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by
Julie Richie
A
Plan to pay them. Taking the
credit-only route is a cheap
way out and you may not land
any good candidates. If the educational
institution has a veterans program, the
government will pay for the internship
for the veterans in school. We strongly
recommend engaging in any veterans
programs at schools. We have interns
interview as regular employees and sign
regular employee paperwork, which
includes all the confidentiality and non-
compete forms. Our interns do regular
jobs within our company. We post job
descriptions for the areas we wish to have
interns work and we expect them to learn
and to contribute. No grunt work. It is a
big waste of time if you approach them
as flunkies.
Go to the internship fairs and use them
as a jobs fair. Know in advance that college
students get zero exposure to our industry.
Our products are ubiquitous to them but
once they realize it is an industry, you
would be amazed how interested they are
in it. That was our biggest surprise—the
student response to our industry.
Internships, if approached seriously
with the idea of the students contributing,
can be very rewarding. Our foray last
year into internship programs resulted in
the direct hiring of five graduates—two
bachelor’s degree grads, one MBA and two
IMBAs; of those, two were veterans.
DAVID TATE
President
Signet, Inc.
PPAI 101157
All About Internships
12
|
MAY 2017
|
INNOVATE
Q
A DISTRIBUTOR
ASKS:
I’m thinking
about adding a
college intern this summer
but I’m unsure of how to
structure the setup. For those
distributors or suppliers who
have had interns, do you pay
your interns or do you work
with their school to provide
credit? Do you have them sign
a confidentiality agreement
and/or non-compete
agreement? What types of tasks
do you have them do? Is there
anything else I should consider
to make sure it’s a successful
experience for both parties?