How do I find and hire a good intern?

Question

We are in the process of looking to bring an intern on board. For the record, it's a paid part-time programming internship and we would like them to be local.

We always struggle on where to look for a good intern, someone who is passionate about programming, likes to be challenged, has a good (their young, so it doesn't need to great ... not yet at least) work ethic, and doesn't mind doing some low-level tasks.

We've had some luck at some of the local high schools, and not much at the local colleges.

• I'm curious as to where others are finding interns?
• How do you determine the good ones?
• What are you doing to make sure that they are setup for success within your organization?

There has got to be a better way.

Answer 1

i've always liked the article by Joel about hiring. Even if it doesn't cover internship specifically, it's a great read, and since this time, i've always hoped to meet this kind of interviewing system: Guerilla guide to interviewing version 3

Answer 2

I would try posting at http://news.ycombinator.com/jobs. There are a lot of us youngsters who hang out on Hacker News, and I think many of us would jump at the chance for an awesome internship.

However, if you're going to tell us we're doing "low-level tasks," I'm gong to assume you mean filing and menial code. The reason we do internships is to learn, so you'd better give us something challenging to do and learn.

I know my college has a Career Development Center that helps pair students with jobs/co-ops/internships. I don't know how prevalent this is, but it's a huge help for employers and students at RPI.

Answer 3

Personally, I would look at local Universities. If they can't help you, then Im sure they would know who to talk to.

Answer 4

Personally, I go hunting. Our local university has a place on their website where students can put links to their own sites. Looking at students own websites often will tell you a lot about how passionate they are about software. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all good sites for finding students with an internet presence.
We have also had great success with the Co-op program at our local university.

Answer 5

I have had success by getting to know staff at the college, and giving a workshop at the college. This gives you an opportunity to help out the staff, so they'll want to send the best students your way.

You also get to know a class of students, so you know what the range is and who the good ones are who will fit in where you work. This can be good for the students as well, if you can talk about using new commercially-relevant technologies that their teachers do not know about yet.

Answer 6

Take interviews from local universities / job boards. Make sure in interviewing you place a lot of effort behind questions of their ability to learn.

What websites/blogs do they read to keep current on programming / technology issues? I suppose the particular site doesn't matter so much as the fact that they express their ability / willingness to learn.

Depending on the skillset you require for your interns, try to stay away from the typical programming questions of a technical interview. You want to be the company credited for this person's eventual success, whether in your organization or somewhere else.

Answer 7

has a good (their young, so it doesn't need to great ... not yet at least) work ethic

There is no reason they shouldn't have a great work ethic. They just may not have had many opportunities to prove it professionally. You should expect interns to work really hard, if for no other reason than they want to impress you to either use you as a reference for a real job, or maybe move into a real job in your organization someday.

I'm curious as to where others are finding interns?

We generally hire our interns from local universities. Usually the university will have some sort of internship program where you can post internship opportunities or they can refer students to you. Depending on how the university operates this may be done on a department to department basis, so you could contact the Computer Science department and tell them you are looking for programmers for internship opportunities.

How do you determine the good ones?

I would recommend interviewing interns similarly to how you would interview an entry level programmer. We generally treat our interns like new programmers anyway. We give them real work (realistic to how long they will be working with us, if it is a summer intern, for example).

Which kind of answers your last question:

What are you doing to make sure that they are setup for success within your organization?

Set them up for success by giving them the opportunity to be successful. If you give them mindless, tedious work - or have you fetch coffee, they are not going to have fun or learn anything.

You shouldn't expect them to be expert programmers, but they should have a chance to learn quickly and solve real, interesting problems.

Good luck in your search!

Answer 8

Note there's a similar discussion here

Answer 9

We typically go through coop programs at local universities. This allows you to get senior interns with previous internship experience, so they'll have a minimum of proficiency and workplace know-how.

Top candidates are hard to get though, so you should provide a very attractive offer in terms of learning opportunities and work environment. It helps to have a small, well-defined project you can "pitch" to candidates.

Proofs of concepts and demos are good examples of such projects: they're not so critical that they'll endanger your main development, they're fun to work on for an intern and a good test of an intern's potential, and they're nice to have if the project succeeds.

Answer 10

Bigger state universities CS&E department. You just need to find someone that is very passionate for what you want to do.

I would go to a local or state university as a guest. Jump into one of the classes. Look for someone that seems energetic about theseclasses and talk to them after class about a job.

Do a programming contest with prizes and for the person that wins (say the one with the best code and documentation, offer them a job).

I knew one guy that got an internship that was in mid 40s. I was surprised.

Answer 11

Well since my question (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/102161/where-do-you-find-programmers ) was closed as a "duplicate" even though I was asking about hiring full-time developers and this thread is about interns....

Anyone want to comment on what places are good to find full time programmers?

Answer 12

As far as finding full-time programmers ... I have found one thing to be true, the good ones are already employed, and the great are employed and not even looking for a new job.

So the best thing you can do is target where they gather on the web, as well as, attend some of the local developer meetings in your area.

Answer 13

hey, I consider myself great and I was looking for a long, long time before I got my first job. ;)

Hmm... I guess the follow up would be: Is it ok to post job ads here?

Answer 14

Are there any tech-specific job boards out there? If you're looking for Perl programmers, you'll post at jobs.perl.org, for example. Check the places where you'll find the types of people you want to hire. If you go to something tech-specific, chances are you're going to get the enthusiasts for that technology.

Answer 15

Ha! I am having the exact opposite problem as a student, I am looking for places to actually get a coding internship to get some real world experience and actually get to code more :/.

Answer 16

I'm by no means an expert but here is my input:

• Don't do a cattle call.

Don't put an employer in a public place or have large poster with a hundred tear out sheets at the bottom.

It is extremely annoying and devalues your interview.

• Be prepared to offer compensation especially if your company is not prestigious.

No one "good" is going to want to intern for you if you can't offer money or a good reference.