If you are attuned to the engineering world or the evolution of Tesla, you might have heard of this story — how Elon Musk personally hired two interns who impressed him by solving a problem with Telsa’s Model 3 in the summer of 2018. It was a story destined for the movie theatres and a beacon of inspiration for students hoping to carve out a career in innovation.

Gone are the days when interns would be satisfied with merely serving as an extra pair of hands or being in charge of coffee runs. Today, they expect employers to give them the opportunity to problem-solve real work issues, take part in high-growth projects, and contribute actively to the growth of the company.

Zachary Zou, a second-year business student at Singapore Management University (SMU) who had recently completed his summer internship through the University’s Global Immersion Innovation (GII) programme at Mask Network shared: “I advised my juniors who are embarking on their internships to think like a founder and not as an employee. By voicing out your opinions or thought-process at the right moments, not only displays your critical thinking ability but also shows that you’re truly part of the company, thinking in its best interest.”

Zachary’s motivation and sentiments to contribute meaningfully are not uncommon amongst his peers.

While it may be a challenge for startups to hire interns, the benefits certainly outweigh any stumbling block. It could even create more value than you can imagine.

Fresh perspectives and innovative solutions to old problems

The effort needed to create a learning module, guide, and train interns on the various aspects of the business can be time-consuming. On the flip side, this may be an opportunity for startup founders and even established companies to gain unbiased feedback, fresh ideas, and discover new alternatives to internal processes that can help improve efficiencies.

Mr Tan Yuan Pin, co-founder of MyKaki, a new age freight forwarding startup, shared how impressed he was with both Ms Clarisa Lim, a third-year student, and Ms Danawa Roslee, a final year student at SMU.

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“After explaining our sales cycle to attain new leads, Clarisa took the initiative to improve our leads generation and sales call process by using digital tools to automate and optimise the number of leads or sales calls I can attain within a day,” said Yuan Pin.

“Danawa helped to create our online brand persona and simplify our communication materials to new customers in a more relatable manner that eluded us.”

Yuan Pin commented, “their initiative and willingness to contribute not only helped us improve our efficiency as a team but also helped the company to better analyse the quality of the sales leads gathered. We would still be doing some of these things manually or traditionally if not for their creative ideas and know-how in technological tools.”

Promoting your company to a young community of talents and potential customers

The truth is a three-month summer internship is not a long time. But here is a long-term perspective — an internship is a life experience that is going to stick with that person forever. By providing rewarding and positive work experiences for interns, you are potentially making them your company’s ambassadors when they share their memories and learnings with their community.

Being young digital natives, interns can be your best sales or advertising channel. The impact of word-of-mouth is immense. That is why some of the world’s most valuable brands like Facebook, Google, Coca-Cola, and L’Oreal invest in elaborate internship and onboarding programmes. If they are not going to be your employees, make them your customers or advocates of your brand.

Union Bank, a digital bank based in the Philippines and corporate partner of GII, inducts more than 100 local and international interns annually as one example. They gamified parts of their internship programme by incorporating an ideation bootcamp for interns to work together on FinTech challenges and providing an experiential learning journey that connects with the company’s product team and senior management directly.

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Ms Abeegail Caberte, Talent Acquisition Head of Union Bank said: “Through an interactive programme that allows interns to work on specific projects autonomously, we are able to talent-spot future leaders and simultaneously deepen our engagement level with the younger, highly mobile, and tech-savvy generation.”

The benefits are win-win. Union Bank said that they inculcate their brand values as part of the interns’ learning journey while interns gained a stimulating and fulfilling real work experience that they can be proud of.

Abeegail added: “We relied a lot on digital marketing for recruitment when we first started out. But after the first few years of this programme, job applications and referrals to our company increased tremendously.”

Developing your own capability as a leader or grooming your senior management

The demands of being a business mentor are much like parenting. A good mentor is able to demonstrate effective communication skills, has the confidence to provide guidance as well as being encouraging, supportive, and honest.

There is no better opportunity for startup founders to hone their leadership skills or companies to groom potential employees in management roles than through an internship programme. The learning experience can be both ways if the intention is set out in the right way from the beginning.

“You never know how good you are until you teach and try to nurture someone else,” Yuan Pin reflected candidly.

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“Even as an employer or mentor, I learned from the interns too — like how to condense crucial information and communicate constructive feedback to help them achieve their goals. I’ve also gained a better perspective of how to guide people to improve their work. In fact, through this exercise, I’ve started the company culture of encouraging our team including us founders to give feedback constantly in a positive manner.”

Yuan Pin concluded, “as employers, we have a responsibility to bring the best out of these young talents and it stems from us maintaining an open mindset, understanding from their perspective, and being willing to accept new ideas.”

To sum up, you will not be investing in just an internship programme but the future of your company and the interns’. Make it a meaningful relationship that is beneficial for both parties.

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In case you are on the lookout for proficient interns, the Global Innovation Immersion (GII) internship programme organised by Singapore Management University Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) offers pre-screened young talents who possess an entrepreneurial mindset and are highly driven with inclination towards innovation and digital transformation.

Simply contact IIE at iie-gii@smu.edu.sg to find out how you can leverage on GII to build your talent recruitment programme!

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by SMU IIE

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