Ahhhh, the interns. One of the greatest wild cards in the business community. While some frown upon interns joining the company, there are some upsides to having these millenials run around the office.
Cheaper alternative.
As a former intern, I would like to declare that smart interns are not looking for the highest pay. It would be nice to receive some “incentive”, but most are there to prove they are worth hiring. You can give them a small allowance but it’s better to feed them with exposure.
“Give the man a fish, he’ll live for today. Teach him how to fish, it’ll last him a lifetime.”
Building bridges
Internship students provide businesses with opportunities to collaborate and build bridges with universities. This can lead to a business exchange or arrangements can be done with the university. This gives you access to the talented, younger generations to choose for your company. Some establishment has this arrangement just to have an early dip in the candidate pool.
Fresh perspective.
From the newly-learned subjects and access to libraries and research materials provided by the universities, good interns are able to give your start-up some fresh ideas. Admittedly their ideas might not be award-winning (just yet) but at least you’ll have a fresher perspective to work on. Especially if they are the target demographic.
Short-term projects.
Ever felt pressured to place your hard-working team in short-term projects? Well, here’s a good opportunity to hire interns. Since this lot will always look for reputable projects to be placed in their CVs, it’s a win-win situation. By doing so, you can focus more on the long-term arrangements you have on your retainer.
Tech Savvy lots.
Students are known to be ‘in the know’ on the latest. By stretching out their imagination during their boring university lectures, they are always looking for the right time to make an impression in their respective industries. Believe it or not, interns are more likely to be technologically advanced compared to the candidates in the open market pool and they have control on their PowerPoint presentations.
All in all, it’s not really a bad idea to have interns helping out with the business. Push come to shove, they can help fetch some early morning coffee for the rest of the staff like the old days.
