Summer’s here. And while it’s tempting to wile away the next few months poolside with beer in hand, we at SmartRecruiters encourage college students and recent grads to find an internship – and companies to create one!
But if you’re a company looking at a stack of applicants with little or no proven experience, how do make the right hire? Mark Babbit of YouTern insists that an intern’s soft skills - like passion, independence, and versatility – are the attributes that hiring managers need to be on the lookout for. You want the candidate “who will step in with some hustle, an entrepreneurial spirit and a great attitude – and make an immediate impact,” says Babbit. “After all, how do you know which is the best intern to pick when, by default, they have little or no work experience?”
Still, finding the candidate with those key intangibles can itself be a challenge. Nathan Parcells of InternMatch suggests to hone in on your detective skills when interviewing an intern: “Recent grads, and especially current students, don’t typically have deep professional experience,” says Parcells, “so their ability to tell a story of why they’d be a good fit for your company is essential.”
And if you’re a student or recent grad, an internship can go far in equipping you for your eventual career. The folks at GrooveJob point out the valuable exposure an intern gets to their future field. “Not only do you get hands on experience in an office setting and become part of a team, but you will also gain valuable knowledge,” related to your future field, they say. They wisely cite Sean P. Diddy Combs’ internship for New York-based Uptown Records as having given him invaluable early exposure to the industry in which he would eventually excel.
To connect the smart employers with the best interns, SmartRecruiters partnered with the seven best internship job sites:
College.monster.com
Internship positions posted to Monster through SmartRecruiters are featured on this MonsterCollege, which helps recent grads and college students find their first career. Whether graduates pursue careers in government, non-profits, service vocations, start-ups, or the corporate sphere – MonsterCollege helps navigate the job-hunting process.
YouTern
YouTern is dedicated to matching the best young talent to leading organizations through high-impact, mentor-based internships. Visit their blog (The Savvy Intern, named to many “Top Blogger” lists in 2011) and tune into their Twitter weekly chat (#InternPro, Mondays at 9pm ET).
InternMatch
InternMatch.com helps companies find amazing interns using a network of 250+ university and department level partners (ranging from Stanford to MIT) to ensure that every posting receives the right student applications. For companies as large as Nestle and as small as 3 person startups.
CollegeRecruiter.com
CollegeRecruiter.com targets college students and recent grads looking for internships and entry level positions allowing them to apply to jobs, even on a mobile phone.
Internships.com
With over 60,000 internships in over 2,000 locations, Internships.com has a very active community that also consists of career prep resources and internship forums.
InternJobs
InternJobs.com is a global database of internships and entry-level positions for students, recent graduates and career changers. You can search their database by keyword or by location, and employers post internships and entry-level jobs for FREE.
If you haven’t found a summer intern, it’s not too late. There are still two months of summer. And don’t forget, as ambitious students return to campus in the fall, they will be searching these job sites for new local internship opportunities.
Ben Klafter (aka @BizDevBen) is a native of San Francisco, practices martial arts, and is on a quest to partner with all the best recruiting services. Photo Credit Youtern.
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