Internships – What They Are And What They Aren’t.

Internships are a hotly contested topic among designers. In certain situations having an intern is ok, and other times, it’s not. Here is a little info on what an internship is, and more importantly what an internship isn’t.

AIGA defines an intership as follows.

An internship is a temporary job at a design studio that is geared toward an upper-level student or recent graduate. Studios may hire interns to assist on a specific project or for a set amount of time, such as the summer or a semester. Students and young designers often develop their practice by broadening their education with a mentor, while gaining experience in a professional design environment. Sponsoring design studios benefit from each intern’s unique approach, perspective and assistance during the creative process.

Over the years, I’ve had a number of interns. Some great, some horrible. If you do get an intern you want to make sure of a couple of things. First off, make it clear what your expectations are from them. Depending on what you work out with your intern, you might not be paying them a lot of money. But what they are gaining out of the internship is much more important than money. They are getting experience outside of the classroom. So what does that mean to you?

We’ve all heard horror stories about internships. Where a designer shows up and all they do is get coffee and organize a font book. Not giving them ANY real world design experience. When you have an intern, you treat them just as though they are a paid employee. You just work with them more.

One of the things I would do with my interns is I would include them in all creative meetings, ask them to do sketches, and sometimes let them work directly on a project. I would always pay close attention to what they were doing. Then give them feedback on what they worked on.

An internship isn’t FREE LABOR. The worst thing you can do when mentoring an intern is give them shit jobs that you don’t want to do. They learn nothing, gain nothing, and you’re just taking advantage of the situation.

When you do get an intern, make sure that you do a good job of showing them the ropes. You basically become their teacher. Go over their portfolio with them. Give them constructive criticism on their work. Give them enough freedom to work on their own without suffocating them.

To Pay or Not To Pay

I know, I know, I know, I’m gonna get some harsh feedback on this one. That’s really between you and the intern. Basically it has to do with what you have to offer them. If you’re an awesome designer with years of experience and can teach them a lot. Paying them might not be needed.

If you’re a small company, they won’t be learning a lot, but they’ll be doing work you don’t want to do, then paying them should be a must.

Long Term Internship

When I got out of college, there was a company that offered me a job. They had a 1 year internship that was required before they’d hire a designer out of school. I asked them “will I be working hands on with projects” and the lady tells me “yes”. We go on, and then I ask her “what’s a typical day like”and then the truth comes out. Basically, I’d be the flunky for the company. I’d get coffee, organize libraries, run papers. Very little hands on work as a designer and a lot of shit that teaches me nothing.

I talked to two people that had taken the internship and both told me they quit before 3 months. They heard that sometimes when the internship was up, they were told that the company wasn’t hiring at the time, but if they wanted to continue working as an intern they would be towards the top of the list when a spot did open up.

This is wrong. If you are holding a carrot over an interns head, than that’s just wrong.An internship shouldn’t last more than a year. I think it should be a max of 3 months. Unless you’re paying them, and they want to stay. Keeping someone around to for free or cheap labor isn’t an internship.