To,
Students, freshers and ‘entry-level’ professionals
Colleges and Universities
India
Re: Suggestions to improve our Internship Program
As a young company attempting to make history fun (a challenge if there ever was one!), we are constantly on the lookout for people with the spark in them to create something new and innovative. And we especially have faith in students and recent grads, committing ourselves to a comprehensive internship program where we empower students to work on critical research, sales and marketing projects in a flexible and independent environment. In short, we believe you have the open-mindedness and the talent to make a difference in our organization.
The results from multiple internships completed so far have been mixed, however. Other than a few very good projects, much has been average at best. I fear I am beginning to understand why the corporate biggies have been complaining about talent issues for some time now.
Most of our interns are pursuing their BA or MA in English / History and thus are at a stage where it will soon be time to think of job applications and start dealing with issues much like the ones below. And so, I would like your help to improve our internship program. Please provide your comments on the questions below.
How do we balance discipline and flexibility?
We give people the freedom to work from home and at their own pace. However, too often we find that nothing gets done till the last minute when it is too late to address any problems. Worse, we get few progress updates through the course of the project, which makes the entire process shaky and unpredictable – and yet, aren’t the same folks tweeting, texting and providing status updates on Orkut and Facebook every day?
Yes, we would like to maintain the semi-casual environment of college but not at the cost of discipline or quality. How do we create the balance?
Hw do we jdge n app wrtn lyk dis?
More often than not, we receive glorified SMSes masquerading as emails like this» To be honest, to a Gen-Xer like me it takes a good few mins to read and understand such emails!
If someone is not making the effort to write ‘proper’ English in an application, will they make the far greater efforts required to perform on the job? And what if we want them for a sales or marketing role that involves genuine business communication?
Is money all that matters now?
Being a startup, we offer internships with moderate pay (Rs. 1,500-3,000 for a 4-week research project) but great work quality, responsibility and the pride of doing something that makes a difference. However, we find that too often students show concern about the money rather than the work experience. Is money all that matters now?
It would be great if you could send in your thoughts on the above at the earliest. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanking you,
Yours Sincerely,
Amit Ray
