The U.S. workforce welcomed thousands of new short-term employees this month: summer interns starting their jobs at organizations nationwide. Like many of you, I have great memories of these early work-based learning experiences: through my internships, I discovered how I wanted to impact the world and gradually sharpened my focus from international relations—my undergraduate major—to domestic education and workforce transformation. But former interns of my generation have some not-so-great memories, too: long hours for little or no pay, tasks like coffee-fetching or copy-making, and a focus on recruitment from colleges that gave a leg up to applicants at selective four-year institutions.
I’m glad to report that today’s internships are in a whole new class, focusing on equity, learning and opportunity. Even so, the summer of 2023 intern class faces challenges I could never have imagined—like the still-new norms of remote work and rising costs of living and learning. As leaders, we all know the potential and value of the right summer internship, and we are responsible for creating conditions for these workers to learn and thrive. Here are five ways I recommend setting up your summer interns for success:
Recruit widely. One big benefit of remote internships is geographical diversity. Interns no longer have to be able to live near the company headquarters, and companies are reaping the benefits. That’s good news for employers and workers, but it’s not the only form of diversity recruitment that should be prioritized. Consider shifting or eliminating education requirements; at Jobs for the Future, our interns must have a high school diploma but do not need to be enrolled in an education or training program. Other recruitment strategies include embracing fair-chance hiring to give people with records an opportunity in the workforce, or partnering with local community-based organizations and community colleges to bring in workers and learners who are often overlooked or excluded from opportunities.
Pay them. I can’t state this strongly enough: companies must pay their summer interns. When internships are unpaid, huge access disparities result by race, gender, and parent’s level of education. What’s more, companies miss out on an incredible talent pool when they hire only interns who can afford to pass up a summer’s worth of paid work—I certainly couldn’t when I was younger. As Carlos Mark Vera, co-founder of Pay Our Interns, says, “Experience is not enough”—meaning we can’t expect interns to work for the benefit of experience alone. Today, with the cost of four-year colleges, housing, and groceries higher than ever, interns must be paid for their summer work.
Set up social-capital building. We all know networking is vital to building connections and finding opportunities across employers and industries. I admit, I would have been hard-pressed to land the internships I did if it hadn’t been for my father’s professional connections. We also know that for generations, networking opportunities often excluded people of color, women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, and learners without four-year degrees. Even today, those opportunities, known as “professional social capital,” remain less available to Black learners and workers. It’s on employers to change that, even more so in an era of remote work. And it’s up to leaders, in particular, to create an environment where interns feel empowered to build their networks. I recommend asking interns to set a networking goal for the summer—whether that means five virtual coffee chats or 10 new LinkedIn connections—and asking the staff to step up and respond enthusiastically to those invitations.
Embrace a skills-first approach. Skill development is critical to worker success at any age, and learning a range of durable and job-specific skills can prepare interns to succeed in a wide range of jobs or experiences. Plus, mounting evidence shows that taking a skills-first approach to hiring and training leads to more equitable worker outcomes, where workers are evaluated by what they can do instead of what institution they attended or job titles they’ve held. Consider what skills a team or department can help an intern gain over the course of a summer—and ask what skills they’d like to add, too.
Leave room for discovery. Landing an internship is harder than ever this year, making the stakes feel high for success. But one of the most formative experiences of my career was an internship that taught me what I didn’t want to do—and that’s not just okay, it’s what internships are all about. An internship is a rare, no-regrets opportunity to try out something new. As employers, let’s ensure our interns take full advantage of the experience by offering a range of learning opportunities across departments and specialties. In a nonprofit like ours, interns can get a sense of a range of careers, including policy analysis, IT support, digital marketing, accounting, talent acquisition, and more. We structure mentorships to cross departments, bringing in speakers from partner or affiliate organizations, and building touchpoints into the summer schedule that offer the opportunity for feedback and pivot points for supervisors and managers.
The best internships aren’t just an opportunity for the interns; they’re a chance for employers to build a talent pipeline, invest in the next-generation workforce, and form relationships that can shape career pathways for years to come.
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