Best Practice Examples for Companies
Jens Klein, Klein & Partner KG, Austria
Jens Klein is the founder and head of the „Klein & Partner KG“, an Austrian company in ICT, focused on OpenSource web applications and CMS.
Since when have you been employing interns?
We exist with the current company since 2003 but it took us 3 years to get our first intern. In other word since 2006.
How did you manage to find interns so far?
Most students are looking actively for internships. Schools in higher education like the HTL, universities of applied sciences and media schools are demanding up to two internships from their students. Our interships have to be paid according to the official collective agreement.
What do you expect from the intern?
Curiosity and the will to learn. I do not expect them to be productive from the first week, but at the end of the period most are.
How can you integrate the interns into your work/company?
First it depends on the person and we look after them, talk daily or in the first time every two hours about how they feel, what they do, if they have problems. At the beginning they need to setup their computer, get comfortable with the tools and may need to learn a new programming language at least in their basics on them own. We are available for questions at given times, but I expect a certain degree of self-teaching.
What are your experiences with interns - why should other companies do the same?
Both, yay and meh. With and plus on the yay-side. But in any case we learn new social skills with every intern. On the plus side are those you work afterwards together in one or the other way. I.e. we had an intern who worked in our field self-employed as a freelancer after he finished school. We did several projects together and are friends now.
What do you wish for in the future of internships?
Some support from official sides for both companies and students. Schools expect students to find companies for paid internships. In IT we have a shortage of qualified employees. As a small company we train young people only to find them been headhunted by some bigger corps. I think especially SME need more structure and support from official side.
Jörg Zell, Interaktiv, Germany
Jörg Zell is the founder and head of the Plone-Company „Interaktiv“ and employs interns since 2000.
Since when have you been employing interns?
„Interaktiv exists since the year 2000 and almost from the start we allowed interns to do an internship here…sometimes they only stayed for a few days, some for months or even years. One of those interns actually got a job at our company later.
How did you manage to find interns so far?
„Especially for the dual study we have schools which provide a space in the database or we are at least known there. And then the applications practically come by themselves. “
What do you expect from the intern?
„Firstly we need them to be curious, that they are interested in the internship and it would also be nice if they had a certain knowledge or if they show in their applications what they already know or what they learned in school…If they already did a school-project or if they already built a website then it obviously is more easy to decide who to choose.”
How can you integrate the interns into your work/company?
„We try to integrate them into all different kinds of tasks, which we provide. You can’t really answer that correctly, because it just depends on the previous knowledge the intern has, but one thing is for sure, our interns aren’t there to bring coffee… We integrate the interns in our training-team…so that they have a first communication…our trainees have special training projects… now it’s a database for example which the trainees need to develop and the interns obviously help with that. The interns should also learn the base-information’s of Plone and Python. “
Why did you decide to employ interns?
„That does have several reasons, firstly we provide a dual study for the jobs:I T specialist, application development for business administration / man marketing communication and for digital media designers…we always suggest an internship before doing this job to get to know each other….so that you can see if the job and the company fits…secondly we provide internships…for young students, to which we want to offer the chance to look into a certain job. One special form for example is the girlsday, it’s an event that offers girls the chance to look into a job in which mostly men are employed…we want to show young people that the job of an IT Specialist is a fascinating one. Another point is that we provide long-term internships, for somebody who decided to do a dual study, so he or she can do the practice phase with us. This is another chance to get an early connection between employer and intern…that’s how the intern gets the perfect education and the right work experience.”
What are your experiences with interns- Why should other companies do the same?
„the normal way to applicate for a job is that there is a job interview first…especially young people have a huge difference between what they could say and what they actually say during that interview. The resume of a younger person obviously isn’t as packed das the one of a forty-year-old, that’s why an internship is a good way to get to meet this person and see if the job fits. It’s a win-win situation for the intern and the company as well, both of them have the chance of getting to know each other and see if they fit together….We want to give the interns the opportunity to see if they like the job and the company.”
What do you wish for in the future of internships?
„In terms of software management, we wish for more applications of girls and women and that we succeed in showing that this job is very interesting. It’s a bit sad that this didn’t happen so far and that more men work in this job than women… I wish for more opportunities to provide internships and that’s why I think this is a great idea to have internships just for Plone.