Recently an Intern joined us. Since we had decided we will have an open culture and have promised 6 reasons to Why you should join us? We are proud that we have managed to do what we told. So we will be share what we have been practicing.
Here are the 5 act that worked for us:
- Set the right expectation on day One. It is important that both you and the new team member are on same page on whats is planed. It would be really good if you have details about the task assigned to Intern.
- Skip the temptation to guide them at every steps (Freedom to explore). Our Intern is a programmer and it is natural to teach every trick in the book to bring up to the speed. It would be better to leave them alone with some guidance.
- Better practices, there will be always new and improved way to doing the job. We followed our practices, it was surprising to see our intern learn to write unit test before learning how to debug.
- Have a regular feedback.This will help you to track the progress of the individual and also explaining the bigger picture of how they are contributing to the companies vision. We have a monthly talk that works for us.
- Appreciate the good job. A job well done by an Intern needs to be noticed and admire. It is an lost art of good working culture. It is important to communicate the great work since it will boost the overall companies motivation.
Enjoy your work!
Vikram Shetty 