Interns can be creative and provide the fresh perspective that your marketing team needs – or they can be mediocre and spend their days crunching out tedious tasks. The trick to making sure you only bring in those who resemble the former lies heavily on your recruitment methods. Here’s how to hire only the best marketing interns for your team.
1. Pay attention to the cover letter
Since many interns don’t yet have significant real-life experience – after all, that’s why they’re seeking an internship – it’s important for you as the marketing recruiter to place less emphasis on the resume and more of it on the cover letter. Any insight into an applicant’s writing abilities is helpful when choosing a marketing intern, since he or she could be the a key resource for writing blogs, press releases, and social media posts, explained Business 2 Community.
Take special note of candidates who approach their letter with creativity, and immediately pass on those that include typos. Errors like that show that they have little regard for proofreading – not to mention they most likely ignored the automatic spell check that exists in most word processors.
2. Offer compensation
While many companies like the idea of hiring interns for the sole reason of free assistance, it doesn’t always work favorably for the employer. According to the National Federation of Independent Business, offering compensation for interns should be protocol for most organizations, with exception to nonprofits. By failing to pay candidates, you could be missing out on highly talented individuals who are aware of their skills’ monetary value to your company.
If budget is a concern, try combining a lower hourly wage with promises of college credit, if applicable, suggested the NFIB. The more enticing your offer, the higher quality of a candidate you’re likely to see.
3. Think long-term
It may be tempting to focus on a certain candidate’s ability to complete the tasks of a marketing intern. However, seeing the bigger picture can help ensure that they stay at your company for a long time, noted the NFIB. Hold intern applicants to standards similar as those of full-time employees and you’ll likely hire someone of value. In an ideal world, your marketing intern will turn into your team’s new marketing assistant after his or her term.
To accomplish this, place less importance on your typical standards for an intern and keep in mind key factors that make your employees successful. For instance, an intern’s connection to his or her university could satisfy a temporary need for spreading awareness to a college crowd, but another candidate’s proven ability to manage a team could be more important in the long run.
4. Do your research
Business 2 Community listed a lack of research as one of the top mistakes that marketing recruiters make when hiring interns. Not only could your investigation prevent you from hiring an intern who lacks regard for his or her online reputation, but it could also verify or contradict listed skills and experience.
With so many tools available to get additional insight on a candidate, it’s now easier than ever to perform research on potential interns. Before deciding to hire a candidate, Google his or her name and see what pops up. Check Facebook and Twitter accounts and note if anything looks inappropriate. If an intern is applying for a brand marketing job, it’s important to consider how he or she cares for his or her personal brand. It’s also a good idea to check LinkedIn, not only to see if everything lines up with what’s listed on his or her resume, but also to see if there are any recommendations that can provide insight on his or her professional qualities.
