It’s June, and students are arriving for their summer internships. When I speak to friends and colleagues this season, they share an excitement for the energy young people bring to the office. And I’m also hearing worries about how to keep them engaged, how to make sure they have a great summer and want to return. These students may be the future leaders of your organization.
I’ve managed high school and college interns for over a decade, and I’ve cultivated a few successful tools.
1. Networking
Help your student to create / update their LinkedIn profile early in the summer, and then give them a networking project. I instructed my students to have 4 meetings each week to learn about the company and how people got to where they are today. I encouraged them to join employee resource groups, go to town halls, and to introduce themselves to people in the cafe. By the end of the summer, they should’ve had at least 25 substantive conversations with new people, and these relationships lead to helpful guidance for them as they begin to navigate the college experience or the beginning of their career.
2. Get to know your students
Once you have established yourself in your career, you might find it hard to relate to a teenager. You find yourself in the position of manager, and you want to give them the best possible experience, but you don’t necessarily know what they need in order to make that possible. Talk to them.
A high school student interviewed to work with me one summer. He plans to become a fashion designer. I asked him directly why he wanted to work for a financial organization. I thought it was a strange choice. He said if he was going to run his own business, he needed to learn about the basics of business finance, and where better than a bank. This summer was an opportunity for him to gain the financial skills to support his creative skills – to be able to run his business. I was sold. My goal for him that summer was to meet the right people and to learn the foundational tools that he needed to begin to understand business finance.
3. Give as much as you get
Your students may come from parents who worked in labor, trades, retail, etc. Their only exposure to an office may be the doctor. As their introduction to an office environment, you have the opportunity to teach office etiquette and protocols. You can pass on the knowledge and experience that you have gained through your career. You can help them to understand that your first job was not as a leader in a corporate organization. And sharing your early experience working in fast food, and your goals and dreams for your career - can help them to see a pathway from where they are to where you are, or to wherever they want to go.
I challenge you to either remember your own first job experiences, or to imagine that your student is your niece/nephew. What would you want them to learn in order to have the best possible foundation?
I can help you in two ways
Invite me to do a manager training to offer guidance to employees who are supervising interns this summer.
Invite me to speak to your students to get them fired up and focused about what they can gain from this experience.
Click here to book a consultation, and let’s develop your future together.
Naeemah Elias, MCPC
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