managing an intern army, tips?
Just set up an army of 12 trial interns working on three different projects to help out WSO.
I've managed small teams of interns before, but never a team of this quantity. I know it will go fine, and I feel like I have a great group of people to work with, but any additional tips you guys can offer up in regards to giving motivation / managing progress / best practices for keeping myself & them organized , etc. Thanks in advance. SB's to all helpful comments.
More info: Internships are unpaid but each interns receives free wso stuff + solid real-world experience in a very relevant/attractive field + reference from Patrick and myself for a job well done. Each intern is on a 2-week trial period with a starter project and if they prove themselves and get their work done they are set up as a regular intern.
Original internship posting: //www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/wall-street-oasis-…
Let them know exactly what your expectations are and give them formal feedback as to what they've done wrong/right.
Don't micromanage. Instead, give them a deadline to turn their work in that they have done without your assistance that gives you enough of a cushion to go back through their work and make final changes. This will keep you from constantly being involved with all 10 intern projects, and will give them a sense of responsibility for making decisions without asking someone else every time.
Keep your pimp hand strong and don't let them get out of line. Once they sense weakness they will start to act up...or at least this is what my Russian father told me when I was 6 and we had that first father-son talk about women.
LMAO
I get a weekly excel sheet from all of my reports that is laid out something like
Name - Project - Status - Obstacles - Projected Completion
Works pretty well as far as giving you an idea of where people are, who is behind, what you can do to help, etc.
Hey Andy, here's how to manage me and my 9 peers:
Don't. At least not yet. That's what the trial period is for. If we botch it up now, we're guaranteed to botch it up later.
Take note of interns that do all of their work in the last day or something similar. The benefits of the internship line up directly with an emotional investment in the project on our part, especially given the basic nature of the project at hand. This might just be me, but I think those who procrastinate on projects like these are less conscious of the quality their putting forward.
thanks guys for your help so far - hahaha flake you're hilarious
please more... your answers are helping me with ideas for my intern staff as well lol
Delegate delegate delegate.
This reminds me of boy scouts. If you lead a large patrol, you appoint an assistant patrol leader. Figure out who the most organized kid is and give him the job of organizing everyone else.
They're working for FREE Andy. You are managing an army of volunteers.
Be nice. They have more power than you do in this.
Clearly you can approach this in a logical manner (interns please stop reading here)
Promise them everything but give them nothing !
Haha you're funny.
If their basketball team makes it to the men's basketball tournament, admit that their Huskies are better than your Huskies.
Create a calendar. All expectations/deadlines should be on a Calendar so that there is no confusion.
As Happy said utilize some sort of a project tracker. Maybe add key milestones, if appropriate for the project.
Don't micromanage.
Give us bananas! And maybe call us something cooler than "intern army".
Off the top of my head I can only think of corny ones, ie the monkey brigade, banana brothers (and sisters), wall street fleet, andy's dandies, andy's warhols
Train them special forces style to capture bess levin and any other competitors
special ops already on that, check wsj on monday
Better yet, check WSO on Monday...we have a new writer starting. Hope you guys welcome her with lots of open arms and SBs.
ha, I agree NOT to micro-manage. Just set expectations up front and if they deliver awesome. If not, likley not much you could have done anyways.
For the best interns so far I've written some strong recommendations (LinkedIn, etc) and even landed some solid interviews for people.
I'm willing to vouch for you if you bust your ass and do a great job. Best interns so far go above and beyond like the intern that built out our entire Finance Dictionary in 4 months, our current intern that is working on the Company Database is crushing it, etc.
Thanks to all the interns that help WSO go round. Most are active members as well, but they are really helping WSO behind the scenes to make sure our community and business is stronger going forward.
Something that always helped me in internships was for my superiors to make it unambiguously clear that questions were always welcome. It's better to use your time teaching me how to do it perfectly than to waste your time fixing my fuckups for the rest of the internship.
Andy: Make a Trello for your teams (or one for each of your teams). That way you can see what's going on, what people are working on, what they've finished etc.
Two words... Verbal Abuse.
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