How to Use Micro-Internships to Access, Engage, Assess, and Hire Early-Career Candidates

Parker Dewey Micro-Internships are open to all college students and recent graduates regardless of major, school, or GPA. College students can explore careers, including roles and companies they may not have considered. These short-term, paid, professional assignments allow college students to develop and demonstrate their skills. 

Table of contents

Using Micro-Internships to access candidates
Using Micro-Internships to engage candidates
Using Micro-Internships to assess candidates
Using Micro-Internships to hire and convert candidates

Using Micro-Internships to access candidates

It's no secret that finding qualified candidates can be a challenge. With 11.4 million open jobs in the United States, finding the best talent for your team can be an arduous and lengthy process. At a time when more jobs are available than people able to fill them, it's crucial to be proactive in your recruiting efforts. Traditional markers of a candidate's fit for roles don't work (i.e., academic degrees, personal referrals, GPA), and these arbitrary requirements cause recruiters and employers to overlook talented candidates.

One way to find top early-career talent is using Micro-Internships as a recruiting tool. Micro-Internships allow companies to connect with college students, recent graduates, and even those looking for a career change who do not yet have the experience to qualify for a higher-level position at a company. This increases the number of potential candidates you can access to find suitable hires for your organization.

Micro-Internships posted on Parker Dewey's network provide employers with access to highly-motivated college students and recent graduates who are seeking to gain professional experience while demonstrating their talent and skills as they launch their careers. From research universities to community colleges, our network provides employers with access to 11 million degree earners nationwide. Career Launchers hail from over 5,700 academic programs, including more than 500 partner colleges, universities, and non-profit associations nationwide.

Some of the key ways Micro-Internships help access early-career talent include:

For more information on creating a Micro-Internship, contact us today!

Using Micro-Internships to engage candidates

Micro-Internships are a great way to engage and develop relationships with potential candidates. 

Engaging and developing relationships with candidates will help you create a talent pipeline that'll make it easier to fill future job openings. In fact, 70% of companies end up offering interns a full-time position, and 80% of interns accept these offers.

Thanks to the real and professional work that takes place during project engagement, many employers have extended full-time offers to Micro-Interns that have worked on their projects, effectively reducing renege rates. 

Using Micro-Internships to assess candidates

In addition to using Micro-Internships to engage and build relationships with potential candidates, they can also be used to assess a candidate's skill set. Have Micro-Interns work on projects they'd be working on if they were a full-time employee and evaluate how they perform.

It's important to note that Micro-Internships let the candidate assess employers, too - they get to see what it's like to work in an industry, on certain projects, and with a specific manager. It's beneficial for a candidate to say, "I think the company is interesting, but the manager's feedback confused me...I think I'd be better with someone that's more of a coach." Ultimately, giving candidates this opportunity to assess your culture, organization, and team leads to lower hiring costs, higher acceptance rates, and increased retention.

While a traditional internship may give you an insight into a candidate's communication and hard skills, it may take a while to formulate a solid opinion on a candidate's career readiness and if they're the right fit for your company. Micro-Internships allow you to quickly assess a candidate's technical and soft skills in a short time frame, making it a non-expensive candidate screening opportunity. 

Fortunately, Micro-Internships are short-term, which helps avoid spending too much time on candidates that may not be the right fit and ultimately making a bad hire. As a single bad hire can cost companies an average of $14,900, you must take the time to assess candidates thoroughly. For early-career candidates, in particular, relying on resume screening and interviews doesn't show the full view of a candidate's current skills, on-the-job communication, or potential.

Keep in mind that employers will see Micro-Interns work in real-time and understand their skills and capabilities, which will showcase the candidate's potential. You can assess candidates through Micro-Internships based on the following;

• Core skills

  Communication, numeracy, and time management skills are vital to working in today's world. These skills are needed in any work environment. Therefore, assessing for some level of availability in these core skills is prudent.

• Hard skills

  Micro-Interns will possess specific abilities they can demonstrate in a measured way. These quantifiable skills, such as cloud computing, data mining, and mobile development, can be tested to prove one's ability to get the job done.

• Potential

  One of the most important things you'll want to assess is the Micro-Intern's potential. This includes their ability to learn new things and how coachable they are. Some Micro-Interns will have more extensive experience than others, but most are early-career professionals that have the potential to grow with your company.

• Company culture fit

  Within the assessment process, you'll also want to consider if the Micro-Intern is a good fit for your company culture. Seeing a Micro-Intern's values, work ethic, and how well they get along with co-workers will be highly informative. You'll see how a candidate learns during their Micro-Internship, how they respond to and implement feedback, and get a sense of what the candidate needs to be successful at your organization. Whether it's further coaching or more structure, you'll know whether that's something you can provide.

• Work quality

  While Micro-Interns are completing your projects, you'll want to assess the quality of their work. Pay close attention to things like accuracy, attention to detail, and how well they follow instructions. These are all crucial indicators of how they would do in a full-time position at your company.

• Motivation

  One of the most important things you'll want to assess in a Micro-Intern is their motivation. Their willingness to learn, how hard they're willing to work, and if they have a positive attitude toward new challenges. These qualities will help them succeed in any position.

• Communication

  Another essential skill to assess is a Micro-Intern's written and verbal communication. Assess how a Micro-Intern communicates with their co-workers, customers, and clients, and ask yourself if they're concise and effective when communicating.

• Time management

  Lastly, you'll want to assess a Micro-Intern's time management skills. Their ability to prioritize tasks, meet deadlines, and stay organized will give you an idea of how they would manage their day-to-day functions if hired for a full-time position.

The methods above will give you a thorough idea of a Micro-Intern's skills and abilities. This will help you to determine if they're a good fit for your company and if they have the potential to be hired for a full-time position.

Using Micro-Internships to hire and convert candidates

While the idea of a Micro-Internship may feel like extra work, the return on investment is worth it. Using Micro-Internships to your advantage, you can hire the best early-career candidates for your company. Ultimately, this will save you time and money by increasing retention and acceptance rates while reducing the cost of a bad hire and reneges. Here’s how:

• Lower the cost of recruiting

  The process of recruiting can be costly, time-consuming, and stressful. Micro-Internships can lower recruiting costs as you will have worked with candidates early on, saving time and money in the long run. You won't have to spend as much time and money on advertising or recruiting campaigns. Instead, you can convert Micro-Interns to full-time employees and have a pool of top talent and an array of options.

• Increase acceptance rates

  When Micro-Internships are used to hire candidates, you build relationships with them from the start, increasing the acceptance rate regarding full-time job offers. Micro-Interns will already have a favorable opinion and experience with your company. In addition, by using Micro-Internships to hire candidates, you can ensure that you're only extending offers to qualified candidates.

• Ensure expectations and roles are understood

  Utilizing Micro-Internships to convert Micro-Interns allows you to set expectations early on, including defining their roles and responsibilities and what is expected of them. Doing this can avoid misunderstandings or miscommunications down the road, reducing the likelihood of them reneging. 

• Avoid making bad hires

  Making a bad hire can be costly in terms of time and money. Mico-Internships effectively reduce the risk of making a bad hire by engaging with candidates early on and assessing their skills and abilities. This will give you a better idea of whether or not they're a good fit for your company before extending them a full-time offer.

• Retention

  It's increasingly difficult to retain employees in a competitive job market. Fortunately, Micro-Interns thoroughly engage with employers and are exposed to the organization's culture, pay scale, flexibility, team, and potential growth opportunities, giving candidates a firm understanding of the organization. If an employer were to offer a Micro-Intern a full-time role, the chances of retaining that Micro-Intern once they're an employee is high.

Micro-Internships are an excellent investment, and Micro-Interns can become a valuable asset to your company, but only if you take the time to engage and manage them properly. You can use Micro-Internships to access, engage, assess, and hire top talent for your company. If you're not currently using Micro-Internships as part of your hiring strategy, now is a fantastic time to start.

For further reading, download our ebook, Beyond Interns, Temps, and Freelancers: How to Engage Students and Improve Entry-Level Hiring Outcomes.

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