The student is looking for credits and experience, maybe a job offer. The internship coordinator wants to attract new students and community support for the program. The company wants to ensure productivity and develop potential employees.
For the internship to be successful, however, there have to be common goals as well. These should be clearly outlined before the internship begins, and to set the tone of professionalism that will carry through the course of the internship, according to Joe Schuman, director of the Student Development and Cooperative Education program at San Francisco State. As soon as a university internship is arranged, "the employer and the student should sit down and write up a list of objectives, which they then show to a faculty member," Schuman says. "The university might offer some suggestions, then all three sign off before the internship begins."
The role of the internship coordinator, whether at a university or an S-to-C project, begins long before these objectives are agreed upon. In addition to providing an education, the university is responsible for finding a good match between students and internship opportunities. Successful S-to-C projects are constantly reaching out to the community to maintain a database of opportunities and student profiles.
Schuman adds that the university's responsibility includes preparing the students for employment -- from résumé writing and interview techniques to strategies for dealing with stresses in the workplace and job-retention skills. Also, any internship coordinator worth his or her salt will guide the internship with frequent follow-up calls and provide open avenues of communication to ensure the internship is a success for both the student and the company. A successful program will provide for a faculty or staff supervisor to visit the site during the internship to evaluate the student's performance and to ensure that both the employer and the student are satisfied and that criteria are being met for earning school credit when possible.
As for the company's responsibility, your most detailed work is done in the preparation before and evaluation after the internship. What do you need an intern for? Are you looking for long-term staffing solutions or do you need help with a short-term project? How long do you expect the internship to last and what compensation are you offering? Who are you going to accept as interns? Do you require a certain grade-point average or that a student complete particular course work to be considered for the internship?
After defining your criteria and choosing an intern, you must identify a meaningful project that the intern can contribute to and learn from.
To provide honest and timely feedback during the internship, the supervisor must offer guidance and mentoring for the intern. Successful internship programs require interim reports from both the supervisor and the intern. It is also up to you to notify the internship coordinator of any issues arising from the intern's performance that might jeopardize this or future internships.
The most important step comes at the end of the internship in the form of a thorough and standardized evaluation of the student's performance. The internship coordinator should provide you with a survey to rate both the program and the intern's performance, but it would be a boon to you and your HR department if you used an internal evaluation to record the intern's performance and to account for the time and money you put into the project.
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FYI
Most IT workers get their education from four-year colleges; other paths include degrees from two-year community colleges, special university/community college one-year programs designed to upgrade the skills of IT workers, private-sector certification programs, in-house training, computer user groups and Internet forums. -- U.S. Department of Commerce
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The interns have the most to gain or lose in the relationship. In most cases, the internships will be the first items on their résumés in their chosen professions. The interns need to be very clear going in what they want to get out of the relationship. Are they looking for full-time offers at the end of the run? Can they get by on the compensation offered? Once they start their assignments, successful interns not only make the most of the learning opportunities provided by the internship -- they ask questions and let the supervisor know if there are any problems or issues that can't be solved without intervention.
A Project Worth the Price
"Most internships are a combination of grunt work -- entry-level work -- and projects," according to the BayScholars Internship Project's Smith. "Add to that an education component, part of which is exposing the intern to all aspects of the industry." Plebes come in and veterans go out -- as long as the intern is mentored and the internship is monitored, the real-world experience benefits the intern as much as the company providing the lesson. For most companies that participate, internships are more than just a well-kept secret for extracting in-demand talent -- internships have become a way to engage in a partnership with universities and internship coordinators, a primary source of future employees.
Elizabeth D. Liddy is a professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University and director of its Center for Natural Language Processing. She is the faculty supervisor on internships for school's three master's programs.
Patricia Thomas is associate editor of Network Computing. Send your comments on this article to liddy@syr.edu or pthomas@nwc.com.
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