Hiring an Intern

[ASTDan]

Hello,

I am finding myself with more work than brain cells and am thinking of hiring an intern.

I have contacted the University down the road (Michigan State) and they have a program to connect me with students

I have never hired or managed anyone, and I am at a loss as how to interview, and pick a good intern. Does anyone have any advice on what to look for in a LabVIEW intern/minion? Has anyone had any experiences with interns that would be helpful?

Thanks

Dan

[Black Pearl]

I haven't done interviews, but just experience with how people performed around me. Most important is they do more of your work than you need to invest to keep them busy. So you most likely will want someone who is strong at doing the job on his/her own independently (otherwise you might just become a bad manager).

I think a good indication could be their hobby projects. (team spitrit, fields of expertise, independence).

Felix

[MikaelH]

I normally send the candidates an application description and have them code it and send it to me.

And them I of cause ask them if they've used OpenG, Queues and VI server VIs, and of cause which LabVIEW OO style they prefer ;-)

//Mike

[gleichman]

Hello,

I am finding myself with more work than brain cells and am thinking of hiring an intern.

I have contacted the University down the road (Michigan State) and they have a program to connect me with students

I have never hired or managed anyone, and I am at a loss as how to interview, and pick a good intern. Does anyone have any advice on what to look for in a LabVIEW intern/minion? Has anyone had any experiences with interns that would be helpful?

Thanks

Dan

The Joel on Software blog has many good articles on recruiting and internship programs.

[Roderic]

I'm an intern myself, if I had to recruit someone I would give him a coding exam, and look for someone independent. Maybe you should ask for someone who already worked with labview in a project or in a previous internship. Dedication to the task is the most important skill I would be looking for.

[ASTDan]

The Joel on Software blog has many good articles on recruiting and internship programs.

Thanks for the link. That is really helpful!

After reading that I don't know if I would hire myself...

[crelf]

We particpate in the Kettering University co-op program - we get students for three months, then the univerisyt gets them for three months, through out their degree (we also support their final thesis). This is good for us (and the student) - it's a longer relationship than an internship, and we also get to groom them as professional engineers (and we then usually hire them when they get out of college). It's a worthwhile program, and we appreciate the oppotunity to put back into the community in this way. Not that internships are bad, co-ops are just a much better fit for our business model.

Some of our brightest engineers went to Kettering and matured with us through this program, although our brightest did his co-op at the University of Technology, Sydney.

[bobmorton]

Thank you for posting the link.