What interns think the job is vs what it actually is
October 22, 2024
by a searcher from University of Mysore in Seattle, WA, USA
I get about 2-3 emails a week with younger (juniors, sophomore students) from a finance or business background asking me for intern positions. I would love to work with them and get them on board. I like the interaction and coaching.
There is however an expectation mismatch.
90% of what they expect they will do is less than 10% of the time. For example - financial research, equity analysis, deal discussions.
The remaining 90% is boring grunt work - web research, list building, email outreach (cold emailing), updating CRM, first call meetings which go nowhere.
I would love for it to be different, but realistically if you are early in the PE / Search world, most of the work needed by the team is the grunt work.
I would love to get other people's opinion on how they help interns have a better experience.
from Western Washington University in Nashville, TN, USA
I ran this experiment as a result of seeing many peers hire interns, have less than desirable outcomes, and then not bother with interns afterwards.
Here's a few things I found useful, just my own experience, your mileage may vary...
#1. I put intern candidates through a rigorous hiring process to filter for the most motivated individuals.
- Interns had to jump through multiple hoops
- They had to complete a homework assignment
- I followed a modified version of the WHO Method of Hiring
The cohort I hired were all VERY motivated and self starters.
#2. I created 2 roles: A) sourcer, B) diligencer to give interns exposure to a variety of work.
- Every intern was assigned either role A or role B for half the internship, then switched roles halfway through
- This gave them experience with what I needed MOST (sourcing), but also with what they valued skillset-wise (diligencing)
I found that interns who were interested in doing diligence work still put the time in with sourcing because it was only temporary.
#3. I structured the interns into a team environment to foster friendly competition.
- Every intern was assigned to a team
- Every team elected a team leader
- Every team has KPI targets each week
- Every team has their own CRM / KPI tracking
- Every team leader reports KPIs publicly every week
I saw a number of interns start a little slow, but then pick up the pace as they saw their peers outpacing them.
Hope this helps!
from Xavier University in Dallas, TX, USA