Re: Benefits of hiring an intern?

[Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM>]

David Castro wrote:

> Okay, I'm sold on hiring an intern. But, I'm currently working on a proposal
> for hiring
> this individual, and can't think of what to put in the "what's in it for us"
> section...
> and certain people I've got to get this by are going to be very much into the
> what's in
> it for us part.
>
> The things I've come up with so far are:
>
>   * inexpensive labor that can handle some of the more tedious tasks (isn't
> that
>     the main reason to hire 'em? :-)
>
>   * potential to hire the intern on as an employee after the internship is
> complete.
>
> Can you help me come up with other benefits of hiring a technical writing
> intern?

Those are two biggies. But there really are more:

1.   They are usually more eager to learn than your average bear.  Or average
mid-level tech writer.  They understand that they are there to learn - and are
willing to. They are probably less expensive to teach than someone who's
already entrenched in some technology and/or set of tools.
2.   They can learn your system as they learn how to be a tech writer.
Imprinting how you do things on a fresh, young mind is a lot easier than on one
already cluttered with how things are done in other places.
3.  If they're fresh from a college environment, they're usually more
comfortable with networks and the internet, and can find usable URLs fairly
fast.  If you maintain an internal Pubs Dept. web page, an intern is more
likely to understand HTML and web page construction than a lot of older tech
writers.
4.  Their whole motivation is different from regular technical writers. As
interns, they know they're constantly proving themselves, and most are so eager
for a chance to do so that they'll try harder to be what you want than might
some older folks.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=