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 Mentoring Your Intern
Outcomes of effective mentoring:
- Contributes to employee motivation, performance, and ongoing training.
- Enables new interns to acclimate more quickly to an organizational culture and become productive.
- Provides encouragement for the intern to advance in their profession.
- Inspires mentors to develop leadership skills and advance in their own careers.
Qualities of effective mentors and interns:
- Mentor: Utilizes strong listening skills, offers frequent and honest feedback, works to understand the intern's strengths and weaknesses, and focuses on the intern's professional as well as personal growth.
- Intern: Displays commitment to professional as well as personal growth, possesses a willingness to learn, displays trustworthiness and objectivity, listens effectively and asks questions, and connects classroom knowledge with experiences.
Methods to Enhance the Internship Experience
- Introduce interns to co-workers and other important contacts within the organization. An official welcome will help interns feel part of the team.
- Utilize the “Buddy System.” New interns can benefit from peer mentors who show them the ropes. This interaction can supplement formal training and orientation programs and accelerate a new intern's productivity and sense of belonging.
- Communicate job expectations in a clear and concise manner. Encourage interns to ask questions to clarify job responsibilities.
- Facilitate the achievement of performance expectations through feedback and performance appraisal. A faculty adviser may request Performance Reviews if the student intern is receiving academic credit for the internship experience.
- Assign the intern challenging tasks. Choose projects that offer appropriate growth opportunities matched to the intern's abilities and interests.
- Provide shadowing time for interns to observe how managers manage time, people, communication, resources and budgets. Encourage two-way feedback.
- Include interns in staff meetings and related professional activities when possible.
- Familiarize student interns with company rules and policies.
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