Interns - Best Practices

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October 18, 2022

by a searcher from HEC School of Management, Paris in San Diego, CA, USA

  1. What are some of the best practices to attract top-quality interns?

  2. What are the pros and cons of hiring undergrads vs MBA candidates as interns?

  3. What do you recommend to keep interns motivated?

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Reply by a searcher
from INSEAD in Brasília - Brasilia, Federal District, Brazil
Not sure if we can name these as best practices, but I'm leaving here my two cents on what we did and which gave us good results: start with a strong and transparent recruitment, that prioritize those who are really motivated for the job and are able to keep up with the pace. Make sure you have your operational processes (e.g. CRM, analysis, approaches) in place before hiring, to avoid wasting time when the team is there. And have a training agenda to give your staff the resources they will need to perform tasks properly.

We've also given our team the opportunity to get involved in more strategic tasks and results were tremendous. Motivation and performance increased dramatically. We're not fan of the "stick to the basic tasks" kind of approach; instead, our interns are actively sourcing, assume direct responsibilities with sellers and intermediaries and participate on key decision-making.
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Reply by a searcher
from The University of Chicago in Chicago, IL, USA
I agree with Guilherme about a transparent recruiting process and leveraging a playbook so interns know what to expect.

I focused on undergraduate interns. Although they require more training, undergrads are generally much more eager for any hands-on experience, including list-building and outreach work that many MBA interns want to avoid. Many undergrad interns are motivated to get a "behind the scenes" look at the investment process. Chat with them about your career experience, invite them to tag along to an investor call, and spend time walking through the nuances of LOIs, LBO models, and other key investment tools. A small investment in mentoring can lead to fantastic effort from interns. With the right SOPs/training and motivation, undergrads can do excellent sourcing work.
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