Re:Ask HN: Creating an internship program
by asanwal on Thursday September 09, 2010 @07:54PM
(#1677394)
Background - We've had 4-6 interns each of the last few summers from top schools. Amazing talent and helped us really move the ball forward.
Here's our strategy:
- Generally provide stand-alone projects that are not 'busy work' but things that really help us. This is good for us (real work) and good for student (real bullet points for their resume).
- We don't use career services at schools with the exception of a couple that are startup friendly. Most are bureacratic (go fill this out on this portal blah blah blah) and when we use their channels, we get hundreds of 'spray and pray' candidates applying.
- Instead, we target programs and maybe even specific professors who teach classes in areas we're interested in, i.e., "Tell us the best student you have in X from your class." We try to seek interns who have options (they tend to be the best ones). This is not a trivial effort so something to keep in mind.
- Back to bullet 1, since we give the students real work, they tend to have great summers with us (or at least that is what they tell us). These students become our ambassadors on campus for next year. And we've found that these students (1) know what we need/like and how we work and (2) tend to know other people like themselves (smart) and so they refer us really great folks.
- Finally, we use interns as a great recruitment vehicle for full-time (may not be applicable). Dating before marriage is healthy.
Here's our strategy:
- Generally provide stand-alone projects that are not 'busy work' but things that really help us. This is good for us (real work) and good for student (real bullet points for their resume).
- We don't use career services at schools with the exception of a couple that are startup friendly. Most are bureacratic (go fill this out on this portal blah blah blah) and when we use their channels, we get hundreds of 'spray and pray' candidates applying.
- Instead, we target programs and maybe even specific professors who teach classes in areas we're interested in, i.e., "Tell us the best student you have in X from your class." We try to seek interns who have options (they tend to be the best ones). This is not a trivial effort so something to keep in mind.
- Back to bullet 1, since we give the students real work, they tend to have great summers with us (or at least that is what they tell us). These students become our ambassadors on campus for next year. And we've found that these students (1) know what we need/like and how we work and (2) tend to know other people like themselves (smart) and so they refer us really great folks.
- Finally, we use interns as a great recruitment vehicle for full-time (may not be applicable). Dating before marriage is healthy.