Intern-al politics

As the graduate recruitment market continues to tighten, internships have become the Holy Grail. So much so that an event was held at Number 10 last month to discuss social mobility and internships with the main topic of discussion being whether a good internship is all about who you know, not what you know.

We all like to do favours for our friends and families, but should we now be saying that an internship given to a son / daughter / friend of the boss is unfair?

And when job applicants are looking for work, they are actively encouraged to flex their contacts book, so isn’t a ‘back door’ internship just doing the same thing?

Internships are now more fiercely sought after than ever and so businesses are likely to be sifting through as many intern applications as they are permanent applications.

But, for example, if a company only offers three internships a year and they are all given to friends of the business, then there is no opportunity for others who are less well-connected to get in and this could lead to the diversity pool being restricted.

So much work has been done to promote objectiveness and assessment-based entry into the workplace, so why wouldn’t companies who champion this in their approach to recruitment not apply the same measures to internships?

Perhaps it is because companies have not fully considered the significant foot in the door an internship can provide and so do not look at it with the same amount of rigour they would for a full-time post.

In today’s climate, it is clear that having an internship under your belt can be the difference between getting a job and not, and so businesses should carefully consider who these precious experiences should go to.

If a ‘best fit for the role’ approach is not taken for internships then the forward steps that most companies have taken to ensure recruitment is fair and objective will be compromised.