How did I lose my IT intern? Some key points to snaggle great IT interns!
I often see great IT interns not get hired by the company they’re working for…there’s a couple of reasons for this:
They didn’t fit the role / culture
There wasn’t an opening for them
They took another role
But often I hear back from IT interns that they didn’t hear back from the company at all and had taken another opportunity.
We sometimes get feedback that when a company goes to offer that great intern a new role but they’ve already accepted a new IT graduate role with another company.
The key message here is to ask them at the start ‘What are your career aspirations’? They might be looking for that overseas opportunity with Google or Palantir in Sydney or London etc or they might be looking to stay here in Christchurch and would love to work with you. If they head off on their OE (Overseas Experience) good on them, wish them well, give them a great experience & hopefully they’ll be in touch on their return.
IT Recruitment is a short-term, medium-term and long-term game.
The other key message is to be up front and ask them if they have any current offers and to let you know when or if they do get something to let you know so at least you can make an offer and be in the mix not to miss out on securing that great IT intern.
Also don’t forget to keep in touch with the interns from the year before who have a year left of study & are best contacted a couple of months before they finish their final exams.
There’s lots of positives with interns including them bringing fresh ideas, new energy, working on sand pit projects you’d like exploring, good PR for your industry being active in the graduate market, but of course the best thing about interns is that it’s ‘try before you buy’ for both parties and you often land your next rock star before your IT graduate recruiting even starts :-)
I'm Paul, Founder & Principal Consultant of Sunstone, an IT Recruitment & HR company specialising in recruiting IT roles within software, web, mobile, blockchain, big data, infrastructure, security & networks in Christchurch & South Island of New Zealand.