Sometimes students take the initiative and contact employers for interviews, and other times employers contact universities for referrals to possible interns. The requirements businesses place on prospective interns are as varied as the reasons they hire them. Good work skills and a willingness to learn are qualities interns should have, employers say. Intern duties are also a gray area. They can be structured or flexible, depending on the employer's internship program.
Some businesses have a structured program that dictates an intern's job description.
At Wagstaff Law Firm, a handful of law clerks are hired each summer to complete structured six-week programs. The clerks usually have completed their second year of law school, and they apply what they've learned to do research and to assist the lawyers with their cases. Just as some internship programs can be structured, others have flexible duty requirements. Alison McCleskey, a junior at Southwestern University, is one of four summer interns in the community relations department at Hendrick. McCleskey said that, just as regular employees benefit from having previous experience, she has worked more effectively because of her experience working at Hendrick in the past.