Dan,
We brought in an intern over winter break and key thing was finding work that was valuable to us, but not necessarily client facing. What we eventually found extremely helpful was analysis work. Whether it was competitive analysis of products we were launching, cataloging best practices in shopping cart design, or some basic usability - it was useful for us. This type of work also gives a good sense of how someone thinks which is great if hiring is an ultimate goal. -Alex Alex Fisken Sr. Manager, Web Sales Network Solutions Desk: 703-668-5131 Fax: 703-668-5819 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.networksolutions.com ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dan Brown Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 1:29 PM To: UX Management Subject: [Ux-Management] Internships I just got an email from someone asking if EightShapes has any open internship positions. I have to admit, it made me think. I've never been an intern and only have had very limited experience managing interns, so would like to solicit other managers on their experience: * Has anyone used them in a design setting before? * What's the best way to get the most out of the internship? * What financial arrangement did you have? * Did you use them on client work? I listened to a podcast a couple months ago on Joel Spolsky's internship program at his software company. His shop is almost pure development, and they build products -- they don't do client work. Still, he uses interns as a recruiting mechanism. Brings them in, assigns them a project (for the summer) and ultimately (if it's a good match) hires them. It made a heckuva lot of sense to me. Nathan and I could probably use a similar model but: (a) It would be difficult to use interns on client work (b) I'm not sure if we would have time to evaluate or mentor their work outside current billable projects Any guidance or suggestions (or horror stories or more questions) would be most welcome! -- Dan -- | work: eightshapes.com | book: communicatingdesign.com | blog: greenonions.com | talk: +1 (301) 801-4850
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