best way to find unpaid interns
Anyone have ideas for ways to go about finding unpaid interns? I recently started a newsletter as a side project and want to try and find some unpaid interns who can help drive subscriptions to the newsletter from people at their school.
Before someone comes in and knocks this idea - I got the idea to do this from having read that Morning Brew got its first 10k subscribers by bringing on a bunch of unpaid interns to spread the word about Morning Brew at their school. I also did at least one unpaid internship when I was in school, and see no problem with unpaid internships that are structured so that the intern can do as much or as little as they would like to do.
I tried making a job posting on Indeed but Indeed banned my account because the job didn't meet quality standards. I also tried posting a job on LinkedIn but have only had one person apply from having done that. Finally, recently I have been just sending connection requests out to college students and then messaging those who accept to ask if they would want to intern for me but literally no one has gotten back to me from that strategy so I may stop doing that.
Anyone have ideas for me?
Create a posting on your local university's LinkedIn alum page. Make sure it's visible to those looking for internship opportunities. You can also search for people looking for intersnhips on there just like recruiters find people looking for FTE roles.
good ideas. thanks. I hadn't thought about trying to post on my university's page but that's a good idea.
also while I'm on the topic of talking about the newsletter, I've been trying to grow it by emailing all of my connections on LinkedIn but the results so far have been horrible. so far I've sent 260+ emails and gotten 3 free subscribers from having sent those emails.
I might change the message up that I've been sending though, so far I've just been sending a super generic message like 'Hi my name is X and we are connected on LinkedIn. I recently started a newsletter. Do you want to subscribe? To elaborate on the topic of the newsletter, it's about XYZ' etc. But I might start sending this message instead:
"I recently started a mind bogglingly entertaining newsletter - it may or may not have been quoted by Bloomberg as having been 'the single most entertaining business newsletter of the millenium', here are some of the articles (links to articles - don't want to get no bumped or removed for self promotion so not going to link here though). There is just one problem - and it's a big one - I am having trouble finding people who would want to subscribe to the newsletter. I have emailed over 260 people about this newsletter so far and I have only obtained 3 free sign ups from having sent these emails. What the people who didn't sign up fail to understand is that reading this newsletter will single handedly change your life. Reading this newsletter will teach you how to: - eat an entire box of frosted animal crackers without throwing up - stay up for 48 hours straight without hallucinating - secure as much non personally guaranteed debt as possible. If it wasn't clear from the previous bullet points, the goal of this newsletter is to basically parody hustle culture. So far I've been writing about historical figures who we should ironically be looking up to - in the future there may be long form posts on different topics which are parodying hustle culture. We are connected on LinkedIn which is how I found your email address. If you are entertained/intrigued by this email, or by the newsletter articles which I have linked, can I add your email address as a free subscriber to the newsletter?"
Why I think that this new message might work better:
- it's kind of ridiculous, so might get people's attention better than saying 'My name is X and we are connected on LinkedIn'
- it's kind of funny and people like humor
- saying that I've reached out to 260 people and only 3 people subscribed might synthesize the feeling of sympathy, thus making people more likely to subscribe
sounds like an MLM...
Craigslist
oh shit this is actually not a bad idea. thanks.
update: costs $10 to post each job posting on Craigslist. might as well just pay to promote the job on LinkedIn rather than paying to post on Craigslist imo.
Talk to the finance club at your university. I would be surprised if they wouldn't at least share a short message and your email with members.
wow this is a good idea. but maybe I could reach out to marketing clubs instead if there are marketing clubs on different campuses. will have to do some research. thanks for the idea.
yeah this was an absolutely fantastic idea thanks again bro.
Of course bro and I agree. Marketing or consulting club could be promising
WSO used to (might still have) a bunch of unpaid interns. @ Patrick Curtis.
yes I used to be one myself for a while - I did get paid though after I contributed more significantly. now I need my own unpaid interns. funny how it comes full circle like that.
Watch out for college kids who grind it hard but fail to secure IB internships. They are desperate for something and they will probably take your unpaid internship as resume builder.
grinding out emails to college marketing clubs now to see if they can pass along the internship opportunity to the members of their club. we will see how it goes.
Stop trying to scam children
If I had the opportunity to get some real work experience for free earlier on in my career, I would be very greatful.
This isn't "real world experience" though. It's literally an MLM.
There's a reason no one is responding to you, unpaid interns aren't going to work hard to sign people up for a newsletter with 3 subscribers. If they were to work unpaid, it'd be for a good cause, friend/family, or a company with a strong brand name. You are offering them almost nothing on their resume.
I'd do a referral basis and give them a small amount of money for every X subscribers.
interesting perspective. I think that it could not look bad on a resume, the interns could track how many people they signed up over the course of the internship. like 'drove X amount of subscriptions to a newsletter' is fairly measurable and measurable is good when it comes to internships
So you want to underpay your workforce to help you swindle a bunch of unsuspecting rubes (e.g. 18 - 22 year old college kids) into buying your monthly newsletter when they'd be much better off dumping whatever money they'd pay for this publication into the S&P?
Don't worry, I'm sure none of your indentured servants would misrepresent this opportunity as a riskless-trade or get rich quick scheme........
Also, IANAL, but this sounds like your soliciting / publishing investing advice across state lines. I've got to imagine FINRA is going to be looking for an ass to break their foot off in once they get word of it.
Ok relax hardo, hes a kid at college trying to start something in his free time. You want to go after someone for trying to exploit desperate students, how about you target one of the investment banks that do this across the US. There are at least 25+ that I know of, so yes there are more than you think.
Also, OPs business isn't CF positive, so maybe go easy on him a little bit? He has nothing to offer folks to spread the word other than an unpaid internship title / experience.
And you think FINRA is going to attack some kid who is probably getting a MAX of 100 readers on his newsletter? Man, you really are a pessimistic downer.
couple of points in response to these two comments Jeff Skilling 1. I am not a college kid but 2 years out of school, trying to do this in my free time as a side project, I have 31 subscribers right now 2. my newsletter has nothing to do with publishing investment advice, it's not even finance related, it's a comedic newsletter parodying hustle culture 3. almost all of my subscribers are going to be free tier subscribers (but if someone wants to pay me $5 a month that's not exactly going to do much for them from an investment perspective) 4. I already told my one intern that they can do as much or as little as they want and put it on their resume, of course I want them to help drive subscriptions a bit but it's not like I'm imposing strict demands on how much work my unpaid interns should be doing for me, how I see it is if the internship is unpaid then it should be up to the intern to decide how much work they want to put in 5. again I have 31 subscribers, it's not like I'm making any money here, hiring a bunch of paid interns would not be financially sustainable.
also as an update I emailed 67 marketing clubs last night and one marketing club got back to me - big moves being made.
I think the best thing you can do is reach out directly to career offices at universities. Tell them you have an unpaid internship position and give them the details, and ask that they post it on the schools job posting platform (usually Handshake), and/or send it out to everyone studying business related majors or something
interesting idea on the career offices I may try that. today and last night I just focused on emailing marketing clubs based on someone else's suggestion here. I've emailed 113 clubs so far and only two have responded though lol.
If you’re sending out hundreds of emails to try and get interns, why not use that effort to grow first. Will be an easier sell if you have a solid amount of subscribers, and you will actually have a framework to help them when they start!
good advice. I'm also sending emails to people from my network on LinkedIn but not a lot of people are responding to my message asking them if I could add them as a subscriber. I've emailed only 260 people so far and gotten 3 subscribers from doing that. I have 6700 connections so still have a lot more people I can email though - I need to refine my message to make the offer to subscribe more compelling.
sounds like you're spending a lot of time and effort on this stuff and nobody is interested (nobody wants to work on your project and nobody wants to be your customer). I would ditch this project and focus on your job and maybe invest in stocks/real estate if you have too much spare time and want to have a side hustle, and also get some fun hobbies.
yeah it's kind of sad that I emailed 360 people and only 3 people signed up so far. no demand.
update: just lost my first intern due to my newsletter not aligning with her 'personal values'. these are trying times for me and my newsletter - please pray for me.
By paying them, for starters
You're struggling because the product sucks. There is maybe a very niche market that finds this funny. I found it to be unprofessional and cringeworthy especially considering how you set this up to be some sort of professional finance newsletter. Ditch this product and create something new.
I didn't set this up to be some sort of professional finance newsletter. The goal of the newsletter is to basically parody hustle culture/motivational business culture - I'm writing about historical figures who we should ironically be looking up to. It's entertainment. However I appreciate your feedback that it sucks - I will try and step it up.
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