

Ask HN: How do you go about hiring interns? - ruswick

I've been searching for an internship for several months, and am finding it incredibly difficult to get any response, even though I believe that I'm easily qualified for many of them. For anyone who has hired interns recently, how do you go about it? What do you look for when finding inters? What are your expectations for interns?
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caw
I had a co-op position while at school, and I found the opportunity through
the school's co-op/internship office. They had system like Monster where you
could post your resume to positions, except they were only looking for interns
from my school.

A friend of mine just got hired as an intern at my work. We needed someone and
I knew he was looking. Everything worked out on both sides and he accepted.

Expectations for interns, at least in my experience:

1) You're going to get trained. There's a 99% chance you don't know what we
want you to know

2) You're going to learn quickly, because otherwise you're gone in 3 months
and that was worthless

3) You're going to be given a project (or piece thereof) that realistically
can be finished or mostly finished by the time you leave.

So what I'm looking for in an intern (I did screening of applicants at my last
job to replace myself as a co-op) is a willingness to learn, reasonably smart,
and good time management. The latter 2 you can approximately screen for in
GPA, or GPA + outside activities. If you're excited in whatever we do that
will give you a big leg up, or if you've done something approximately similar
to what that is.

My last job would also only seriously look for applicants in spring, though we
did interviews year round. In summer we'd start hitting other companies'
rejects that couldn't get a job for that summer. Fall was hit or miss,
depending on if they wanted to start in spring or summer. Summer was more
promising because it meant that the students thought ahead and were already
looking for jobs.

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boopsie
I just hired someone for an internship position -- wholly based on personal
networking.

That is, I knew her from active participation in a baseball fan forum
(<http://www.azsnakepit.com>). She was cheerful, courteous, kind, etc. That
is, she unconsciously demonstrated everything any sane businessperson would be
looking for.

After Liz had a baby, she asked me for advice about how to find a part-time
work-at-home job where she could learn a new skill (and avoid going stir-crazy
from talking only to the baby). And I said, "Hey, _I_ need someone!" I'm now
paying her a lot more money than she imagined, she's doing a great job, and
the work is getting _done_.

Therefore, I recommend that you begin rooting for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Only good things can come of this.

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lsiebert
Some what of the same boat myself. Personal networking presumably isn't
working for you. Try internmatch, hireArt and coderwall.You might even reach
out to locaI companies and ask for an internship if they aren't offering one.
Wish it was easier.

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DividesByZero
What sort of internship are you looking for? I interned for Google and Hitachi
while at university and might be able to answer some questions.

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neilkumar
A lot of Universities have intern job fairs, or databases you can add your
resume to that gets sent to companies looking to hire interns.

