Spotlight Online for College Employment and Recruiting Professionals, December 10, 2008 

At Cisco Systems, converting interns is a lofty pursuit. Each year, the software developer has a goal of converting 70 percent of its interns into full-time employees. On top of that, Cisco works to ensure that at least 50 percent of its full-time new college graduate hires come from its internship program.

“If we’re looking to hire 600 software engineers one year, we’re looking to hire at least 300 of them from our internship program,” explains Jim McGrath, manager of global staffing/university relations. “Doing so allows us to focus on recruiting interns in the fall instead of the spring.”

McGrath says that it is critical for your organization to have a strategy built around converting interns to full-time employees. Management buy-in is essential to achieve this; make it a specific point to let management know that interns are not just cheap summer help or filler, and that the internship program is a way to attract top talent early and can be a key feeder for full-time hires.

Cisco demonstrates its interns’ talents to management by showcasing their projects, allowing management not only to see their accomplishments, but to experience the innovative ideas and new perspectives interns bring to the company.

In order to ensure that the experience is valuable to the interns as well, Cisco requires managers to develop predefined projects and work assignments for potential interns. These submissions are reviewed and either accepted or rejected.

“We want our interns to take part in compelling and interesting work,” McGrath says. “Requiring predefined projects has resulted in internal competition for these students, and, ultimately, that is good for both our company and for our interns.”

If your organization can give students detailed and predefined descriptions of the projects they would be working on during an internship, it can be a powerful recruiting tool and a strong component of the organization's brand building.

“Students can base their decisions on the actual work they will be doing,” McGrath says. “We’re using this as a component of our brand and also branding our internship program as a feeder to full-time employment. The students recognize it.”

McGrath also recommends that organizations put as much focus on hiring interns as they do on hiring full-time employees. Cisco, for example, not only looks at prospective interns’ GPA and course work, but also for certain competencies that the company values, such as initiative and adaptability, that can be identified during a behavior-based interview.

McGrath says that the best programs offer interns a mix of compelling work experience and positive social experience. He recommends building an overarching internship structure that allows students to network; experience as much of the organization as possible; engage with management; take part in social events that bolster the area and the company’s mission; develop relationships with other interns, full-time employees, and mentors; and more.

At the conclusion of the internship period, send students back to campus with an offer for a full-time position upon graduation, or, if they are sophomores or juniors, with an offer to return for another internship the following summer. Maintain contact with them once they return to campus. Cisco assigns full-time employees to maintain contact with interns once they return to school.

“There’s also a tremendous economic value to it,” McGrath says. “We have found that there is a much better assimilation process for new hires who have been interns with us. They get a better flavor for our culture, and are much more productive much more quickly. It’s transparent to managers, but hiring from the internship program saves a lot of what we would spend on recruiting the following fall.”