(Photo Credit: icon600) Almost from the first day in business I’ve had interns help me with my business. I’ve been fortunate that the interns I’ve had have worked hard, been great team players, and have helped take my business from an idea into a real company. I’ve gone on to hire some of my interns for positions in my business and the internship was a great way for us to learn about each other and help each other grow before making a bigger commitment.

I’m in the process of hiring a new marketing intern and thought I would share with you the process I’m going through to find the right person.

Step 1: Find A Source Of Interns

I’ve found three great sources of interns – two of them are free and the third is inexpensive.

Foreign Language Schools – There are a number of foreign language schools here in Toronto where university grads come from overseas to get work experience in an English-speaking country. We just finished an internship with an amazing young programmer from Switzerland who helped us solve a number of challenges that we were struggling to solve (Thank you Markus!). These grads usually bring some relevant work experience as well as a great wealth of knowledge. They are eager to work and prove themselves and want to get the most of their experience in the new country before they head back home to find a job / continue with their existing employer. Keep in mind though that these grads have English as a second language. I’ve usually used these interns for technical work and for some marketing tasks but nothing that requires too much direct communication with our customers because of the language barrier – especially when the communication is written. Cost to you: FREE (the grads actually have to pay the school to find them an internship placement!)

“Before posting I gave careful consideration as to what skills I was looking for but also the type of person that would fit well with my company.”

High School Co-Op Programs – I went to a small high school that didn’t offer co-op or intern opportunities but most of the high schools these days do. You can get an eager student looking to get work experience and can drive a lot of energy and enthusiasm into your business. They are native English speakers, although I would encourage you to make sure they know how to write effectively if you’re going to put them on any communications role with your clients. They are also motivated by the fact that they need to show up and do a good job in order to get a good mark in their co-op class which goes on their academic record. The feedback you give directly translates into a grade for them. The only downside is that they may not have any relevant work / life experience and they will need extra training to get the job done. Cost to you: FREE

University Grads – University students are also often looking at internship opportunities to gain experience and learn about the field that they are interested in. These are usually paid internships and you get native language speakers who have some knowledge and relevant work / life experience who are excited to get their careers started. The rest of this post will focus on this type of intern. If you’re interested in the other two, please comment below and I can discuss successful strategies for the first two as well. To find a university grad as an intern you can either connect with all your local colleges and universities or find an aggregator. For my hire, I’m working with an aggregator called Career Edge. They are a national not-for-profit, has worked with over 1,000 employers across Canada to provide meaningful work experiences through paid internships to over 9,200 talented interns since 1996.

Step 2: Post Your Job

Most of the universities or job aggregators will have a way for you to post your job online. Before posting I gave careful consideration as to what skills I was looking for but also the type of person that would fit well with my company. I created a core values document which I posted alongside the job and asked people to carefully read it before applying.

“If you’ve ever had a hard time hiring staff it’s probably because your core values did not match up with each other.”

The core values at my company are:

• Be Honest and Nice
• Work Hard and Do More With Less
• Be Proactive and Can Work Independently
• Deliver WOW through Service
• Be Passionate About Entrepreneurship and Be the Best at What You Do
• Be Positive and Optimistic
• Get Involved and Love Learning New Things
• Be Humble and Build a Positive Family Spirit

With each point I also explained what they meant to me and why they are important. It doesn’t matter what your core values are… as long as you have them! If you’ve ever had a hard time hiring staff it’s probably because your core values did not match up with each other. I came up with this list by thinking about all the people I’ve worked with who have done well with me and then by thinking of the ones who haven’t done well and why it didn’t work out.

Step 3: No Resumes – Fill Out Our Application

“If people aren’t exciting about joining your company and the opportunities then you don’t want them!”

The standard way that companies hire is to ask for a resume and cover letter. From the candidates that typically apply I find three different types of people:

1. People who really care and are interested in your company
2. People who care a little bit and will tweak their resume to fit the job description
3. People who are looking for any job and submit their resume regardless of if they are qualified

As a business owner you only want the candidates from Group 1. If people aren’t exciting about joining your company and the opportunities then you don’t want them!

The problem is that you have to sort through all these resumes to find out who the Group 1 candidates are. Instead what I do is ask them not to submit a resume but to fill out my application form. It is a five page document that asks them the typical resume questions like past jobs, references, relevant experiences, etc but also asks other questions that are relevant to what I’m looking for in an employee. Examples of these questions include:

• Give the best example of when you’ve made someone say “WOW” because of your service
• What do you love about marketing? What do you want to learn?
• What is the nicest thing you ever did for someone?

“Either way I just saved myself reading through 21 resumes of people who would be wasting my time!”

You can tailor the questions to fit your company culture but the point of the exercise is that they need to fill out five pages of questions just to apply! As a result you only get the people who are willing to put some time into the job interview process. If they aren’t willing to put time into it, why should you waste your time on them?

From the job I posted on Career Edge I received 38 interested candidates who submitted their resumes. Only 17 of them filled out my application – the others either didn’t want the job enough to fill it out or didn’t read that I needed them to fill it out. Either way I just saved myself reading through 21 resumes of people who would be wasting my time!

From the 17 who applied I quickly  looked through the applications and anybody who had numerous spelling and grammar issues was rejected. Part of the job I need them for is to communicate with my customers via email and if they can’t spell properly in a job application (where they should be at their best!) they are unlikely to do any better on regular customer emails. This helped me narrow the field down to 13 candidates.

Step 4: Job Interview

I just reread the applications from my top 13 this morning and am amazed at the skills they have! Most of them sound like they will be a good fit with my company culture but it’s easy to sound good on paper. The next step is to do a face to face interview tomorrow. I want to have everyone come in on the same day so I can judge them properly. I’ve also asked one of my staff members to join me for the day to get a second set of eyes as well and so the candidates can meet a future team member. We’re a small group so it’s important that everyone gets along.

I’m going to be in interviews from 9:15am to 6:30pm with two breaks. Because I wanted to fit everyone in on the same day my last timeslot is actually a group interview of three people. I had a deadline date for sending me the application and these three people sent it to me at the last minute – technically they got it in on time but the others who submitted sooner will get the individual interviews.

Step 5: Give A Sample Project

“It’s important to give a sample project that is relevant to the work that they will actually be doing if you hire them.”

People can have great applications and can do well in an interview but it’s hard to know if they will put the 110% effort into the job that you need. As such I’ve always had my staffers do a trial project with me first before hiring them. It lets me get a sense of how hard they work and if they can solve the challenge effectively. It’s important to give a sample project that is relevant to the work that they will actually be doing if you hire them.

I have a project in mind for all of them but can’t reveal what it is yet in case there are any keeners who have subscribed to my blog looking for some inside information. The top people from the interview will be asked to complete the project.

Step 6: Games Night

One of the traditions we have at EvanCarmichael.com is to take the last hour of Thursday off, shut down the office, and play some games. One of our favorites is Killer Bunnies (in case there are any keener applicants reading this blog post, tell me at the interview tomorrow what the money is called in the Killer Bunnies game for bonus points).

“None of my current team members had any problems coming out for three hours on a Sunday for a games afternoon to meet the candidates which is a good indication that I have the right people in place!”

The games night is a chance to wind down, bond, and have some fun after nearly a week of hard work. The next step in the interview process is the top three candidates will be asked to come to a games afternoon that we’re going to hold on a Sunday. This will help me assess a couple of things. The first is to see how quickly they pick up a challenge, the second is how they interact with my staff members who will be attending, and the third is to see if anybody has an objection to coming out on a Sunday. We don’t usually do too much on the weekends but it’s an early indicator of future problems if they’re not willing to come out after hours. As an aside, none of my current team members had any problems coming out for three hours on a Sunday for a games afternoon to meet the candidates which is a good indication that I have the right people in place!

I’m also looking forward to seeing what my entire team has to say about the new candidates. Getting their buy-in shows them that I appreciate their input and will help the new staffer transition smoothly into the office culture.

Step 7: Check References

“They slack off after the initial excitement wears off and don’t buy into the long term vision of the company.”

By the time a candidate has gone through this process I have a pretty good sense of who will be a good fit for my company. However, there are some people who love the excitement of a challenge and can perform very well in the short term but not do well over a longer period of time. They slack off after the initial excitement wears off and don’t buy into the long term vision of the company.

That’s why it’s important to check references. Sure people will only put down references of people who will say good things about them but you’ll often be surprised at the feedback you get from a simple call – and if the person isn’t extremely enthusiastic about the candidate you can bet that there is something they aren’t telling you.

Step 8: Hire!

Finally the new person is brought on board after being run through the gauntlet. You know you have a survivor who was willing to put an investment into your company to prove themselves, fit in well with your team, and accomplished your task with flying colors. Nothing is a “sure thing” but this is as close as you’re going to get to it.

It’s exciting going through the hiring process again. We’ll have someone new starting January 4th and I’m looking forward to introducing him / her to you!

What do you think of this hiring process? Do you have any other recommendations to add? Any favorite interview questions I can ask tomorrow?

I’ve love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

PS. On a completely different topic, in September I mentioned a new keyword tool called WordStream. They have since made a few updates and have a new version open for this week as a free trial. You can check it out here. Let me know what you think about it!