7 Tips for Recruiting the Right Interns

April 24, 2015
3:54 pm

Posted by DMA Solutions Team

As our company grows and as the practice of marketing evolves, recruiting the right people can often be a challenge for me as a relatively new entrant into the human resources area of the business – and this includes interns. When it comes to hiring, we’ve learned just how imperative one person’s impact can be on the health of our team and organization, even as a part-time worker or college student. When done well, an exceptional recruiting strategy can serve as a long-term, sustainable succession and leadership opportunity, and recruiting the right interns can help you mold polished, future full-time employees for your business.

When we recruit marketers to work at DMA Solutions, we’re looking for people with a “marketing it factor” that are not only prepared to do the work outlined in the job description but also people that can adapt to the ever changing environment (of marketing, DMA and the produce industry) with a healthy attitude, sense of ownership, and passion for the work that we do on a daily basis.

As we enter the peak of hiring season for summer internships, we wanted to give fresh produce marketers seeking skilled students tips that we believe will help fuel your recruitment efforts:

1. Look for People with Proof

If you’re seeking to hire a social media marketer for example, look for proof online that the candidate(s) applying for the position have experience managing and executing social media engagement across the channels that matter most to you. When hiring interns, this can be a little more challenging to find as most candidates have very little to no experience at this point. So even if their only experience is managing their personal social media content, take a deeper look into their engagement tendencies and voice to identify if they are going to be a natural fit for your brand.

2. Engage in a Creative Exercise

At DMA, we engage recruits in a creative exercise that we present to the candidate upon entry into the interview and we use the exercise to give us context for the meeting that we’re about to conduct. It is amazing what you can learn about someone based on their ability to think, act and deliver on their toes.

3. Ask Questions and Read Between the Lines

Asking in depth questions that allow the candidate to explain the details helps you as the interviewer lead the meeting and gain insights into the candidate’s abilities and thought processes. For instance, we like to ask questions that allow the interviewee to share results that help us align the person with the job and the company. Most times, interviews become customized for each recruit simply because we allow the answers that people give, to lead us to the next question and repeat. For internship interviews, ask questions about their classwork and specific projects and see if you can get a feel for their level of knowledge and if they are prepared to execute what they’ve learned in the classroom.

4. Find Evidence of Leadership Experience

Finding evidence of leadership experience during the meeting can help you identify if the person you’re meeting with has potential to become a thriving leader in your organization. Oftentimes we are amazed at how things like extra-curricular activities, volunteer and even group leadership experience can uncover the candidate’s hunger (or discourse) toward past leadership experiences that can be critical points for you to consider. College students love to share their involvement in student organizations. Some of our most skilled interns were the ones that served as the president, vice president, or another prominent position in a student organization.

5. Seek People with Passion

Consider your company’s vision, mission and purpose. In the recruiting process, seek information or evidence that the candidate has the capacity to love what you’re trying to achieve. At our company, we seek candidates that love food and more particularly, fresh produce. We seek evidence of this passion when we research our recruits via social channels looking for content surrounding the products we market. Students just entering the work force from college should have no shortage of enthusiasm and passion – we love to see students that are eager advocates for a healthy lifestyle amongst their peers.

6. Can They Drink the Culture Kool-Aid

Since company culture is such a personal and unique attribute that all companies possess, it is imperative that when recruiting the right people, there is clear evidence that your culture is going to be a good fit for the recruit in question. If you know that your company is pretty corporate and buttoned up in terms of culture, you may not want to interview the candidate with indicators that lead you to believe that they possess and thrive in a more free-spirited environment. This element is almost a proactive approach to diminishing the opportunity for internal strife that can hold your company back from making progress.

7. Hiring is a Group Exercise

When recruiting the right people for the job and the company, use your top talent with previous experience in the role to help you find the perfect fit. Ask them to provide you with a list of must-have attributes and qualities that one must possess to be successful in the role and involve them in the process along the way. This will not only give them insight into the due diligence that it takes to find the right people for the company but will also underline how important they are to you as a leader.

Working to evolve this area of our business over the last year, I have developed a new mantra for recruiting: “You’re only as good as the marketer sitting to your right.” Marketing is a team sport, whether the team is in-house or not. Building a team of marketers starts with one’s ability to find the right people for the job and a great fit for the company. I hope these tips help you with your search for finding the next person, intern or full-time marketing guru, on your right as well.