BRX Pro Tip: How to Choose the Right Intern Transcript
Stone Payton: [00:00:01] And we are back with BRX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, we’ve really enjoyed some marvelous intern relationships. We’ve learned a thing or two along the way. What counsel, if any, do we have to offer in terms of how to choose the right intern?
Lee Kantor: [00:00:17] Yeah. This is important for all the studio partners out there or anybody kind of in business that is doing this kind of work. One of the—this is also one of the side benefits of doing work with the university’s entrepreneurship and incubators, right? You get kind of an insider view of-
Stone Payton: [00:00:33] Oh yeah.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] … the good interns are. So, that’s another reason to do work with the local universities in your market. But number one, there’s a pro tip when it comes to interns, you’re better off looking for an intern that’s a sophomore or junior, not a senior. The senior is looking for an opportunity to be hired right after this; where the sophomore in the junior is still in the learning stage and is just looking for any opportunity to get their foot in the door. And you’re gonna get to keep them for a year or two; whereas, that senior is looking to be with you, get knowledge, and then get a real job. So, if you’re not prepared to hire them, I would highly recommend getting a sophomore or a junior for the intern work.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:18] And then, I would look in the areas of the social media department, the PR department. You want good writers. You want good people with good people skills. And always hire for attitude. You want the person that is a go-getter, that can get things done. You can train for the specific skills. They don’t have to have any production skills. They don’t have to have any skills other than a good attitude, and wanting, and liking this, and coming to work everyday fired up. I mean, you can’t train that. That’s too hard to train.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:48] And you have to—the value you’re going to provide them, and this is something that has to be important for them, or it’s going to be a tricky fit is that they have to appreciate that you’re going to help them build their network and really get face time with a lot of executives, of people that can really benefit them down the road. So, if they don’t have that kind of attitude, if they think they’re just going to come in there, and either make a lot of money, or that they don’t care about building a network, that’s not going to be a good fit. And you can really help them because you can put them in the position to look good and be good by—we have our interns do a lot of times interviews from events, high-profile events.
Stone Payton: [00:02:32] Yeah, when we go outside, yeah.
Lee Kantor: [00:02:32] We introduce them to the leaders of different networks. This has led to a lot of speaking opportunities for interns. It has led to job opportunities and helping—a win for us is the intern leaves and has a job in the field that they desire. I mean, that’s a win for us. And that’s happened multiple times.
Stone Payton: [00:02:51] I think it’s happened every single time, actually. I think you’re being modest. But I do think one of the keys to remember, don’t feel like you’re confined to the school of journalism or the school of marketing and communications. There are some great kids out there that really are hungry, that are coachable, and they can bring a lot to the table, and there’s a lot that you can do for them.
Lee Kantor: [00:03:12] Right. If they like to learn about business and really want to learn from the horse’s mouth from all the people that we interview, we are a wonderful fit for these young people.
