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In the past few months, I have received a few pm's and emails about our intern academy, how it works and if it's free. Here is a run down of our program that we have been offering to interns since last fall. Prior to last fall, I had other undergrad interns who did marketing, business development, financials and customer relations. Their internship was a bit different since it wasn't technical, but the intern academy is still pretty much ran the same for every student, just minus out technical work. Prior to the undergrad business interns, I had another technical intern for 6 months, not because I needed her for work, but it was nice to have someone along with the rides as back then I was only doing onsite work.
Here is the basics of what I set up so the student learns 6 different aspects of our business and it almost prepares them to work for us if at the end of their internship, they can work for me on a PT basis. With some wiggle room as each intern is a bit different (some are onsite all the time, some are remote some of the time).
1.) Customer Service
All interns must learn customer service skills in their area. Client call back/follow ups has just been added to the list for this new intern. Every week, new intern will call back all of the past clients, check up on the repair and do a 2-3 question survey. If there is a continued problem, the intern is allowed to work with the lead tech on the minor repair if required. (Remember, interns are not allowed to do revenue producing work so work that is not billable at this time is allowed, a fix of a paid for repair would be excluded and the intern is allowed to work on such repair).
Interns also must learn how to intake and outtake a client via remote support and in our shops. This is important for customer service skills, completing the work orders and asking intake questions.
Interns are also allowed to call clients with further questions if need be during repair time.
2.) DocumentationInterns will learn how to document tickets appropriately for lead tech. As jobs come into the queue, the lead tech and intern will document helpdesk ticket. They also need to keep tech notes and email with lead tech and myself on research tickets. They are also kept in the loop of emails sent to all employees about new learning opportunities. I often send out emails like "New virus out" and such. They are asked to do write up's of new program installations (MBAM or SAS was a good example) for clients and team sharing information.
3.) Troubleshooting
The interns all want this experience the most. Since interns are not allowed to work on a repair by themselves from start to finish on a revenue generating ticket, they do need to learn during their intern time. We have found a way to allow them to work on machines pro bono and without hurting our bottom line. But first we will start with the technical list of repairs we will help them learn during their time with us.
a.) 3 levels of support (helpdesk, shop and onsite)
b.) Hardware repairs (shadow and assist lead tech)
c.) Software repairs (shadow and assist lead tech)
i.) Printers
ii.) OS
iii.) Software applications
iv.) networking
v.) Extra things that come up
d.) Remote support. Since we do so much remote work, this is very important they learn our remote tools and how to do the basics, computer cleanings and minor repairs. We often find pro bono cleanings for these techs on Facebook.
4.) Research and Analysis
Interns are very hungry to learn and using them for R&A is great for them, you and the client. On occasion while doing a remote repair, the client will have a real buggy issue. I will spend some time on the repair and at some point make a decision of the value of the repair for the client. If it appears that this may take some time to repair, I ask the client if I can put in our research queue for an intern to accept and work on and it will keep their bill at a lower rate because we do not charge for intern R&A. The clients love this idea, not only becuase they don't have to pay, but most say it's wonderful to give a student this type of research. For the most part, these types of repairs are for cameras, drivers, printer problems, minor OS glitches, Microsoft programs, nothing that is business critical for the client. The interns really enjoy this type of work too because they get to learn how to troubleshoot and work with the client and do remote support at the same time.
5.) Blogging and other social media needs.
We just this on to the list. Our blogs need some love and they are perfect for the intern. We encounter problems on a daily basis that could be told to our social media network, our latest intern was very happy to be asked to help blog about these issues.
6.) Extras
There are many things that each intern has offered to do to help CTG. Each intern is different. As long as it follows guidelines of the federal law and they are not completing a repair job 100% by themselves, I am all for their ideas and many times, allow them to do such ideas.
Now, a few of you may say, "I just don't have time for an intern"...well,you may not have time. If you are too busy doing repairs and running your business, maybe it is the time to get an intern from a local network school. There are so many back end things an intern can do and learn from, it will maybe help free you of having to do everything and you can offer them a PT position at some point because they are now a value add for you personally. Once you pay them, they can do whatever the job description allows and trust me, a new intern or pt tech is hungry to learn. My first FT employee was an intern who went to pt for only 3 weeks because I put him on FT. I found that I really needed him! What was really awesome is once I started to pay him, I loved having someone to "Please do this" and "Please do that". He has been on FT since January and is doing so well, he is about at his 2nd raise. I have to add, that my business actually started to grow once I got help. I know many are at this point of "when do I grow out of a one man shop" and this was the answer for me. I was battling for a long time of getting an employee and this intern/FT employee really got me over that hump. Free'd up my time to do more.
To close, each student comes on with knowing it's a full learning opportunity and there may or may not be a job available for them. But what is awesome with the past 5 interns I have worked with, all of them now have a job with us except for the new guy who found me on Podnutz (emailed me during my live podcast with Steve). Strange stroke of luck though, my Minneapolis location just won a very nice vendor position with the stores, so he may have a job sooner than later. I laughed when I found this out because I truly didn't think I would need him later on (or so soon). I guess this is called luck maybe or just how CTG has been built to grow.
Hope this helps some of you, I really have enjoyed working with the interns. It's good experience for me as a business owner to manage people "my way" and build trust with people and share my knowledge.
Here is the basics of what I set up so the student learns 6 different aspects of our business and it almost prepares them to work for us if at the end of their internship, they can work for me on a PT basis. With some wiggle room as each intern is a bit different (some are onsite all the time, some are remote some of the time).
1.) Customer Service
All interns must learn customer service skills in their area. Client call back/follow ups has just been added to the list for this new intern. Every week, new intern will call back all of the past clients, check up on the repair and do a 2-3 question survey. If there is a continued problem, the intern is allowed to work with the lead tech on the minor repair if required. (Remember, interns are not allowed to do revenue producing work so work that is not billable at this time is allowed, a fix of a paid for repair would be excluded and the intern is allowed to work on such repair).
Interns also must learn how to intake and outtake a client via remote support and in our shops. This is important for customer service skills, completing the work orders and asking intake questions.
Interns are also allowed to call clients with further questions if need be during repair time.
2.) DocumentationInterns will learn how to document tickets appropriately for lead tech. As jobs come into the queue, the lead tech and intern will document helpdesk ticket. They also need to keep tech notes and email with lead tech and myself on research tickets. They are also kept in the loop of emails sent to all employees about new learning opportunities. I often send out emails like "New virus out" and such. They are asked to do write up's of new program installations (MBAM or SAS was a good example) for clients and team sharing information.
3.) Troubleshooting
The interns all want this experience the most. Since interns are not allowed to work on a repair by themselves from start to finish on a revenue generating ticket, they do need to learn during their intern time. We have found a way to allow them to work on machines pro bono and without hurting our bottom line. But first we will start with the technical list of repairs we will help them learn during their time with us.
a.) 3 levels of support (helpdesk, shop and onsite)
b.) Hardware repairs (shadow and assist lead tech)
c.) Software repairs (shadow and assist lead tech)
i.) Printers
ii.) OS
iii.) Software applications
iv.) networking
v.) Extra things that come up
d.) Remote support. Since we do so much remote work, this is very important they learn our remote tools and how to do the basics, computer cleanings and minor repairs. We often find pro bono cleanings for these techs on Facebook.
4.) Research and Analysis
Interns are very hungry to learn and using them for R&A is great for them, you and the client. On occasion while doing a remote repair, the client will have a real buggy issue. I will spend some time on the repair and at some point make a decision of the value of the repair for the client. If it appears that this may take some time to repair, I ask the client if I can put in our research queue for an intern to accept and work on and it will keep their bill at a lower rate because we do not charge for intern R&A. The clients love this idea, not only becuase they don't have to pay, but most say it's wonderful to give a student this type of research. For the most part, these types of repairs are for cameras, drivers, printer problems, minor OS glitches, Microsoft programs, nothing that is business critical for the client. The interns really enjoy this type of work too because they get to learn how to troubleshoot and work with the client and do remote support at the same time.
5.) Blogging and other social media needs.
We just this on to the list. Our blogs need some love and they are perfect for the intern. We encounter problems on a daily basis that could be told to our social media network, our latest intern was very happy to be asked to help blog about these issues.
6.) Extras
There are many things that each intern has offered to do to help CTG. Each intern is different. As long as it follows guidelines of the federal law and they are not completing a repair job 100% by themselves, I am all for their ideas and many times, allow them to do such ideas.
Now, a few of you may say, "I just don't have time for an intern"...well,you may not have time. If you are too busy doing repairs and running your business, maybe it is the time to get an intern from a local network school. There are so many back end things an intern can do and learn from, it will maybe help free you of having to do everything and you can offer them a PT position at some point because they are now a value add for you personally. Once you pay them, they can do whatever the job description allows and trust me, a new intern or pt tech is hungry to learn. My first FT employee was an intern who went to pt for only 3 weeks because I put him on FT. I found that I really needed him! What was really awesome is once I started to pay him, I loved having someone to "Please do this" and "Please do that". He has been on FT since January and is doing so well, he is about at his 2nd raise. I have to add, that my business actually started to grow once I got help. I know many are at this point of "when do I grow out of a one man shop" and this was the answer for me. I was battling for a long time of getting an employee and this intern/FT employee really got me over that hump. Free'd up my time to do more.
To close, each student comes on with knowing it's a full learning opportunity and there may or may not be a job available for them. But what is awesome with the past 5 interns I have worked with, all of them now have a job with us except for the new guy who found me on Podnutz (emailed me during my live podcast with Steve). Strange stroke of luck though, my Minneapolis location just won a very nice vendor position with the stores, so he may have a job sooner than later. I laughed when I found this out because I truly didn't think I would need him later on (or so soon). I guess this is called luck maybe or just how CTG has been built to grow.
Hope this helps some of you, I really have enjoyed working with the interns. It's good experience for me as a business owner to manage people "my way" and build trust with people and share my knowledge.
