The Intern Blog

Last Monday was the first ever War For Talent Conference. Hosted by Justin Bedecarre , a startup-centric real estate agent, turned conference guru and entrepreneur, War For Talent was one of the most unique and valuable recruiting events I have attended this year, mainly because panelists represented a cross section of Silicon Valley hackers and founders who had some very outside the box strategies on how to improve hiring.

The goal of the event was to address one of the biggest questions in tech – if Facebook, Google and other leading tech companies succeed by only hiring the best engineers, how does your no-name startup compete in what is now one of the most crowded hiring environments ever? The conference was fun, inspiring and a bit daunting to see just how many companies were trying to figure out how to crack the nut on hiring engineers.

Do you know where to find the best used bookstores in your city or which sushi spot makes the best spider roll? What about food trucks: got tips on the best chicken tikka masala on this side of the Pacific?

Then check out Pinchit – a new city-discovery site that ranks your favorite spots around town (like, the best sliders in the city) -- because they need a few tastemakers to join their team for an Editorial or Copywriting Internship.

Students interested in either of these positions should be excited about discovering the city of San Francisco, comfortable working independently, and have stellar grammar and editorial skills (bonus points if you're enthusiastic about social media and startups). Hopefully you have a good appetite and a trusty pair of walking shoes because the typical day for an intern might include checking out San Fran's hottest thrift stores, taste testing burritos, or writing and publishing articles for the web. 

Did we mention that this internship is all-access? Interns will have the opportunity to attend exclusive Pinchit events and the chance to get involved with an early-stage startup. 

Influencers click here to apply!

BrightNest is a hot, new Denver-based startup taking over the world of home improvement by delivering engaging content and recommendations to homeowners across the country. Fresh out of 500 Startups' (InternMatch, Kissmetrics, Twilio, Udemy) incubator program, they’re looking for a junior Ruby on Rails developer to join their team for a 3-month paid internship.

Students selected for this internship will have the opportunity to help the lead developer tackle large-scale projects and test out new features. You should be fluent in programming languages and platforms like HAML, Sass, JQuery, CoffeeScript, Rspec and Hosting with Heroku – just to name a few.

Do you have a knack for numbers and APIs? If so, then spend the summer in Boston working for Jana – an awesome startup that helps global companies connect with the more than 2billion consumers in emerging markets.

Jana has developed a new form of market research that focuses on underserved and understudied communities in growing markets (like India, Brazil and Nigeria) and they’re looking for a few rock star interns to help them get the job done!

Fast learners experienced with large data sets, programming and design are encouraged to apply for one of Jana’s Statistics or Web Development Internships.

Currently earning revenue in over 50 countries, Jana is backed by investors like Spark Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, the Blackberry Fund and Esther Dyson. Jana is lead by an impressive team who has worked on and built apps for some of the world's most cutting edge technology like Windows, Android, YouTube and iPad.

Apply.

Interviewing interns is lot different than interviewing full-time employees. Candidates have minimal experience and almost no track record, so figuring out whether or not an intern has the aptitude and professionalism to fit in at your company often feels like a game of cat and mouse. Still, you don’t need to use the force to pick the right interns, you just need to know what you are looking for and how to ask the right questions.

After speaking with thousands of employers here are 10 of our favorite internship interview questions.

We know that finding the perfect summer internship can be frustrating, which is why we’re excited to help promote about.me’s Internship Challenge! Starting today you can enter to win the summer of your dreams and one of five paid internships at the Huffington Post, AOL Video, AOL Events, Tech Crunch or about.me.

Long gone are the days where you have to choose between paper pushing, faxing or filing. These paid internships offer real world experience and awesome perks -- like spending a summer in New York or San Francisco, a $1k housing stipend and the opportunity to meet industry leaders like Arriana Huffington, AOL’s CEO, Tim Armstrong, or technology leaders like Ryan Freitas and Tony Conrad.

In preparation for InternMatch's Internship Google+ Hangout, we asked students if they had the chance to talk with a hiring exec from a leading company, what secrets would they want to know about the internship hiring process.

We were showered with questions but most revolved around...We were showered with questions but most revolved around five key topics, each individually important, and in total make up the core of a successful internship search. These five topics include...

How does a paid summer in Silicon Valley at a top tech company sound? Voted by Forbes magazine as one of the “Best Places to Work," NetApp is a global leader in data management and storage -- and they’re looking for talented MBA students to join their internship program this summer.

What makes this internship different from others?

Unlike internship programs at other companies, NetApp cares about your professional development! Interns are given meaningful and exciting projects to work on from the beginning, with full access to mentors and senior management professionals.

Students will have the opportunity to work with other Fortune 500 companies like Cisco and Intel, while further developing their skills in marketing, project management, research and business development.

Check out NeApp's available positions and grow your career with a company that cares about your future.

This is a guest post by Software Advice HR Analyst Jennifer King.

For businesses, interns can be an invaluable addition to your team as they provide new skills and ideas to the organization. On the other hand, it can be challenging to manage and train a group of interns depending on how you structure your internship program.

For the internship to be valuable for both parties, businesses must be prepared to invest time in creating a meaningful learning experience for students.

In the following video, Andrew Maguire, CEO of InternMatch, and Larry Smith, founder and editor of SMITH Magazine, share their advice for establishing and fostering a valuable internship experience with tips for building a successful internship program.

Most of you know Alec Baldwin’s famous speech in Glengarry Glen Ross where he shares the golden rule of sales: “ABC: Always Be Closing.”
Even more so than sales, recruiting is a job where you need to be always on. 

If you’re not building a pipeline of candidates and promoting your brand, chances are that the rock star candidate you want to hire will slip through the cracks.

The same philosophy is true in the campus-recruiting world when hiring interns. The biggest companies with the deepest pockets (Microsoft for example) have massive university teams that make sure that no potential candidate is left unturned. In fact, Microsoft is so dedicated to the idea of always recruiting interns that they have a college recruiter responsible for every technical university in the country! At key campuses like University Illinois Urbana Champagne Microsoft is regularly on campus meeting with student groups and even taking them out to get free ice cream.