Over the weekend, I blogged about why small business owners should consider hiring an intern. Here are a few more suggestions and resources for developing a successful internship program:

• Figure out what type of internship you want to create. It’s important to be specific so your internship applicants are clear about what type of opportunity they are applying for. Ask your team what areas they need help with. Is it a marketing internship? Sales internship? Design internship? etc.

• Decide what skills you are looking for in a potential intern. Remember, you’re recruiting students who have very little workplace experience. Therefore, you need to look for success in specific classes and campus involvement. For example, if you are hiring a marketing intern you may want to look for journalism students with fantastic writing skills. If you’re looking for a sales intern, you might want to look for students who have volunteered time fundraising for a non-profit. It’s important to read between the lines when looking at academic resumes.

• Reach out to specific departments at your local university for  student recommendations. This is where your network comes in handy. Ask your employees who have graduated more recently for help. If you were involved with a greek organization in college, sending an email to your local chapter’s president or academic chair is a great first step.

• The University of Washington Career Center has published a document with guidelines and links for businesses looking to develop internship programs. Check out the embedded document below:

[scribd id=56161715 key=key-117b16unrgoqwz71o7ln mode=list]

• Check out InternMatch‘s slide deck on writing a great internship description:

[slideshare id=4510403&doc=042510pptfinal2251-100615174159-phpapp02]
For those of you who’ve had success hiring an intern for your small business, what resources were valuable to you?