Internships provide real-world experience, mentorship, brand recognition, and foster long-term relationships, benefiting both students and organizations.
Summers go by in a flash. The arrival and departure of interns mark the beginning and end of this short season within our professions. Students who take advantage of the three-month break between college years gain valuable work experience in the AEC industry and chosen fields. Although brief, internships provide many mutual benefits to students and organizations.
The benefits may seem obvious – students earn work experience to satisfy a graduation requirement and gain an advantage in the job market, and businesses have extra help on projects throughout the busy summer months. Providing quality internship programs is a beneficial experience for students, professionals, businesses, and our industry as a whole. At Westwood, our internship program benefits participants in four ways:
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Real project work and job exposure. Busy summers require additional expertise. Our interns work on real projects for clients and are exposed to many markets and services in all areas of our business. They gain hands-on experience, bridging the gap between academic knowledge and real-world application. Many also get the opportunity to see their work in action, traveling to projects across the country. Beyond project work, the interns also partake in invaluable experiences to learn more about office soft skills and post-graduate financial training.
Working cross-functionally to gain knowledge of how teams work together can be invaluable for an internship. Project managers appreciate the increased productivity, new diverse skill sets, and knowledge sharing that will continue to propel our organization forward. -
Mentorship and leadership development. The mentorship benefits for interns can be rich and valuable for their education and career. Interns gain confidence working on projects with guidance from their mentors and supervisors, and they can explore other facets of the business to help them find their true passions. Mentors provide additional insight into the workforce after college by being a resource for questions about work-life balance, benefits, and growth.
Having an internship program also benefits the cultivation of the talent in existing employees. Allowing current employees to oversee, train, and manage interns is a great way to build leadership and managerial skills without needing to disrupt employees’ current job descriptions or roles. This also gives employers a chance to see how top talent grows and responds to change or increased responsibility, highlighting potential candidates for promotion or development opportunities. -
Brand recognition. Whether it’s a LinkedIn post announcing their new internship or a conversation with a friend upon returning to campus in the fall, word of mouth is maybe more important today than ever when it comes to finding and retaining top talent. Student-to-student or even client-to-client positive referrals are the best way to narrow the search for an excellent employer or partnership.
Internships also help students build their personal brand. The student returns to the university in the fall with new skills to apply to classwork and clubs. The experience shows students their strengths and weaknesses to continue to build on throughout the semester and potentially helps them further identify paths of study, focuses, or opportunities to take advantage of. - Lifelong relationships. After investing time and effort into our program and interns, it is the ideal scenario to keep those interns around in some capacity. Maybe they accept a full-time role post-graduation, return the following intern season, or explore other areas of the business. The opportunity to return or stay with our team provides the calming assurance graduates and interns look for.
We continue to show the value these individuals bring to our team. We encourage them to take initiative and innovate. Many take these opportunities and our annual growth planning process wholeheartedly and are now leaders, associates, and shareholders in our organization.
Eric Lannen is chief human resources officer at Westwood. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
