University Recruiter Blog

Internships have come a long way since their birth in the 11th century. Interns may no longer participate in the back-breaking labor required of apprentices from centuries ago, but the internship has transformed into an increasingly valuable asset for providing students with the experience and skills for success in their chosen career field. Have you reaped the many benefits of an internship yet?

The highly positive professional experiences provided by internships has become necessary to getting hired in today’s competitive job market. In fact, 66 percent of employers think relevant work experience is the most important factor in their hiring decisions.

It’s hard to believe we’ve come from mastering a trade through years of apprenticing, to landing virtual internships through video interviews. Take a look at the internship’s arduous transformation documented in our infographic below. Here are some key points to note:

• 37% of students say internships are a good job search resource

• 81% of employers find they have better experiences with new hires that have intern experience

• 33% of employers hire virtual interns, a 20% increase from 2011 to 2012

• The average wage rate for interns at bachelor’s level is $16.21

Check out the full infographic below and let us know your thoughts in the comments!

What do you think? What does the future of the internship look like?

It is estimated that roughly 1.54 million jobs have been created over the last year due to technological innovation. Not only is innovation creating jobs but it is changing how those jobs are done.  With more jobs going digital, virtual internships—those that can be done remotely—have become increasingly commonplace.

In a recent study by InternMatch surveying over 100,000 students, we discovered that 59.3% [1] of students are willing to take a virtual internship.  Students still prefer to work in an office, but many desire internship experience in any form; and as a digitally-savvy generation, most do not mind working remotely.

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It goes without saying that maintaining a good employer-intern relationship is integral to the success of an internship program. Part of that relationship is healthy management practices, as outlined in our guide Ten Tips to Effectively Manage Interns. The other side of the token, however, involves building rapport with your intern team, whether that means hosting an office happy hour or planning a student-friendly team building activity.

Everyone agrees that building a professional and personal relationship with employees and interns helps create a happy workplace, but less agreed upon is where to draw the line. Namely, should you “friend” your interns on Facebook? (more…)

I always enjoy talking to the hiring team at Facebook.  Not only are they always pushing the frontiers on best practices for engaging, hiring and retaining smart students, but they are also uniquely open and transparent about the work they are doing to help drive their college hiring goals forward.  This is particularly true in the topic of diversity and inclusion, which is an issue that continues to be of utmost importance to most companies trying to build teams and products that fit the increasingly connected and global consumer community.

Last week, I had the exceptional opportunity to sit down with two members of the University Recruiting team at Facebook, Denise Hernandez and Caity Hipskind, and talk to them about how Facebook views diversity both within the larger tech industry and as it pertains to Facebook’s intern hiring program.

The call started 15 minutes late, but for good reason.  Caity informed me that their team was doing an impromptu event in support of Gay Pride for their Dublin office.  When we did jump onto our call, the conversation was incredibly informative as Denise and Caity shared in-depth details about the events they attend to support women and minorities in tech (like the Grace Hopper Conference) and how they have built an internal culture that ensures minority students are comfortable in their office and always have someone to speak to about their experience at Facebook.  If you are interested in how one of the most innovative companies in the world addresses diversity and inclusion at the college level, enjoy the video below!

What diversity challenges does your industry face and what work are you doing to help overcome them?

Interested in how to build more diversity into your college program?  See our blog on the topic.  Also, see these videos from HR execs at Viacom and Geico to learn more about thief diversity initiatives.

Last week we had the pleasure of hosting one of the most unique and interesting panels on intern hiring in a long while.  The topic examined “How to Hire Social Media Interns,” covering everything from how to review and evaluate a student’s social media skills to how to connect and engage with potential candidates on mediums ranging from Facebook to LinkedIn.

Ashley Mosley, InternMatch’s Community Manager, was joined by intern hiring experts at Nestlé Purina, Amanda Pirtle and Emily Fesler, social media hiring expert from the ad agency Ogilvy + Mather, Nando Rodriguez, and former head of community at Zappos, Thomas Knoll.

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For some students, the end of the academic year is synonymous with the end of all productivity, leaving exams and internships alike on the back burner. For others, summertime is devoted to a single gig, and students stop thinking about the internship hunt. In either case, the work you’ve done for employer branding suffers as student priorities shift.

There are plenty of ways to keep the connections you’ve made with your student audience, however. Not only will your summer campaigns help you find candidates for fall openings, but it will also help your company solidify its year-round presence. (more…)

As your Community Manager at InternMatch, I’m always listening. Our team loves it when I bring them your feedback about our products, especially when it calls for us to make some improvements. And we have heard you loud and clear: you want applicants out of your email inbox and some new tools to manage your entire recruitment process. From applicant to hire. Well, we never let great feedback go to waste and the new tools we’re rolling out today do just that and more!

Their easy-to-use features are ideal for startups, small businesses, and non-profits who want to cut through the noise and quickly access the most qualified applicants for positions. While we aren’t offering all of the bells ‘n whistles (like on-boarding support for candidates) of a larger (and expensive) Applicant Track System, these new features are sure to make your email inbox a lot lighter and your recruitment process much more efficient.

Here’s what you can do:

Access all of the information you care about: front and center 

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Recently, national attention has focused on the career development of veterans and military spouses with the President’s FY2014 Budget. In addition to a 4% increase in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs, a 13.6% increase in funding to the Veterans Benefits Administration, and a 7.2% increase in funding for veterans’ mental health services, the budget proposes to make permanent the tax credits signed into law in November 2011. (more…)

Are students naturally talented at social media because they spend countless hours on Facebook and Instagram?  What is the best way to engage potential candidates on Twitter?   Have you ever asked a student to apply for your company with a Tweet rather than a cover letter?

While Digital Marketing and Social Media internships have rapidly become two of the most common internships offered to students, many employers remain uncertain about how to evaluate the skill of students in these roles as well as how to engage with them online.

For these reasons and many more, we are thrilled to bring together a panel of some of the country’s leading digital marketing experts to help teach you about the future of social media and how you can hire the best social media students for your company.

About the Event

Expert Speakers:

• Nando Rodriguez and Charlene Narcelles, Senior Social Media Recruiter for North America and Talent Acquisition Manager for North America at Ogilvy and Mather and co-founders of InterviewingU
• Amanda Pirtle and Emily Cloud, Director of University Relations and Marketing Associate, Nestlé Purina
• Will Houghteling, Education and Community Partnerships Lead, Google+
• Thomas Knoll, CEO of ClippPR, former Community Architect at Zappos

When:

May 1st at 4 pm PST

How to Participate:

Click the button below to RSVP!

Interested in hiring your own social media intern?  We are excited to share that we are re-launching our successful  “Kill the Cover Letter” allowing you to post a free social media internship so long as you only accept applications online:  Learn more here!