Hiring a Summer Intern is Win:Win

By Jane Eckert

This summer, Eckert AgriMarketing had two college students working with us.  Kristin Bereswill, a journalism major from the University of Missouri, had an internship working with Jane on marketing, public relations and communications projects.  Danny Mauk, a double major in graphic arts and theater design at Lindenwood University, was a summer employee working for Bill Mauk, who designs the websites for Eckert AgriMarketing’s Farm WebDesign.

Internships prove to be great for both farms wanting an extra hand and students looking to learn more about the business.  Busy summer months are a great time to bring in a summer intern to show them how your business runs in season and help them understand just what it takes to run successfully.

Hiring an intern is not all about helping out the farm, but students also expect to learn from the internship. Interns are eager and willing students who want a hand at a real world situation and dream of many of the challenges you could give them.  These are the a few of the important criteria that student interns look for in a summer assignment.

From a student’s perspective, there are many advantages to getting an internship. Internships are all about experience.  The best internship a student can receive is an internship that will throw them into the mix and help them build their confidence level to do the work successfully. Students read and learn all year about their career but nothing beats learning by doing.  The “hands on” approach.

Interns do understand there are a certain amount of small tasks that must be performed. However, interns like to be challenged and to take on a variety of work. It all adds to the experience and helps build a knowledge base.  This is how students find out if the career they have chosen is right for them, and allows them to see what they like and what they do not like about the job.

Interns want to understand the process of how your farm business operates.  From the daily activities that must be completed, to the big events that only happen a few times a year. They want to learn the process from the bottom up and occasionally you’ll find that some of the most tedious activities in your day are exotic to a student from the city and moments like this can shed new light on how you view your farm.

Students expect a lot from their employers and they should because each employer becomes a teacher to the student.

One thing an intern looks for is an organized employer.  Meaning they know the task they want their intern to accomplish.  This helps both the intern and the employer keep a vision of what needs to happen throughout the internship.  This also is important because an intern does not know your business and must rely on their employer to tell them exactly what needs to be done.  As the intern becomes more comfortable with the position they will get an understanding for tasks that need to be accomplished.

Another aspect an intern wants in an employer is trust.  It is important that the student feel as if they can approach their employer if they have a question.  Also when you are new to a job, you are bound to make mistakes.  An employer should recognize these mistakes so the intern can grow from these situations and know how to correct it before it happens next time.

It is important for the employer to share confidence in the student.  Let the student work on projects that you normally do yourself.  Prove to the intern that they can do it.  Working on a task the owner has never done before is hard, especially when they know it isn’t just for a grade, but for an actual business.  When the employer believes the intern can do it, these tasks simply become easier.

Along with trust and confidence comes constructive criticism.  An intern takes on this position to build their skill set and become well versed, but that comes with constructive criticism.  After an intern completes a project, review it with them.  Tell them what you like and what could be improved.  Come up with solutions for the negatives together and tell them why there is a better way to go about it than the way they previously had it.  Interns respect the feedback from their employer because it pushes the intern to grow.

Getting an intern for your farm can be just as beneficial to the farm as it is to the student.  Both gain from this mutual relationship.  By allowing students to do meaningful tasks it takes them off your hands letting you focus on something else.  But this also allows students to work on tasks that will help them understand the real work it takes to run the business.  The more you let your intern experience or take on, the more tasks your farm can accomplish.

Internships are a great way for the student to discover if what they are studying is really the right career choice for them. When you do not limit what the intern does, it helps the farm in a variety of areas not just one. And also lets the intern realize what aspects appeal to them and what challenges they must face in the line of work.

By covering a variety of tasks at the farm, this helps the intern beef up their resume and makes them stand out to future employers.  With jobs in short demand, having previous experience in your field makes an intern highly marketable by providing a foundation, which the rest of their class has not yet built.

To find an intern to work at your farm, contact career services at a local college or university in your area to list your farm and describe the position.

Jane Eckert is the founder of Eckert AgriMarketing (www.eckertagrimarketing.com), a full-service marketing and public relations firm that helps farmers to sell directly to consumers, diversify operations and become tourist destinations. She is also CEO of www.RuralBounty.com, a search directory for agritourism farms and ranches in North America. Jane can be reached at 314-862-6288 or you may email her directly.