Micro-Internships.
Maximum Impact.
As you consider your workforce needs in the coming months, Micro-Internships offer an opportunity to engage our current graduate students and postdoctoral scholars on short-term, professional assignments. We believe that career options extend far beyond the boundaries of academia and Micro-Internships provide the avenue for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to expand upon their wealth of skills and knowledge.
In addition to providing professional work experience and learning opportunities, Micro-Internships can also complement your campus recruiting strategy by providing an opportunity to assess graduate students’ skills and quality of work.
Post one of our templated projects below, ask questions via the form on this page, or attend an informational webinar to learn more.
Sample Projects
As a NC State Graduate School supporter, you can have any of these completed by a current graduate student, postdoctoral scholar, or alum, making it easy to give back and stay productive. Clicking on the project title will take you to the Parker Dewey platform where you can customize and post your Micro-Internship. We’ve designed a bold, new approach to workforce training for graduate students through Accelerate to Industry (A2i) and your support of Micro-Internships can provide our graduate students the career-ready skills that employers seek.
Post a Custom Project
Click on the link above to create your own project. You can determine the project scope, deadlines, and other details. If you need help, please reach out at info@parkerdewey.com.
Content Creation
When you have content ideas but no time for the first pass, look to the research and writing skills of college students.
Social Media Content Calendar
Creating a quality social media content calendar is time consuming. Give an eager student the opportunity to develop it for you.
Candidate Sourcing
Get help from a college student or recent grad to identify and research prospective candidates that are qualified for one or more of your open roles.
User Experience Testing
Engage a student in conducting a comprehensive UX test of your website and provide suggestions for improvement.
Job Board Support
Have a student develop and manage the posting of five open positions including promoting it on social media and screening initial applicants.
CRM Lead Cleansing
Utilize a college student's research skills to review and update data on existing leads.
Reconciliation
Leverage the attention to detail of a student to assist with reconciling your accounts receivable.
How it Works
I know that I am getting bright, intellectually curious, and motivated talent. I also find it personally fulfilling to give back to my school in the form of mentorship and capability-building in a live work setting. It's a rare opportunity to create "wins" for my company, the school, the students, and myself!
Keagan Russo,
Sr VP of Strategy & Business Development,
Brightwell Payments
While we were focused on just getting some help on a project, we quickly realized that the student was incredible, and ultimately hired her as a summer intern. We saw her work ethic and skills, and got an inside track on hiring her.
Adam Hecktman,
Director of Technology & Civic Innovation
Microsoft
I like that there's no commitment. I posted a project to see who would apply, and now I have some amazing college students and recent graduates helping me.
David Faulk,
Head of Employee Success,
G2
Frequently Asked Questions
A Micro-Internship is a short-term project that can typically be completed within 10-40 hours and is due within a few days to a few weeks. These projects require no on-boarding and can be completed by a college student with minimal instruction. These are important but low-risk tasks that aren’t the best use of your time.
You set the price for each project. All projects are fixed-fee, and most are listed between $200-$600, typically implying $15-20/hour based on estimated hours of work. 90% of this fee goes directly to the intern, and there are no obligations or other fees even if the relationship turns into an internship or full-time role.
In short, it’s easy as Parker Dewey handles it all. No HR burdens. No conversion fees. No questions about ownership or worries about confidentiality.
- Employment: Micro-Interns are not your employees, contractors, interns, temps, or freelancers. Similar to working with a consulting firm or any other service provider, you are engaging Parker Dewey LLC to complete the assignment, and each individual you select is a contractor or employee of Parker Dewey. You can still directly interact with them as much or little as you would like, and always have the opportunity to hire them directly without any costs or fees.
- Liability: We’re mission-driven and believe in the power of creating opportunities. That said, we take on all the liability. Not happy with the work product? We’ll give you a full refund or find an alternate Career Launcher.
- Work Product: All work product is owned by you.
- Confidentiality: While most projects involve public-facing information of a non-sensitive nature, both Parker Dewey and all Career Launchers sign strict NDAs to protect your information. In addition to the standard provisions, the students understand that they are risking their academic transcript or expulsion for any violation of confidentiality.
- Background Checks: Given the short-term nature and structure of these assignments, we do not conduct background checks. While companies are always welcome to conduct a background check directly, the nature of the specific assignments and lack of a direct relationship with the individual who is selected has caused most organizations to defer the background check until after a Micro-Internship is completed and a student is offered a traditional internship or full-time role.
Micro-Internships are not meant to replace traditional internship programs but rather complement and even supplement them. Due to their short-term nature, Micro-Internships can be used year-round to find on-demand project support while simultaneously allowing you to engage and evaluate potential talent.
Micro-Internships can be either on-site or virtual, depending on the specific requirements of the project. We typically suggest remote, as this provides more flexibility and accessibility.
The project manager will be a member of your team, whether that be a hiring manager, team lead, or another employee. At the start of the project, they will clarify specific expectations and share the information/materials necessary for your Micro-Intern to complete the project. From there, they can engage the student in whatever way works best, whether that be email, Zoom, etc. Because Career Launchers on Parker Dewey have core skills and are highly motivated to exceed expectations, they require minimal management.
Our Client Program team is dedicated to making sure that it's as easy to hire one Micro-Intern as it is to hire 100. Contact us to learn more about Micro-Internship programs.