Why You Should Get Yourself Some Interns

This summer countless owners' nieces, vice presidents' nephews, assorted friends-of-friends will venture uncertainly into workplaces across the country and announce that they are the new interns, here to help out until school beckons again in the fall. As clueless as most interns are, employers often rival them in lack of understanding of what an intern is good for and how to hire good ones, as my BNET colleague Elise Craig points out in her post on how to avoid hiring interns from hell.

From the perspective of the intern, a summer job in a business that is connected with his or her field of study is often of nearly as much professional value as a diploma. In a few short months, internships equip academically trained kids with real-world skills, contacts and insights that no amount of classroom study can impart. Not infrequently, interns wind up going to work for their summer employers after graduation. But businesses -- especially smaller ones -- don't often see as much value in hiring interns. That's probably a mistake, and it's likely based on one or more of the following myths:

Myth: Small companies have no business with interns.
Fact: Internships are more commonly offered at big companies, but there's no reason why small businesses can't do the same. Even a one-person company can benefit from an intern. Mom-and-pops may worry about having to provide facilities such as office space and computers. But nothing is wrong with asking an intern to sit at a desk and work on a phone or computer that is temporarily unused by someone on vacation or out-of-town on business.

Myth: An intern is basically an unpaid summer worker able to handle grunt-level duties.
Fact: If you want somebody to fill in for low-level employees on vacation, hire a temp. An intern is looking to prepare for higher-level duties later on. An internship should include some kind of training and serve as an introduction to the field or a specific job. Somebody hired for a summer job is doing it for the money. These employees are fine for jobs like cashiers, servers or salesclerks. But an intern is after knowledge, not a paycheck.

Myth: You don't have time to play nursemaid to some useless wannabe.

Fact: Accountingweb cites one study that found by managing interns instead of doing tasks themselves, a supervisor can free up 225 days a year. Given that the study's author, Matthew Zinman, heads a company that sells tools for running internship programs, make what you will of those results. However, it's not unlikely that a well-selected and -managed intern can at least carry his or her weight.

Finding and selecting a good summer intern can be nearly as challenging as hiring a permanent worker. But if you hire carefully -- hint: avoid nephews -- and plan accordingly, an intern could make this summer easier on you, and possibly give you a line on some valuable future human capital.

Mark Henricks has reported on business, technology and other topics for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, and other leading publications long enough to lay somewhat legitimate claim to being The Article Authority. Follow him on Twitter @bizmyths.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Tambako, CC2.0