Interns: what you need to know

There are pros and cons of taking on young learners and bringing them into the workplace. Find out whether you’re doing yourself a favour or shooting yourself in the foot.

By Craig Falck for Africa Report
Photograph: © Yuri Arcurs | Dreamstime.com

There’s nothing wrong with an extra pair of hands in the office. After all, many hands make light work… And interns are the perfect solution if you’re looking for something temporary. Some companies take interns in on a free basis, where the intern isn’t paid for their hours but rather receives invaluable insider information and training, while others don’t mind paying these youngsters, although at a substantially lower rate.

More often than not, interns are young university students who are eager to get a foot in the door early and work part time while studying. It makes sense to take on an intern who is studying in your field of business, as they will already have some form of knowledge base on the industry. While their eyes will more than likely be opened at how things work in the real world, at least they’ll be able to catch onto concepts quickly because they are actually interested in what’s going on as this is the career path that they have chosen.

The problem that a lot of companies find with interns is that while they start off as eager beavers, some quickly become disillusioned with having to perform “menial” tasks and feel that they are “better than this” and deserve to be treated better. The cruel reality is that everyone starts off at the bottom and must work their way up the corporate ladder. When the interns become bored, they tend to perform their tasks half-hearted and don’t take pride in their work, and this often means that a full-time colleague will have to waste their time making corrections. Another problem is that interns are new to many of the tools of the trade and might need more training than is available or simply cannot master the tools. This means than staff will once again have to take time out of their work schedules to help the interns.

However, some companies strike it lucky and find interns who have their heads screwed on straight and are willing to bend over backwards for even the most basic of jobs. This is the position you want to be in, where your interns are willing to put in the hours and dedicate themselves to their chosen career. You might find that the intern you’ve chosen is the next big thing in the industry and that you can work on business loyalty by snapping them up before any of your competitors. That’s if you’re lucky.

As with everything else in life, there are pros and cons when it comes to working with interns. You need to do what’s best for your enterprise, but you also need to think about the future – you might just find your successor sorting your mail for you.