For employers, internships pay

Friday, Sept. 1, 2006

by Steve Berberich

Staff Writer

Employers increasingly are turning to internship programs as recruitment and training tools.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers reported that employers offered more internship opportunities for college students this year than ever. Nearly 79 percent of 303 employers responding to an association survey said the primary purpose of their internship program is to feed their college hiring programs, with respondents saying they have converted 53 percent of their interns from 2005 into full-time hires.

‘‘We tend to look at kids [studying] in culinary and hospitality programs and in some instances, after one or two summers, we hired the interns for entry-level management positions,” said Bob Daley, area general manager with Marriott International Inc. at the Montgomery County Conference Center in North Bethesda.

‘‘We are happy with them,” Daley said. ‘‘They are good, eager and have more than a vested interest. They know they can gain our support.”

At biopharma company Human Genome Sciences Inc. in Rockville, interns are not just another pair of hands, said Susan Bateson McKay, human resources director. ‘‘We use them as a recruitment tool,” she said.

HGS typically hires its own interns after graduation for jobs in engineering, bioprocess manufacturing, laboratory work or administration,” McKay said. ‘‘Our internship program is a business function, rather than just to be nice. People that come here for two to four summers are likely to have an offer and they like us and we like them.”

Marriott’s and HGS’s approach is typical, said Camille Luckenbaugh, research director with the college and employers association. ‘‘Our employers tell us that one of the primary focuses is hiring. They want to see how the intern functions within their organization. It should be their goal to convert 50 percent of interns to full-time employees.”

In addition, 46 percent of association member employers give higher salaries to interns they later hire after graduation, regardless of their field of study.

In the association survey, 48.8 percent of respondents were service employers, 42.2 percent were manufacturers and 8.9 percent were government or nonprofit organizations. Luckenbaugh said 99.2 percent offered paid internships, ‘‘but these employers had a vested interest in cultivating new employees mostly.”

A summer associates program for law students is the main recruiting tool for entry-level hires at Saul Ewing LLP, said Francie Spahn, an associate in the law firm’s Baltimore office..

‘‘We invest a lot of time and effort to make sure as many of our attorneys meet the candidates in the initial interviewing,” Spahn said. She said the company makes sure that the student’s summer experience is as much like a lawyer’s as possible.

‘‘At the end, it is a 10-week interview process. If they do well, they get an offer,” Spahn said.

Internships can help many businesses, said Christopher Irwin, spokesman for the University of Maryland Career Center at College Park.

‘‘My personal opinion is that all types of companies benefit,” Irwin said. ‘‘If you think about it, an internship can act like a training program. There is time and cost involved in that.”

Irwin said the university’s new President’s Promise Initiative provides an internship for all students who want one.