Like most Silicon Valley technology companies, we hire interns at FirstRain. Sometimes they are active graduate students looking for work experience and interesting problems to solve while finishing their doctorate, sometimes they are in the final few months of a bachelors and want to try on a job to see if they enjoy it, and sometimes they are full time students working for the Summer. In all cases having them in our company is a huge win for us. So far every one has been an energy source, working hard and doing good work while allowing us to foster potential future employees (we like to hire our interns if they're good).
But it's important that being an intern is good for the intern, not just for FirstRain. I've got young friends who interned for free (at other companies, not FirstRain!) - long hours where they felt taken advantage of and that doesn't seem fair. So here's my (somewhat tongue in cheek) list of the top Dos and Don'ts for employing interns...
Do - hire the very smart ones and load them up with work. It's a win-win. You get a lot of great work done at reasonable cost, they get to experience that incredible satisfaction of conquering a mountain of work. Yes conquering the mountain is fun in the end, trust me.
Don't - take them out drinking and flirt with them. A challenge for some of you I know, but a friend of mine did that and even though he thought it was harmless she complained and his career with his company went sideways for 2 years.
Do - give them a plan for the time they are interning with you. What you expect them to learn, why, what you hope they'll be able to do with it afterwards. This is motivating and gives the work a purpose.
Don't - sit them all together and just expect them to work it out. One of the things you want them to learn is how to be productive and professional in an office. That means teaming them up with one of your professionals who'll be there to mentor them.
Do - make the work you have them doing interesting and relevant to their ambitions. A brilliant PhD student in big data analytics - give her your hardest problem and watch her impress you; a creative and smart new graduate in marketing and design - show him your visual brand and all the things you don't like about it and support him as he tells you all the ways he'll bury your ideas with his own.
Don't - expect them to read your mind. If you're not getting what you want go and talk to them. Could be they are intimidated by you (always hard for me to imagine but I guess the title VP or CEO can be a barrier) and you need to help them get what they need to complete the task you've set them.
Do - stretch them. Let them try things they've never tried before. For example Facebook is running a summer intern program this year for non computer science students, teaching them how to code. They're expanding their potential labor pool and introducing a bunch of structured thinkers to a whole new career. A great idea.
Don't - treat them differently. They are with you because they want experience. Give them experience. Include them in company all hands, let them shadow you in meetings, treat them like employees so they know what it's like.
Do - feed them. We call it the FirstRain 15. Hey, interns should be able to eat too much great food every day and gain weight too.
Don't - let them hug you at work when they're happy. It sets the wrong impression. Even if one of the interns is your kid. Seriously.
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