As our 2017 recruitment season looms nearer, here are some tips & tricks for employers to help streamline intern recruitment.With 1,300+ candidate profiles on our website, how do you find The Intern of your dreams?  Fear not, we have a snazzy new website & top tips from employers who know how it's done!

Accessible & Inclusive

The information you put out in your profile & job ads on our website, and on your own website, can inadvertently turn off some candidates.  We suggest you run the text of your job ad through a gender bias decoder (here's a link to a free online one), to make sure you're not inadvertently alienating some of your best candidates.The tips below are given on the assumption that you want to be inclusive and cast the net wide to find well matched candidates for your role(s).  As an internship programme, we expect that you're hiring on POTENTIAL rather than experience, so our search algorithms are designed to help you find candidates with the right attitude & aptitude for your role(s).We encourage you to make a proactive online search of profiles, AND to participate in our offline recruitment events - it's hard to judge someone's potential from a photo & some text.Recruitment takes time, and hiring interns is no exception! Going through the steps of our recruitment season will take at least 10 hours of your team's time, more if you have multiple roles!  If this is your first year hiring interns, please reach out to our team, we can help make the process easier for you.

Respond

On our website, you can see if students have "applied" for your role(s).  That can be a good starting point to review profiles and select interview candidates.Students are limited to 10 "applications" through our website.

Search

Employers often find better candidates through a proactive search.  Remember that many people won't apply for roles that they don't think they're 100% qualified for, and internships are no exception.  (If you want to do more reading on this phenomenon, start here. Note that we've seen ethnicity as well as gender differences, so that's another reason to be proactive and shoulder-tap candidates that you'd like to talk to, don't wait for them to apply!)On our website, you can filter by your job requirements, or open up the database to search by technical skill, by stage of study, by institution.  If there's a skill missing, let us know!But wait, there's more...!

Anon Search

For extra extra awesome search results, we encourage you to try our anonymised search feature. You can switch off candidates' personal information and search by skill.  We've had FANTASTIC feedback from employers on this feature:

The anon feature... it's amazing.  85% of the people I pick turn out to be women, which tells me they write compelling blurbs that attract me to click their profile" - Alex G. 2017 employer

To anonymise candidate profiles, tick the box in your search view:We're expecting you'll need to de-anonymise profiles at some point, to invite them for an interview, but we highly encourage you to try the anon search first!  We're hoping to invest more in this feature next year.

Meet & Greet

Students will come and talk to you & your team at Meet & Greet, and that's often the best way to get an initial impression. Remember that not all students can attend M&G, so if you see an interesting profile on the website, feel free to reach out to them for a quick chat!Your initial chat will be 1-2 minutes long, and you should get an initial impression of whether you're keen to check out their profile in more detail, and whether you want a longer interview.

Selection Process

We suggest you plan your selection process ahead of time, and have a clear understanding of the skills and qualities you're looking for in your intern.  Most employers will do a mix of proactive searching, reacting to applications and Meet & Greet interactions, to create a long list for assessment.  Tips for managing shortlists on our website, and adding roles are here.Here's a suggested selection process or steps to take after Meet & Greet, to ensure you get great results on Offers Day!Long List: 10-15 candidates per roleSome employers will have an initial online test or screening exercise to select their long list, others will rely on website applications & Meet & Greet impressions.We suggest you participate in our Speed Interviews or run a similar quick-fire event at your office or via videoconference.Shorter List: 5-7 candidates per roleIt's usual to run longer form interviews onsite or via videoconference for 5-7 candidates per role.  Consider inviting your shortlisted candidates to visit your office, or perhaps you could have a less formal, social gathering for them + your team. This can be a great way for students to get a feel for your office culture and work environment.Short List: 3-5 candidatesWe recommend you end up with 3-5 candidates that you WOULD HIRE, per internship role. You'll need to conduct reference checks and whatever other recruitment checks you need to do, before offers day.We HIGHLY recommend you communicate with your top candidates! Let them know you want them, that an offer is coming, and start talking about the exciting projects they'll be working on!But remember, you MUST NOT apply pressure to students to decide before Offers Day, this time of year is extremely stressful for students, and it's essential that employers abide by our T&C's, to ensure a fair process for everyone.Offers: All internship offers are released at the same time, so we can keep our programme fair for all employers! You'll need to load offers onto our website before offers day, so make sure you have a plan to select your top candidates and have offers ready to go!