Have you ever hired an intern? As an AIESEC-Berkeley alumni and former intern (a summer with Congressman Norman Mineta and a grad school semester with Admakers), I've always believed in internships. Still, at AMT Group, perhaps like at your firm, we've "enjoyed" mixed results. Some interns have been excellent, and some non-paid interns cost us more than a good salary for the time we wasted training them up and then fixing their mistakes. One MBA graduate we hired didn't understand the basics of a marketing plan and the results were, shall we say, "Less-than-stellar." An excellent undergraduate intern worked for over a year with us, and later went on to join one of our clients full-time upon graduation. Most interns we've hired fit somewhere in between these two extremes.
With these past mixed results, we set aside our expectations after a former student of mine's cousin wrote from the Netherlands hoping to secure a short-term internship with us this spring. Her public high school requires students to find their own internship outside their country and make all their own arrangements (!). With only the good reputation of her cousin to back her, she contacted us by e-mail. We defined a project for her: Help us update and upgrade our social media presence in general and specifically edit and produce a series of videos that our clients can use while working through the exercises in my book, Get a G.R.I.P..
In less time than it took to make three videos three years ago, she, along with another high school student, completed 15. The two interns worked together with software and hardware they'd never seen previously. Readers like you will be able to view their results right here and in other places on social media, all due to their diligence, enthusiasm, and willingness to learn. James Michener's quote from his novel The Drifters rings clear: "Youth is Truth."
In weeks to come I will be encouraging you to check out their short videos, and meanwhile, consider hiring a millennial intern for your firm!
