Internship Information for Employers

Hiring an intern gives employers the opportunity to develop emerging talent while bringing fresh perspectives, new ideas, and additional support to their organization. Interns can contribute to meaningful projects while gaining the hands-on experience and professional skills needed to launch their careers. By investing in an intern today, employers can help shape future talent and potentially develop a strong candidate for tomorrow’s workforce.

The first step in hiring an intern is identifying needs and writing the job description. Having a quality job assignment with a detailed job description is key to finding the right student for your internship. See the end of this section for more information on a quality job assignment.

A clear job description which defines duties, basic goals, and learning that a student can expect is extremely important prior to employing an intern. Employers know that retention of students is valuable to program cost effectiveness and that retention is possible only when students are challenged in internships commensurate with their education content and level.

Submit your job description to the Career and Professional Development database - Career Connections (Powered by 12Twenty). This is a free online database designed to connect employers with WT students and alumni. Once your position is approved, we can help market it to our students.

Review our employer guidelines. These guidelines communicate our expectations of employers.  In a nutshell, we expect employers

• to provide quality, major-related assignments.
• to provide constructive feedback to the student.
• to work with the university in assisting  the student with academic credit (if applicable.)

Interview candidates. Review applicants for your position, then contact and arrange interviews of the students you are interested in. If you would like to host interviews on our campus, please reach out to us at wtcareer@wtamu.edu or 806.651.2345.

Finally, please notify Career and Professional Development once you have selected a student. Before your student begins work, let our staff know, so we can assist with coordinating credit (if applicable) and updating our records.

Quality Internship Assignments

A quality internship assignment should provide meaningful, educational, and career-related experiences that help students develop professional skills. Quality assignments should be:

• Aligned with the student’s field of study and level of education.
• Relevant to the profession and conducted in an appropriate professional workplace. Not a private residence.
• Supervised by a practicing professional with experience in the student’s field.
• Challenging and meaningful, providing opportunities for students to solve problems, produce quality work, and contribute to organizational goals.
• Progressive in responsibility, allowing students to take on new challenges and responsibilities as they develop.
• Flexible enough to support career exploration, allowing students to learn about their interests, strengths, and the professional environment.
• Well-planned and clearly defined before the student begins the internship.

Maintaining a Quality Internship

Employers and internship coordinators can use the following practices to help ensure a positive and meaningful experience:

1. Gather student feedback. Use evaluations, surveys, or exit interviews to learn about the student’s experience and identify opportunities for improvement.
2. Conduct mid-term check-ins. Encourage supervisors or mentors to provide feedback on the student’s progress and performance.
3. Use feedback to improve assignments. Incorporate feedback from both students and supervisors to strengthen future internship experiences.
4. Communicate with university coordinators. Partner with faculty and internship coordinators to ensure the experience aligns with academic and professional expectations.

Should a student seek to complete an internship for course credit, they will need to start that process through Career Connections. During the approval process, you will recieve an email prompting you to approve or reject the student's internship for credit proposal. Keep an eye out for a system email coming from 12Twenty.

WHAT IS AN INTERNSHIP?

An internship is a work experience that allows a student to apply classroom concepts in a professional, real-world environment. Internships are different from a part-time job in that there is an intentional effort to bridge classroom concepts with the world of work.  Typically, employers use goal-setting and end-of-semester evaluations to accomplish this.

HOW CAN I BENEFIT FROM HIRING AN INTERN?

Many employers simply enjoy sharing their expertise and investing in the lives of college students. However, there are many other benefits of hiring an intern.

• Internships are an effective long-term recruiting tool. They give a test period before you make a full-time employment commitment..
• Studies show that businesses who hire interns into full-time positions realize higher productivity, higher retention rates, and lower recruiting costs.
• Interns can perform well on some professional-level assignments, freeing up your staff for more advanced responsibilities.
• Internships foster on-going, productive relations between the campus and the employer.
• Internship programs are excellent tools to find new, energetic, diverse and skilled employees.

HOW DOES THE PROCESS WORK?

As an employer, you can offer a substantive work experience that supports a student's academic and career goals. If you need help designing or improving your internship program, check out the Starting & Maintaining a Quality Internship Program resource mentioned above.

Complete an Internship Job Description and post the opportunity in 12Twenty. Effective job descriptions not only list responsibilities and qualifications, but also how the student will benefit from the experience-skills they will develop, opportunity to develop portfolio material, networking opportunities, etc.

In addition to you posting the internship on Career Connections, our staff can help to increase your chances of finding good students through promotional efforts. 

HOW DO I GET STARTED?

Submit your internship to 12Twenty for our review. Once approved, it will be available for students to view. If you have questions about this process, don't hesitate to contact us.

If you are a new or first-time employer, we may request a consultation at your work site with one of our staff.

Check out this resource for helpful insights on developing an effective internship program:

Starting & Maintaining a Quality Internship Program

I HAVE AN INTERN STARTING SOON. WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW?

Let our office know by sending an email to wtcareer@wtamu.edu. We try and keep records of all WT students who intern as this help secure federal funding.

Check with your student to see if they are receiving credit or interested in receiving credit for the internship.  Not all internships are for-credit experiences. If your intern is interested in or receiving credit, make sure they contact our office. We can help them determine if credit is possible.

WHAT IS EXPECTED OF SUPERVISORS?

Supervision is the most important factor in any employer's program.

Quality intern supervisors:

• Work with interns each semester to develop learning goals that tie into the intern's field of study.
• Orient interns to their new workplace.
• Ensure interns have resources to do their jobs - desk, telephone, computer, etc.
• Provide on-going direction, feedback and encouragement based upon discerning observation.
• Complete, review and submit a formal evaluation over each intern. The WT Career and Professional Development Office sends electronic evaluations to employers at the end of each semester.

MUST AN INTERN BE PAID?

If your organization is a for-profit business, we strongly encourage you to offer compensation. Many WT students work their way through college and must have a paying job to make ends meet, so receiving some form of compensation is appreciated. If your organization (for-profit or non-profit) is unable to offer a regular wage, consider helping the student with a stipend or internship-related expenses such as parking fees, mileage, meals, etc. Providing lunch occasionally is also a perk that students love!

Unpaid student employment will not violate the U.S. Department of Labor's Fair Labor Standards Act if it is a training program which meets the following criteria:

• The training should be similar to that given in a vocational setting
• The experience is for the benefit of the student
• Students do not displace regular employees
• The site sponsor provides the training and receives no immediate advantage from the activities of students
• Students are not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the training period
• The site sponsor and student understand that the student is not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.

Many employers ask how much they should pay students. The most recent average hourly wage for a WT students in paid internships was approximately $17.00 per hour. Contact our office if you want more specific average wage rates based on major.