Academic Relations Strategies, how to attract interns

Strangely enough, we have never speak about interns recruitment and academic relations at #trumontreal. Nowadays, recruiting interns is as difficult as recruiting for regular positions. The market is highly competitive. Students are selective in their choices and it's quite common they are refusing offers. 

We asked Alyssa Ierfino, Succession Recruitment Advisor for GSoft to lead the discussion. Here are the overall points:

• Building partnerships with universities is an important way to reach students in various ways
• • Organizing talks with professors in their classes
  • Organizing "Lunch and Learns" at universities to talk to students about trending/relevant topics
  • Attending career fairs to create a human connection with students
  • Getting connected with student associations is a great way to target specific backgrounds and attend events at a smaller scale to be able to target students more directly and have more personalized interactions with them (rather than at a large career fair with many disciplines)
  • Attend various student-run events (ex: Hackathons) to reach student in more "fun" ways

• How to create a positive internship experience in your organization
• • Create specific programs for your interns
    - Onboarding
    - Have them present their work to the organization at the end of their internships
    - Give them a mandate that they will be able to provide impact in their time with you
    - talk to your interns, find out what THEY want, tailor things to them versus have them fit into your mold
    - treat your interns like every other employee, make them feel part of something
• • Ensure to conduct a form of exit interview with each intern
• • • This helps improve for next time and also be able to create/maintain a pipeline of students that could potentially come back for future internships or full time positions

• Brand awareness plays a big part in attracting the next generation
• • Ensure that whenever you are communicating or targeting students that you are focusing on building your brand awareness and recognition
    • Students have so many options on the market right now, it is important to find ways to stand out and create value for them
    • Be an ally for students

Overall, it is important to know HOW to target students and where. We no longer make differences between the "candidate" experience and the "intern" experience.

A very big thank to Alyssa for moderating the discussion and for summarizing it!