Internships

Employers

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Internships are an opportunity for students to get their foot in the door, gain some hands-on experience, hone valuable skills, build connections, and explore potential career paths.

But what returns can employers expect from creating or expanding an internship program? 

According to data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), employers point to internships as the recruiting strategy with the highest ROI.

Here are six benefits that prove internships are a strategic initiative and competitive advantage for you:


Internships improve your hiring efficiency

Internships engage talent early in their college-to-career journey

Internships build your early talent pipeline

Internships generate brand awareness and affinity

Internships support your DEI efforts

Internships upskill your pipeline

When internship programs are done well, they can be a huge differentiator in an employer’s ability to engage, recruit, and retain early talent. Read on for six reasons why it’s important to set up or build out your internship program.

1. Internships improve your hiring efficiency

An internship program translates to a stronger pipeline, and a stronger pipeline translates to better candidate conversion and shorter time to hire—both of which are important when hiring teams are feeling the pressure of doing more with less.

Provided your internship is a positive experience, your interns are likely to want to become full-time hires. According to NACE, 57.6% of interns convert to full-time employees, which saves the hiring team time, effort, and energy they’d have to invest in hiring from scratch.

2. Internships engage talent early in their college-to-career journey

When it comes to engaging early talent, you want to get there…well, early. To forge a deeper relationship, more brand affinity, and a sense of loyalty, start interacting with students long before they start thinking about the actual job search—ideally during their second and third years of college. This is the ideal time for an internship.

Why? Students have settled into the major transition of college life, have started to build skills and knowledge through their coursework and extracurriculars, and have more curiosity about what career opportunities are out there.

Your internship program gives them a chance to experience your organization and fosters a sense of familiarity and commitment early on—so your company will be top of mind as they approach graduation.

3. Internships build your early talent pipeline

When you have entry-level roles available, an internship program means you don’t have to start from scratch—you already have a thriving pipeline of qualified and engaged candidates that are eager to make a difference.

Since many organizations want to attract students and early career professionals, an internship program is a future-thinking way to build a solid pipeline of talent that you can tap into when you have full-time vacancies.

For example, 90% of PwC's interns end up receiving full-time offers, positioning the company’s internships as stepping stones to rewarding careers.

4. Internships generate brand awareness and affinity

Gen Z talent is more values-driven than previous generations, with 70% of students saying that they want to work for a company whose values align with their own.

Your employer brand is how you demonstrate and reinforce your organizational values. And your internship program is more than a recruitment initiative—it’s a powerful brand boosting opportunity too.

Of course, a challenging, rewarding, and meaningful internship fosters brand affinity directly with your interns, who will hopefully want to return to your company for full-time opportunities.

5. Internships support your DEI efforts

You can’t have diverse leaders without starting with opportunities at the internship or entry level. And internships need to be paid. According to a NACE report, white male students are disproportionately represented among paid interns: 76.4% of men who took part in internships received compensation, compared to only 51.5% of women. NACE data also shows that Black and Hispanic students are significantly less likely to be paid for internships.

When research shows a correlation between race and lower socioeconomic status, underrepresented groups often can’t afford to take on unpaid internships. Offering paid internships gives students a chance to capitalize on a valuable career opportunity, while still getting the resources they need to support themselves.

6. Internships upskill your pipeline

Internships give students both skills and experience. But that doesn’t mean your interns are the only ones benefiting. Your organization is, too, because you’re not just building a pipeline—you’re building a pipeline of candidates that already have the knowledge and competencies that meet the demands of your organization.

Charles Schwab's internship program—with 480 interns across 14 business lines—provides early talent with skills, experience, and exposure. Historically, Schwab has offered 70-75% of the class full-time roles, and 70-75% accept—which is well above the program’s goals.

A top-notch internship program can lead students into a full-time position with your organization.

From cost to opportunity: building the business case for internships

Internships have long been positioned as a competitive edge for students looking to get an early start and a leg up in their careers. But internships aren’t just a win for early talent—they’re a powerful advantage for employers, too.

With a high-quality internship program, you can engage talent early, boost your employer brand, support your DEI efforts, build a skilled and knowledgeable pipeline, and streamline your hiring strategies.

For employers that need to compete for early talent, it’s time to stop asking if you can afford to launch an internship program and ask a more pertinent question: can you afford not to?

When 75% of students in the US have access to Handshake through their campus career services, Handshake is the most effective and efficient way to reach targeted groups and fill your internships and other entry-level or early career positions. Ready to build your internship program and get in front of early talent? Talk to Handshake.




Why is an internship program important? Here are 6 reasons

As one of the very first touch points between your company and potential future interns, job descriptions give you an opportunity to make a great first impression. The information you provide about your organization and culture will influence who applies, who you interview, and ultimately, who you hire.

Here at Handshake, we take an Interns First approach to our university recruiting, starting with how we write our job descriptions. Over 70% of students shared with us that they prefer a company that is diverse, inclusive, and makes them feel like they belong regardless of race, geographic location, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, and appearance.

Below, we’ve outlined 4 tips to help you write more inclusive job descriptions and encourage students from all backgrounds to apply.

1. Highlight your commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging

Your opening statement sets the tone for the rest of the job description: By highlighting your mission and explicitly encouraging students from all backgrounds to apply, you send a strong message that candidates can look forward to an inclusive hiring process.

If you choose to include only the generic EEO statement at the end of your job description, students may take this as a sign that your company hasn’t put much thought into fostering inclusive hiring strategies or diversity throughout the organization.

Here at Handshake, we demonstrate our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and belonging by opening our Intern Job Descriptions with our mission and the following statement:

2. Keep your list of requirements short and sweet

Handshake helps students from all backgrounds navigate the college to career journey, regardless of their school or major. Candidates from non-traditional backgrounds may decide not to apply if they see a long list of qualifications unrelated to skills and traits — qualifications like attending a top tier school, maintaining a certain GPA, or majoring in a particular area of study.

To encourage qualified people from all backgrounds to apply, work with your hiring managers to hone in on listing only the most important requirements. Could an intern perform well at your organization without meeting 100% of the requirements you’ve listed? Continue editing until you’ve pared down the list to only the most essential skills and qualities, and consider adding a sentence encouraging students to apply even if they don’t meet every requirement.

3. Speak about growth & development

When asked what they prioritize most when looking for an employer, 84% of Gen Z respondents cite potential for career growth and progression; students seek internship opportunities that enable them to learn new skills and gain experience in their chosen field to help them jumpstart a meaningful career.

We designed Handshake’s Interns First program around four key pillars that foster interns’ career growth and development. In your job descriptions, highlight the business impact your interns can have, showcase opportunities for learning and experience, and emphasize skill development as a core aspect of their internship.

We close our Intern Job Descriptions with Handshake’s Interns First Program mission:

4. Ask your interns for feedback!

While writing this year’s Software Engineering Internship job description, we reached out to our 2018 Summer Interns, who shared valuable feedback to ensure our job description continues to accurately reflect our Interns First program. Special thanks to our interns for their help!

University recruiting plays a key role in driving your larger diversity and inclusion strategy. Creating an inclusive university hiring process that reaches a wide range of students from all backgrounds begins with ensuring your organization uses inclusive internship job descriptions. By posting and promoting the open role on Handshake, millions of college students from all backgrounds and experiences gain access to your opportunity.

Putting interns first at Handshake: 4 Tips for writing inclusive internship job descriptions

At Handshake, our mission is to democratize opportunity for all students. We also work with employers to build diversity and inclusion strategies because an overwhelming number of students on Handshake prefer employers who are diverse and have an inclusive culture. That’s why today, we’re sharing our learnings and best practices for supporting interns from underrepresented backgrounds.

Ready to set your interns up for success? We asked Brenda Jin, creator of Crush Your Summer Internship, to share her advice on five ways you can support your interns this summer:

1. Show up

Don’t underestimate the power of just being present, especially for ongoing commitments like weekly one-on-one meetings. Showing up creates an essential foundation for trust. It also creates opportunities for interns to ask questions and get inspired by you, which helps them become more confident and self-sufficient.

2. Get to know your intern

Interns aren’t just here this summer to have a checkbox on their profile. They want to accomplish something to help them launch their career. Make sure you get to know them and understand their motivations! In a recent Handshake Student Survey, nearly 70 percent of student respondents said they would only work for an employer that has built an inclusive company culture, which provides a sense of belonging to all employees, from all backgrounds.

What are their goals? What do they want to learn? Even if they don’t have an answer right away, that’s okay, because when you ask, they start thinking about it!

3. Create a plan and write it down

Summer will be over before you know it. Take the time to plan out the intern experience week-by-week. Write down milestones that contribute to the interns’ goals, and share the plan with them so that you can both be accountable.

4. Find additional support

We often hear from students about how navigating an internship as a first-generation and underrepresented minority presents unique challenges in the workplace, like imposter syndrome or assumptions that their major limits their career options.

Folks from underrepresented backgrounds often start work with fewer connections in the industry, which means less access to information that will help them succeed. Encourage your intern to enroll in the company’s Employee Resource Groups and other community activities. Additionally, introduce them to potential mentors in their desired field and specializations, especially folks outside the organization.

5. Find ways to stay engaged

Your company’s relationship with interns shouldn’t end when the internship does. Even if you don’t have open recs now, find ways to re-engage interns as candidates in the future. Collaborate with other recruiters and hiring managers in your organization to make sure interns stay in your pipeline after they leave.

Proactively supporting your interns will make their experience more welcoming and inclusive — and it very well could make a world of difference in whether interns excel at your company, speak highly of you as an employer, and whether they consider accepting a full-time role at your company in the future.

For more resources on how to further support your interns, check out Crush Your Summer Internship, a free online program that helps interns maximize their summer experience, created by Brenda Jin, a software engineer, and intern mentor.

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Check out our open roles at Handshake at: www.joinhandshake.com/careers

Internships

Why is an internship program important? Here are 6 reasons

Putting interns first at Handshake: 4 Tips for writing inclusive internship job descriptions

5 Easy ways to support interns from underrepresented backgrounds