In the midst of the chaotic fast pace of startups, managers and entrepreneurs tend to find just a little bit of time to invest in training interns. Startups need all the resources to function and develop the business as fast as possible, including internships.
On the contrary, in an enterprise context, managers tend to hire many interns to do busywork instead of investing in them. It’s slightly different with startups, as they need to make sure they meet their targets in a short period of time. Therefore startups can really benefit from interns if they train them well. This is the key, training them!
At Crowd Analyzer, we had two rounds of internships during the past two years. We put many things in mind before posting an opening on recruitment platforms. Here’s what we kept in mind before recruiting interns.
Define a purpose
It might seem like an easy thing to write a post on LinkedIn to recruit fresh graduates and senior students. The tweak is to define a purpose from this internship for both; your business and the intern. The first thing people think of while applying is “What’s in it for me?” It’s legit for interns to think of the skills they’ll be acquiring in return of their summer or winter break.
At Crowd Analyzer we created an 8-week-long plan to ensure that our interns achieve their potential and meet learn as much as possible. Because we are the first Arabic-focused social media listening tool, we want to pass on our knowledge and expertise to those who are interested. Interns rarely find a place to learn more about artificial intelligence and machine learning. Our internship program was focused on machine learning and we handed each of the interns several responsibilities.
Hire the right interns
It’s a bit tricky to pick the right intern. You shouldn’t spend a very long period of time screening and selecting the right candidates, but you should invest into having a checklist that includes all the qualities you want in your company’s interns.
At Crowd Analyzer, we have two aspects of selecting the right candidates. First, they have to be extremely interested in machine learning and programming. We select high achievers on an academic and personal level. Second, we concentrate on interpersonal and communication skills. Extracurricular activities reveal that they are ambitious and not just book smart.
Make internship rounds frequent
Launching internships regularly, on a frequent basis, will familiarize candidates with your startup and what you do in the market. Also, with the limited number of startups that offer internships in our field, we acknowledge that students and fresh graduates need more than one chance to join Crowd Analyzer.
Crowd Analyzer has two rounds of internship during summer and winter. We make sure that those who are interested in learning can spend their long break improving their skills and expanding their expertise through hands-on experience.
Don’t have high expectations
Don’t get us wrong, you need to have high expectation from your interns in order to make sure you teach them as much as they can handle. However, don’t always think that they found themselves in your startup. After all, not all interns would want to stay in a startup scene, some might find it difficult to adapt to the fast pace of startups and prefer to get a 9 to 5 job.
