Internships — The New Working Interview
By: Gus Cawley
Tags: Intern, Internship Benefits, Internships, Internship Program, Internship Experience

I recently had a phone call with Caleb Kauffman the CEO of CareerUp.com and RemoteInternships.com a company that helps college students seeking internships. We spoke for about an hour on the benefits of internships. He mentioned that Internships and real-world work experience are valued 2 to 3 times more by most employers rather than a GPA or the School the student attended.

Internships are a great opportunity for companies to have a working interview with the candidate. An intern can come work virtually, doesn’t require office space, can help reduce workload and do so at low or no cost. In fact, Caleb mentioned that 45% of the candidates they work with eventually get full-time jobs from the companies they interned at.

ZipApply.com, a Technology Startup housed in the TECH Alpharetta incubator in North Atlanta, offers a free platform to help job seekers get internships and jobs. ZipApply is working with the Fulton County School System’s Talented and Gifted program to place High School students within the Tech Alpharetta ecosystem and the local area. Students create an Anonymous profile and Employers can view the video and invite the candidate for an interview. The student’s guardian is kept in the loop during the process as well.

The platform gives students access to instructional training materials on how to make a video resume, interview preparation, and other tools they can use to prepare for an interview.

The school is looking forward to using the platform to place hundreds of students in internships this spring. These internships will range from general business, marketing, healthcare, technology, and other industries.

The students will be preparing a marketing webpage with links to the anonymous student profiles on a weekly basis. This information will be shared by TECH Alpharetta in their weekly newsletter.

The students will have a Train the Trainer model that they use to bring the program back to their school’s marketing teachers to encourage other students to create video resumes and get the coveted marketing internship experience.

TECH Alpharetta has affiliations with Career Ministries in the area and the students will be charged with educating adults on the video resume process as well. It is a Win/Win/Win scenario for the students, companies, and the local community.

It is challenging for High School students to get internships due to the competition from college students.

In the ZipApply/TECH Alpharetta/Fulton county internship program, the High School students will learn how to optimize their LinkedIn profile, interview, get real-world experience and hopefully open the door for a continued internship with the same employer when they return home during college breaks.

The students will also learn how to get a job, a skill that will serve them throughout their careers. Internship programs are also a great way for students to actually see what different occupations are like. This could lead to students changing their majors or desired career paths. It also gives the employer a window into the student’s work ethic, culture fit, and overall personality. There is no downside to an internship.