internship program development
overview
My passion for recruiting and mentoring began when I created Myriad's Summer Internship Program. Our agency needed a long-term recruiting and talent development strategy to grow and support our team. At the time, I was in a marketing and business development role. I knew nothing about recruiting but I was excited by the idea of building something brand new.
We went from having two applications on year one to over 120 applications by year five (by which point I had transitioned full-time to HR). The program has now been running for nine years. In addition to gaining real-world experience on client sets and productions, every intern produced a summer video project. Sometimes we designed a mock creative brief or RFP and sometimes they had complete autonomy to imagine and produce a project of their choosing (with coaching and feedback from their mentor and myself).
The internship program was also an avenue to spot and train future managers. Interns had a full-time employee acting as their summer mentor. Employees were trained on basic management fundamentals at the start of the summer and got to experience what it’s like to coach and support a direct report. Because the mentor participates in the interview process, they also learned how to assess and develop potential.
Additionally, the internship program allowed us to test new recruiting and hiring tactics for the company. After we monitored the outcomes of our tests, we incorporated the successful experiences into our big picture strategies and programs. Our interview and on-boarding processes have improved dramatically as a result.
In 2020, we designed a fully remote and successful internship program due to COVID-19. This helped us understand how to build engaging programs and experiences for future remote positions.
