Internship in India

This is a mail we got in one of the OCC groups and I just copied shamelessly to answer in detail.

My purpose for this post is basically an open question to everyone. I
would like to know some of your thoughts/criticism/experiences/doubts/
questions/etc on the following question. There is an internship fair
to be held shortly in Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmadabad and Bengaluru,
for which we need some inputs from you to make this a successful
event.

Q: As we all know there are many internship positions available in
various companies around the country, also that most of the intern
positions are filled by references or some connections.

– So what is that you as an individual, an employer or an employee
would want to change in the internship industry?
– What would according to you be the best way to hire worthy
candidates?
– What is that extra punch, that you would personally want to see
in \’Intern hiring\’?
– On what basis (parameters) should a candidate be alloted an
intern position?
– Do you think the companies should directly receive candidate\’s
application form, or should there be a filter who would vet the
candidates and match them to specific opening as per their abilities?

I request you to please share as much information as possible. it
would be really helpful for us really understand the missing links and
requirements of the internship industry. Once again, thank you very
much in advance for all the great responses you would send in.

Personally, I will like to have interaction with the candidate atleast 6 month before the internship or Ideally I will like an agency to contact us, understand our requirements, interview candidates, select candidates, we do the final round (atleast 6 months before the internship), then the agency should provide the materials to study for the internship and connect with us so that we can clear any doubts. After 6 months, the intern should enter with a purpose and gel with the team to do something that can benefit the company and himself/herself.

Our (AIMK MCA) internship was the best, we had internship in 3rd year (final year) first and second trimester, then one trimester was study and another trimester was off for either internal or external project. In this way a person who is interested to work with the company can even continue working for the whole last year without effective much of his study. I started like that, I left college after 2 years of MCA, I worked at Alumnus and then joined another company where I did my final project + final job. It was beneficial for all.

>> Do you think the companies should directly receive candidate\’s application form, or should there be a filter who would vet the candidates and match them to specific opening as per their abilities?
This completely depends of the company and the cost involved, since interns are not for long term, as a company we don\’t want to invest anything to get good interns … we just want to take few, try one stuff …. but in case if there is any intern that is interested for a long term with us, things can be completely different, we will like to have different layers of filters before they enter in ..

>> What is that extra punch, that you would personally want to see in \’Intern hiring\’?
We just worked with the IIM interns, they had their mentors (professors) guiding them, this is very much needed, we need mentors at both end, in company and in college.

>> – On what basis (parameters) should a candidate be alloted an intern position?
One interview + The CV (it shall go easy on them as the risk is less here for the companies)

>> – What would according to you be the best way to hire worthy candidates?
There is no best, there is one that suits us and there is another that suits others but in all cases we want good people to be in. I recently spent by 2 days with an intern, I got so upset as his basics were so poor (we did a bad hiring here), I think I shouted a little too much, he ran away, never came back again 🙂 … this time we were more careful, we hired amazingly good interns and they are doing really cool. Loved working with them so far. They have already worked on FB apps, Joomla, wordpress and few more architectures ….

Hope it answers to some extend. Thanks.

Best Regards,
Aji Issac