I mentioned in one of my blog posts earlier this month I have some interns helping me around the office with some of the daily day to day tasks. I can not stress how great of a resource this is for me.
It is basically educated slave labor that they are more than happy to do because being able to put working at ShoeMoney Media Group on their resume after graduation is a huge benefit. Luckily I have the University of Nebraska literally 3 blocks away from my office so I can tap into the intern market quite easily.
I have them doing simple tasks like unloading my vehicle to running over to the hot dog stand, but I also give them some jobs that can help them grow as well in there respective fields. For example I have a marketing intern and I basically let him handle most of our advertising on the blog.
Having them do these tasks is a mutual benefit for both parties because it frees up an enormous amount of my time to focus on the bigger picture and it gives them some real life experience.
I am not sure what colleges in your area are teaching their students but I know for a FACT at Nebraska that they don’t teach marketing students even a sliver of what the online world has to offer. I took one of my interns to Elite Retreat with me last year to San Francisco and he told me that he learned more from our guest speakers then he did in an entire semester at college… that says a lot!
So word of advice, if you have a college or university nearby take advantage of that and hire some cheap hard working interns.
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2689 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Jeremy "ShoeMoney" Schoemaker is the founder & CEO of the ShoeMoney Blog, Elite Retreat Internet Conference, & the PAR Program. In 2013 Jeremy released his #1 Amazon Best selling Autobiography titled "Nothing's Changed But My Change" - The ShoeMoney Story. Jeremy currently lives in Lincoln Nebraska with his wife and 2 daughters.
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
“educated slave labor” lol
I love my interns!
Most people don’t even pay for their interns so it is nice that you do haha.
They really don’t teach you shit in school anymore. I learned way more during my time as an intern as well. School is a joke you simply just pay for a degree.. dumb.
Would it be weird since I work out of my house to hire an intern? lol
An entire semester of college? I would think it would be more than the entire 4 years (or 7 years, if you’re Tommy Boy)
Aww take me to an Elite Retreat!!
Good thing my company is based in Chicago, we have a bunch of colleges we get our interns from.
You’re right, its so hard to find college grads that understand this industry, simply because it isnt taught.
The learning in any college is not as good as practical learning.
How do you make sure they don’t steal/copy your campaigns?
What is the going rate for slave labor these days? Or would that be called like sweatshop work
Lucky you that you have a university near you i have to resort to craigs list which i HATE with a passion so most of the time I use 5fiver ;0
How many interns do you have working? Great to see you are educating the educated if I may say! I think that college is a waste of time they cannot keep up with technology these days.
Cheap labor loving it!
Gotta love that college students will work for nothing because they need to get something on their resume.
I was an intern once for a fortune 500 company and let me tell you we were super cheap labor for them. I mean they rotated us in and out of there as if we were in a slave camp.
Freeing up your time is the most important since you are the CEO. I think what most people struggle with is delegation because they are scared it wont get done and they know they can accomplish it
Hi,
I’m new to the using interns for stuff idea but I want to try it.
What is the best way to connect with them and find interns from the local colleges?
Please let me know and we will rock it.
Jeff
I used to think its some kind of exploitation when I was an intern myself (cause I hated most of it) but then some years later, I realized that its definitely a great help. Maybe just don’t have too much expectations for them..