We usually have one or two interns around, and they have typically worked out great. We currently have two - one who is bit more of a web designer and one who is a bit more of a cognitive researcher. They are usually from local universities, usually grad students although one of the current ones is an undergrad, and they work about half time. They have proven to be a great source of bright, eager, cheap labor. We typically pay them, but hopefully they get some non-tangibles out of the experience too, at least they tell me they do. We usually select ones who can hang around more than one semester. In three instances we have hired people who worked with us as interns after they finished school, although that hasn't been so much the goal. They do substantive project work - literature reviews or web searches, helping during usability testing or other data collection, data analysis from surveys, occasionally design tasks, but they are almost always paired with someone more experienced, have limited contact with clients (at least until they get the right experience under their belt), and don't have a lot of decision-making responsibility. Over the years we have probably had 12 - 15 people working like this with us, and the only time this didn't work out well was a situation where the person didn't have his own transportation, travelled back and forth by bus, and eventually found excuses not to come, I think because the commute was such a pain. The point that someone else made about interns helping keep us up to date with what is going on locally in academic research related to our work is a good one. Internships have become an increasingly important part of a lot of educational programs, and using their students as interns has helped us maintain fruitful collaborative relations with a number of local academicians.
Dick Horst UserWorks, Inc. 301-431-0500 www.userworks.com <http://www.userworks.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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