Help a Student, Help Yourself
[by Judy Herrmann]
Looking to ramp up your marketing this summer? Consider bringing on an intern. Many programs require students to complete internships and right now, with the economy and job market so tight, students are having a tough time finding positions.
Having worked with countless mentorship students and interns over the years, I’ve learned that the best way to manage an intern is to assign them a project they can complete from start to finish. Things like researching prospective clients, designing a promotional campaign, mapping out a social media plan – these are all projects that an intern could take on for you.
Photography, Design, Communications, Marketing and Business students all need experience. Ideally, the student gets as much out of the experience as you do so look for someone who really needs to learn how to do what you need done and let them at it.
Ways to find interns include contacting the career center at local Universities, Colleges and Community Colleges, reaching out to Department Chairs or faculty members to find out about their most promising students and posting your listing at an internship website like www.internjobs.com or college.monster.com.
Photographer, educator and consultant, Judy Herrmann, helps student, emerging and established photographers build creatively and financially rewarding businesses. http://www.HSstudio.com
3 Responses to 'Help a Student, Help Yourself'
Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Help a Student, Help Yourself'.
I have used inters for assistants but havent thought about grabbing a marketing intern. Thats a great idea. Thanks!
I thought that legally you could not actually use an intern as an assistant. That anything an intern would do that an employee would do is illegal. That they are there to look and learn. Not really help.
CMurph -
There’s been a lot of publicity recently about the US Dept of Labor cracking down on unpaid internships in response to for-profit businesses using interns inappropriately. The DOL has published a document that outlines the rules for unpaid internships: http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf
Those rules are:
1. The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to
training which would be given in an educational environment;
2. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;
3. The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern;
and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;
5. The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and
6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the
internship.
All 6 of these conditions must be true for the internship to legally qualify as an unpaid position under the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act).
The document goes on to describe various scenarios that would or would not qualify under each of these rules. Key factors include whether the student’s school oversees the internship, whether the student earns school credits for completing the internship, and how much the student benefits from the training received. Other factors like how much flexibility the student has to determine their own hours and how reliant the employer is on the student’s work also come into play.
These rules, which again only apply to unpaid internships do not restrict interns to just watching. The internship can “include actual operations” as long as the intern truly receives an educational experience that provides substantial benefit to the student and fulfills all 6 requirements above.
Hope this helps!
-Judy