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Ask HN: How to Motivate Unpaid Interns?

by thewordpainter on 6/1/11, 2:59 PM with 22 comments

one of the best luxuries we have as a startup in athens, ga is our access to UGA's 30k student body. we bring in 5-10 interns every semester at http://GoRankem.com (we have plenty more to choose from...), and best of all for a bootstrapped startup, the going rate around here is...nothing.

they're always super-excited when they come in, and despite telling them up front that i need self-motivated individuals that don't want to be micro-managed, the production tends to trail off unless i'm hands on and telling them what they need to do.

the best motivation i can point to is a former intern of ours busted his ass and we rewarded him with an equity stake moving forward.

what kind of motivation tactics of you used to increase productivity and get your interns/employees to try to best each other? any great ways to recognize great work that don't come off too cheesy?

-adam

  • by tokenadult on 6/1/11, 3:05 PM

    You are living dangerously with federal labor law if you are not paying the interns anything at all.

    http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf

    If your internship program doesn't meet the Department of Labor regulatory test, you may owe pay to all of your interns.

    A subsequent reply to the submission here said,

    I really believe in paying interns if they are doing meaningful productive work

    Well, that's not only a good idea, it's the law. Interns generally must be paid if the value of their work to the employer exceeds the value of the training program to the intern--which certainly appears to be the case described in the original post here.

    Anyway, interns who work without pay while possessing computer skills are chumps. In the job market in my town, anyone with serious programming skill can get a paid internship readily at a company with a genuine future--whether that is a start-up or an established big corporation.

  • by olegious on 6/1/11, 3:26 PM

    I had plenty of unpaid internships (college credit was my payment) but motivated me the most was one on one time with my bosses- take them out to lunch, have weekly 1 on 1s with them where they get to ask you questions. An internship isn't about money- a smart intern will use it to figure out where they want to go after college, build connections and learn from their experienced bosses.

  • by ch00ey on 6/1/11, 4:55 PM

    A couple years ago(my first year in Uni) I took an unpaid internship and I ended up getting a job out of it. So, from personal experience I'd suggest to do the following: - Have them do work that will in turn actually teach them things they want to do in their career. - DO NOT make them do boring menial tasks. - Engage them in actual company decisions. (Just because they are an intern doesn't mean they don't have good views) - Get to know them both on a work and personal level. (...or even offer being their mentor or introduce them to people they'd like to be mentored by)

    All in all, since you aren't paying the interns you have to provide them with an experience that will be equivalent of getting paid.

    Just my 2 cents though.

  • by bartonfink on 6/1/11, 4:14 PM

    If I were an intern, I would want to know, up front, what I was getting out of the deal. I suspect your interns know they're not going to get paid, but they should get something out of the deal. Are you giving them individual attention and making an effort to build relationships with these kids? That's a common benefit of an internship - connections. Are you giving them active technical guidance, helping them develop as engineers? That's another common benefit. Is GoRankem something I should have heard of that I haven't? Yet another benefit could be brand recognition on a resume. Tales of one former intern who got an equity stake of dubious value aren't going to set people on fire if you aren't able to scratch their immediate itch.

    If I were you, I'd figure out what your interns want and make damn sure I was able to give it to them. Otherwise, you're going to get this tailing off scenario where the interns realize they're getting a raw deal and just make time until they get out.

  • by petervandijck on 6/1/11, 3:21 PM

    Code reviews.

    Saying "Awesome job!" is not cheesy.

    Don't pit them against each other, give them a shared goal.

    Set them up for quick wins as a team.

  • by pkamb on 6/1/11, 6:16 PM

    Either potential equity or the potential to get hired.

    Make that a stated goal for them, and have regular meetings/mentorship as to how they're doing.

    It sucks to bust your ass on the offhand hope that one day your boss will say "you're hired!". It might not happen, and you have no idea. You get burnt out. But if that's a concrete goal you can achieve...

  • by curt on 6/1/11, 3:21 PM

    I really believe in paying interns if they are doing meaningful productive work (programing, engineering, design, finance). I made good money in college as an intern and would never even contemplate working for free.

  • by sirwitti on 6/1/11, 3:21 PM

    perhaps see it from the interns point of view: you work your ass of and get....reputation?, some contacts if you´re lucky...

    a former teacher at university once told us students to only do interships if we get something out of it. (money, reputation fame, whatever)

    maybe you can offer them something they´d be excited about? martin

  • by grep on 6/1/11, 3:15 PM

    Paying them.