Thursday, January 13th, 2011

U.S. News columnist and Jobacle.com founder Andrew G. Rosen discusses eight reasons why your office should be hiring interns in a column titled: “Why You Should Hire Interns for Your Office”.

Mr. Rosen goes beyond the simple fact that interns are more “cost effective” and delves into reasons such as they provide insight with social and new media as well as enhancing the workspace atmosphere.

We’d add that employers should also think about hiring virtual interns. Often times, growing companies need interns but don't have the office space to accommodate extra people. Luckily, interns are so comfortable working virtually that business owners can hire an entire team to work remotely. At any given time, we see virtual internships making up about 30-40 percent of the positions posted on our site (Urban Interns). Certainly there are some best practices that business owners need to follow to make this model work effectively, but virtual interns can be great resources for business owners.

Finally, Rosen signs-off by reminding employers that: “To make an intern’s experience worthwhile, you and your company will have to put time and effort into training them properly. But keep these often-overlooked benefits in mind, and you’ll see how you the experience works not only in the student’s favor, but in yours, too.”

Click here to read the article and all eight of his reasons at U.S. News’ website.