We caught up with Chris Noldus, the Chief Technology Officer at SafeMe and Summer of Code (Tech) Alumni. He shared why he hires interns, the value of having them, the skills he looks for in a candidate and his top tip for interviews. 

Is this your first time hiring interns?

I've been involved with the programme for more than 10 years and was an intern myself in Summer of Code (Summer of Tech). I got my first job through Summer of Tech and have been involved in tech companies that whole time. I have also been hiring through Summer of Tech for most of those years. 

Why do you hire interns? 

Young, fresh grads provide good value. Hiring experienced technical people is an expensive and risky exercise. Most businesses like the idea of hiring someone who hasn't developed bad habits somewhere else - we show them our way of doing business. It's a long term investment. Our hope is that an intern will grow to be an amazing professional person, and we train them in the ways we want things to be done. We always need fresh new people coming through to advance their careers.

What value does an intern/grad bring to the team?

I think businesses are always based on people. For a business to be successful, you need good and happy people. Every intern has brought something different. We go out of our way to have as diverse a workforce as possible, and Summer of Tech helps us access a wide and diverse group of people. It allows us to maintain that diversity and cast a wide net to find people from various backgrounds to introduce them to our organisation. We want as many perspectives as possible. Other options can be quite restrictive, but you can get a thousand choices with the Summer of Tech internship programme. 

What did you look for in an intern?

Generally, in our business, we look for a number of characteristics. We look less for skill, more for personality, character and attitude. I hold the view that if you can get along well with someone, and they've shown themselves to be proactive, upstarting, energetic, keen - the skills can be sorted out later. We go for Summer of Tech because graduates have proven their ability to learn. So we can focus on the culture fit, soft skills, etc., knowing that whatever their skills, they can be improved over time.

It's not just their grades at uni; it's what they do in their spare time. Is coding their life? Is engineering part of who they are? We look further back:

• What are their proudest achievements outside of their career path?

• What challenges they have faced

• How they work with other people

We want to know about the person outside of their raw skills. 

How has hiring an intern helped your business?

Two of our senior developers are former Summer of Tech interns. One runs the relationship between engineering and product, and the other runs our cloud service infrastructure. They've both made significant contributions. Most of the engineering side of our business started through the Summer of Tech programme. We wouldn't have a business without those people (Summer of Tech alumni). 

Would you be interested in getting interns again in the future? Why?

Yeah! I try to participate in the programme every year. Especially now in the hiring market, there's a serious skill shortage and a huge demand for good people. The internship programme is one way we can address that. I expect we will be with Summer of Tech for a long time. 

What has been the highlight of your work with the intern so far?

It's not just about hiring a role, no matter which side of the hiring equation. You are hiring people. If you support them and give them opportunities, they can make a huge difference to the organisation. 

What skills do you look for in a candidate?

At the beginning of each year's programme, we look at where our shortages are. This year, we were looking for mobile and web front end and ruby on rails, but we never really know what we are going to get. People are the key. While we do look for specific skills to fill shortfalls over the summer, and we use that to direct us towards certain candidates: we stick to the idea that if you find the right person, the tech skills are secondary.  

An ideal candidate needs to have a good work ethic, communication skills, and the ability to interact inside and outside the team effectively and positively. We measure up candidates against our core values - caring, compelled/motivated, and a contrarian (who isn't afraid to have a tough conversation and is autonomous). 

What is your top tip for a student interviewing for an internship? 

The most important advice would be to be yourself, be genuine. Interviewing for your first job can be terrifying; we understand you want to make a good impression. We want to know about you, who you are. It's not a test - there aren't right or wrong answers. Try to be true to yourself. If you are the kind of person that will fit well with that company, it will be obvious. But it goes both ways - you want to see that company as a good fit for you. Both sides should feel a connection. 

Thank you, Chris, for sharing your employer experience with us.