Supervising PR interns: a primer
Our September students returned to campus this week to report on how things are going at their Field Placement internships. During their five-minute presentations, some themes emerged among the 30 or so reports.
This got me thinking: we do lots to prepare students for how to manage their internships, but how about a primer for Field Placement supervisors?
Based on what I heard from this crop of students (some of whom, admittedly, have grandiose ideas about what they should and shouldn’t be doing as interns) here’s what I’d advise supervisors:
1. Take the time to orient the intern to your organization. Don’t just stick your intern in a cubicle and say, “read these annual reports; they’ll give you all the information you need.” Give him or her the big picture. Introduce them to key people. Tell them why these people are important. Provide a history of your projects and what role they’ll play. In other words, give them a context.
2. Clue interns in about “the way we do things around here.” For example, student interns are often surprised at how long it takes to get approvals for the simplest of editing requests. Or, they’re unaware of an organization’s preference for how people are addressed. Why not share as much as you can about your corporate culture, instead of expecting interns to pick it up by osmosis?
3. Don’t assume the intern possesses common sense. Some interns turn their noses up at updating media lists, running out for a tray of lattes, or FedExing parcels. Let the intern know how important these activities are to the smooth running of your department. Help them understand that if they do a good job of getting the right tray of various coffees back to their boss at the right temperature, they might just get the chance to tackle something more complex.
4. Avoid misleading advertising and promotion. If your internship description promises a Cadillac-of-an-internship-opportunity, don’t deliver a Kia. Interns—full of youth, energy and ideas—want to contribute. They generally hate filling their days surfing the ‘net. When their supervisor hasn’t planned activities for them, or their requests to help are are met with: “just relax; enjoy the down time, ” they feel they aren’t contributing.
5. Model ethical, professional behaviour. Two of our students were asked to flog during their internships. At school, professors advise that flogging is considered by many in the blogosphere, and in PR circles, as sketchy at best. So it creates a bit of a conflict when their supervisor makes this kind of request. They’re eager to succeed and make a good impression and don’t want to refuse for fear it will block a potential job offer.
6. Create a sense of community. These 20-somethings value community and connection above all else. Make them a part of your department. Ensure you don’t situate their work station away from the main action and fellow communicators. Invite them to your brain storming sessions and encourage them to speak up.
7. Communicate your expectations clearly. Along with asking you your intern what he or she expects to gain from the experience, clearly spell out your expectations. How you expect them to perform, what skill sets you expect them to demonstrate, and how they’ll get along best with you and your team.
These are my seven steps for supervising interns. Students, educators and employers, what are yours?
Great post, Christine. This would be good to share in the Faculty group at PROpenMic.org. I hope you’ll share it there and what that group might add to the discussion.
I like your list, although number three kind of bothers me. It may take common sense to understand that an intern must play along to get along, the menial tasks of being a gofer are, in some internships, too often the primary (if not sole) duty the students are given. Here, I would remind intern supervisors of the key practice of empathy. Just as we ask interns to think about the firm or organization, the reverse must be true for the benefit of the intern.
Finally, I would add a discussion about paying interns to that issue of misleading advertising and promotion. Recently, a very large boutique firm in San Francisco/San Jose pitched their internship by saying, “We will run you off your feet.” Yet, they did not offer a salary, but did offer travel to the internship and some compensation for meals during the internship. To me, it is time for these organizations to start paying for the workers they are going to be billing clients for down the road.
Robert — May 9, 2008 @ 10:50 am
Does anyone else think it’s more appropriate to send a juniour employee, who is at least in the ‘getting paid’ part of paying their dues, on a latte run than it is an intern? I don’t think an intern has any business turning up their nose at media lists or even comm admin stuff, like FedExing parcels, but if you’re being sent out for coffee then you know at least one thing is true: You landed an internship of inferior quality to one where you don’t do such things…
This isn’t to say that the intern shouldn’t do what they’re told, as it is definitely common sense for them to not burn the only bridge they’ve got, but that’s not the same as saying it’s alright for the employers to make them do it in the first place.
Furthermore, it’s not like we live in a time, place or industry when nearly anyone, anywhere, works more than 20 feet from a Starbucks. How unsmooth could a department possibly become?
I think our generation is, generally speaking, pretty spoiled; we really do expect to be given more respect at first than we really deserve. That being said, giving interns tasks that have literally no relevance to communications only embitters interns, and fosters an adversarial, negative, kiss-up-and-kick-down attitude in them about working life which will ultimately see them become either the terrible bosses of tomorrow or the first to make a break for grad school.
Will O'Neill — May 9, 2008 @ 12:16 pm
Thanks for your comments, Will. I agree that, if the bulk of an intern’s activities have no relevance to the practice of corporate communications & PR, then an intern gets quite jaded quite quickly about the world of work. Can’t blame them. And, yes, they may run off to grad school (heaven forbid!) As a program, we actively discoursge organizations from taking part in our internhship program if we find students had very little to do while there. However, some industries in town expect interns do the menial tasks and, I’ve had some very bright, accomplished students, willing to do these things because they want to break into entertainment PR, for example.
Christine Smith — May 9, 2008 @ 1:56 pm
Your points are quite right. Feeling “included in the family” is really critical - and it’s a simple gesture that will last a lifetime.
I feel that if employers are going to take on the responsibility of having an intern, they should at least make the time to outline what they expect, what they’d like to see achieved, and provide some guidance. If no expectations are set, how do you begin to measure the success? I believe the scenario works both ways, as well.
staffeen thompson — May 17, 2008 @ 9:39 am
Robert: Thanks for your comments. I’d love to share it with PROpenmic.org. Just tell me how (you’re most helpful that way.) Re: #3–I agree. We don’t want internships to consist of latte runs. In fact, I discourage going back to organizations where a student intern leaves with nothing for their portfolios.
Christine Smith — June 2, 2008 @ 1:27 pm
It is good to read your post and the comments as my January group and myself are gearing up for internship. I agree with Will that an internship position limited to coffee and latte runs is a bad place to be.
If it happens once in a while, is it really something to complain about? I can’t think of a single job in which a quick break to run an errand wasn’t welcome. In fact, I remember staff jumping at the chance to stretch their legs and shut of their brain for five minutes.
Having a sense of entitlement early on is a bad way to start. It shows a lack of respect for the system, a system we have to learn to like (if we don’t already) because it is the field we picked. However, if an intern feels they are not being treated properly, it is their responsibility (as far as I am concerned) to politely address that with their supervisor. Also the question “why” should be considered. Perhaps: why am I not being given more work? Or why am I given these tasks?
Could it be a test to see if you will show initiative? Could it be that you have not proven yourself capable of other tasks?
I suppose I will find that out soon enough.
Kyla — June 5, 2008 @ 9:56 am
In many cases, organizations do want to see how an intern demonstrates initiative and a willingness to “get along.” This usually occurs in the first few weeks that act as a proving ground for the intern. Once the intern proves his/her capabilities, larger projects emerge. Then, you have to prove yourself again!
Christine Smith — June 8, 2008 @ 11:42 am
thax for this post
msn avatarlar? — June 16, 2008 @ 3:54 pm