“Internships in a Box” - PowerPoint Presentation

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“Internships in a Box”

An Alum’s Guide to Hosting Simple, Successful Internship Programs for Current Dartmouth Students

Experiential Learning

Dartmouth

Liberal

Arts

Introduction

Internships have become increasingly important for college students generally as they are seen as one of the key “stepping stones” to getting the optimal full time job after graduation. Dartmouth students have an advantage as the D-Plan enables them to have “off term” internships at times of the year when most other college students are in school. In addition to being available in the fall, winter and spring terms, some students may also be available for the month of December. These off term internships can often be a key competitive advantage to solidifying the harder to get summer internships. In some industries, the internship a student has his/her junior summer is a very important factor in landing that optimal job upon graduation.

Dartmouth students also benefit from very loyal alumni who often are willing to be mentors and help in the Dartmouth student’s job search. We believe that more Dartmouth alums would offer internships for Dartmouth students if they knew how easy it was to implement a program with a high probability of success. Hence, we have put together these basic guidelines for implementing a highly SUCCESSFUL, EASY to execute internship program at your company. We call it

“Dartmouth Internships in a Box”

.

This is a brand new guide. Your feedback and input is welcome. It is our hope that this leads to better productivity at your company via some terrific new internships with smart, capable and dedicated Dartmouth students.

Sincerely,

Roger Woolsey Director of the Center for Professional Development & Senior Assistant Dean

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Why Hire Dartmouth Interns?

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Benefits to the Employer

Ability to mentor

the next generation of leaders in your respective field

Potential to complete more projects as you can hire a steady stream of interns each season

Find future employees who can hit the ground running when they start full-time

Gain a new perspective of your organization with an intern’s fresh ideas and abilities to potentially streamline basic tasks

Free on-campus advertising: leads to increased brand awareness and more potential employees

Give back to the Dartmouth community and support students

Benefits to the Intern

Gain real-world

experience and explore potential career paths

Develop important and practical skill sets that compliment a liberal arts education

Chance to network and meet more people in the intern’s desired field

Establish mentor relationships with people at the company

Gain self-confidence in abilities and choices

Boost the intern’s resume and potentially find future internships and full time jobs

Key Factors for a Successful Internship Program

On Day One, set clear expectations and office guidelines.

Tell them what previous interns have done that were huge successes & give them some examples of what an “intern disaster” would be.

Make sure you are clear on “open vs. closed” door policies. Make it clear how you expect an intern to communicate if he/she doesn’t understand what they are supposed to do and how often & with whom they should communicate.

Not all interns will be equally qualified.

Play to the student’s strengths whenever possible and help a student understand what they need to work on.

If you can afford it, hire multiple interns so they can work together and help each other out.

This makes the supervisor’s job easier. Also, it enables the interns as a group to work on larger projects.

Make it fun for everyone. Think of some group “bets” or “contests” and include fun, small prizes (e.g. maybe an hour off, a fun lunch, etc.) “Bets” can be on expected outcomes for a particular new business pitch or valuations expected from potential buyers of a company. “Contests” can be amongst various interns when given the same research assignment. Also, a casual Friday lunch offsite for the interns is always a good way for them to “bond” together.

Keep a database of past interns

& give that to your current intern in hopes that he/she will reach out to them early on for “do’s and don’ts” advice and later on for how to “spin” their internship experience in a future job interview.

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Potential Projects for the Interns

Start with projects that test the “basics” and tell the interns it will depend on how they do the “simple” stuff to how successful their experience will be – both for them and for you.

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Problem Solving

Advanced Analytics& Understanding

of the “Big” Picture

The Right Attitude

Getting to work on time

Proactively asking questions & showing a basic understanding of what is being asked of them

Willing to be flexible if plans/projects change unexpectedly

Overall attitude & desire to learn

Basic Organization/Attention to Detail

Updating admin stuff – adding names to contact & mailing lists

Basic PowerPoint presentation processing

Proofreading client presentations

Being a key administrative support on specific projects

Oral and Written Communication Skills

Give interns opportunities to present their ideas

Assign a weekly task to present each week at internal meetings

These tasks can require varying levels of analysis and can be company or industry related

Give interns specific writing assignments – might be associated with something internal or might be some slides for a client PowerPoint

Consider a longer term writing/research project if you have a group of interns

Potential Projects for the Interns (cont’d)

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Research & Analysis Skills

Again, start basic and see how they do

Potential projects include research on a particular person in advance of a meeting, a company, an industry, a pending legislation, etc. You’d be surprised at how smart & resourceful Dartmouth students are.

Projects that work particularly well are those that can be repeated multiple times throughout the internship so he/she can see tangible improvement

Also, there may be specific industry databases that you use & that they can learn to use (e.g.

CapitalIQ

). This helps build their skillset for future jobs.

Presentation & Selling Skills

Interns can practice their presentation skills on internal projects including potential

research ones they are working on.

Problem Solving/Advanced Analytics/Understanding the

“Big” Picture

Generally, this is where Dartmouth students “shine” relative

to

their peer

group. If the intern has “earned” the right, find at least one “meaty” project for them to do during their internship. It is better if it is something that they can easily talk about in future interviews.

Examples of this could be writing a research report, quarterly newsletter, rewriting internal operations documents, helping to organize content for a big internal office or client event.

Problem Solving

Advanced Analytics

& Understanding

of the “Big” Picture

How to Post a Job or Internship in

DartBoard

Access the following website https://employer.gradleaders.com/DartmouthU/Employers/Login.aspx?jprid=4363

. New Users – Registration:

If you are not a current user, click on “Create a New Account”

Search for your Organization and select; If your company name is not listed, click on ‘[Add Company]’. Complete all sections. Required * fields are marked with an asterisk. Click ‘Save’.

Once registered, click the ‘Job/Internship Postings (Non-Recruiting)’ tab at the top of the page in order to create a posting.

Existing Users:

Enter your Username and Password. Click on ‘Sign In’.

Update my Profile

To update Employer or Contact Information, click on [Edit]. Make changes and click on SAVE to complete the changes.

To Create a New Job

Click the ‘Job/Internship Postings (Non-Recruiting)’ tab at the top of the page. Fields with an * are required information. Fill out as much information as possible to make the job posting complete. To Make Changes to Existing JobsThere are several sections (Position Information, Contact Information and Posting Information) that you may update.

To make changes to any sections, click on the [Edit] link and make your changes. Once completed, click on SAVE for each section.

You can re-post an inactive job by opening the job profile and clicking on Copy Job under the page functions on the left side of the screen.

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NOTE: Once you have registered and if you posted a job, both your account and job will be in pending status. An administrator will review both your account and job. If your registration is approved, you will receive an email notification. If you do not receive your email notification within

2 full business days

, please email Patrice Vidal at

patrice.vidal@dartmouth.edu

.

NOTE: Once you add/make changes to a job, the information will be reviewed by a member of the CPD team before it is posted.

Sample Interview Questions/Topics

General Resume Walk Through

High School ActivitiesWhy Dartmouth?

Dartmouth Academics

Major – Why Chosen?Favorite & Least Favorite Classes?

Passionate Topics? Example of Intellectual Curiosity?

Any Off Campus Quarters?

Dartmouth Extracurricular Activities

Depth of Extracurricular Experience Outside the ClassroomLeadership Examples?Passions?

How these Activities Relate to the Candidate’s Character?

Summer/Off Term Activities & Jobs

Same Questions as Dartmouth Extracurricular Activities Above

How Did They get Involved with these Jobs/Activities?Personal CharacteristicsHow would Their Friends Describe Them?

What 2-3 Characteristics Do They Think Describes them Best & Why?

Examples of Adverse/Pressure Situations & How They Reacted

Interest in the Internship

Why XXX Company?

Explore How Much Research They’ve Done on the Company & How Much Knowledge They Have of the Industry

How Does Their Interest in this Internship Relate to all of the Areas Above?

Questions from the candidate

How Thoughtful are They?

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Offering a Student the Internship

General Guidelines

Under Dartmouth’s policy, allow one week to decide on an offer for next term, and allow two weeks to decide on an offer two terms ahead.

Make sure the offer is in writing with the following details specified:Start & Stop Date

Hours to Work

Any Skills/Reading Expected Before the Internship Starts

Contact at Company, Supervisor’s Name

Basic Internship Job Description (include how/when the student is reviewed)

Paid vs Unpaid (include amount if paid)

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All of them!

We are interested in internships at companies of all sizes: small, medium, and large.

We need more internships for 1

st

and 2

nd

year students.

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Career Fields

Arts/Media/Entertainment

Community Service

Consulting

Education

Engineering & Manufacturing

Environment & Sustainability

Finance & Banking

Government & Military

Health & Public Health

Law

Marketing & Communication

Retail & Wholesale Goods & Services

Science & Research

Sports/Recreation

Technology

What Industries Does Dartmouth Want Internships For?

Join the companies who currently offer internships to Dartmouth students, and sign your company up now!

To learn more, please contact:

Monica Wilson

Senior Associate DirectorMonica.Wilson@Dartmouth.edu

603-646-2665

Fiona HallAssistant Director

Fiona.Hall@Dartmouth.edu

603-646-1163

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