Technical Communications Internships - What, Why, Where, and How?

by Andrew Davis

Andrew is President of Synergistech Communications, Inc., a technology industry recruiting firm in Napa, CA.

Technical communicators learn best by doing. And real-world experience matters most to the majority of hiring managers. Internships are a synergistic solution to the dilemma of how to efficiently get experience while helping a company do real work.

As a member of the San Francisco chapter of STC's Internship Committee during the late 1980s and early 1990s, I learned a lot about internships: The advantages to both technical communicators and companies and the challenges of arranging them.

Internships are short-term, on-site assignments in which a manager teaches and advises the intern in the performance of typical duties in exchange for a discounted hourly pay rate and the opportunity to hire (or extend) the intern if mutually agreed. The intern:

• Learns how professional technical communicators work.
• Gets hands-on exposure to the tools, processes, expectations, and compromises made in "the real world."
• Contributes to a product or service that affects paying customers.

Internships allow an individual who may have academic training in Technical Writing, or who has explored the profession through STC meetings or informational interviews, to find out what it's actually like.

Legally, interns are temporary W2-based employees of the company for which they are performing services. They are not necessarily eligible for employment benefits, but they are paid for each hour they work. The intern has a fixed-term employment contract, but is subject to dismissal like any other employee under specific circumstances.

Internship Benefits   

Companies stand to benefit from hiring interns because they can train the aspiring technical communicator in their process and to their standards. Interns typically do not have the "bad habits" that often plague more experienced professionals. And their levels of motivation and attentiveness often compensate for their lack of experience. Essentially, they are more likely than most to do what they're told.

Interns gain real-world work experience, including exposure to the processes, tools, personalities, and priorities of technical publications departments in actual companies. They also have the opportunity to earn positive professional references and create portfolio samples that will impress future employers. Essentially, the internship is their first job in the business and influences the course of their career.

Interns who excel are often hired as salaried staff by the company with which they have interned. These employment associations often last many years because both parties have established respect, trust, and even mutual gratitude. After all, the company took a chance on an inexperienced candidate and showed him or her the ropes, so candidates can feel strong loyalty and reluctance to leave.

Internship Costs   

Internships are guaranteed wins for the intern. He or she gets all the benefits cited above with little or no risk.

From the hiring manager's viewpoint, internships are a "resource sink" if not seen as a long-term investment in the company's business practices and culture. When considered only as a near-term cost-benefit tradeoff ("What is our guaranteed reward for hiring an unknown and training him or her for three-to-six months?"), internships have little merit from the corporate perspective.

Here's why: Apart from the money actually paid to the intern - which we suggest be in the range of $25-30/hr (gross cost to the employer) - companies must provide employment benefits if the intern works more than 30 hours/week. Hiring managers typically must also secure headcount and funding, just as they would for a regular employee. This can be time-consuming and challenging to justify if the alternative is to hire a more senior resource. And when an intern comes aboard, he or she must be fully trained, equipped, and supervised more completely than regular employees. Finally, when the internship ends (and the intern isn't hired), he or she leaves and the company's investment evaporates.

Which Workplaces Are Best-suited to Internships?   

Not all companies are suitable for internships. "Lean and mean" startups and exceptionally fast-paced departments are usually inhospitable places for a would-be Technical Writer if there's no one available to guide, buffer, and provide consistent feedback. Even if the intern is used to life in high-tech's oncoming lane, too much fundamental training is inevitably left to chance, and bad habits result. Even if the company considers the association a success, odds are that the intern has been exploited rather than instructed and thus no sense of loyalty results.

Companies, led by an experienced manager and in which the role of technical publications is respected and also ideally where there are several levels of seniority among the staff, are best-suited to hosting internships. In our opinion, the manager or a designated Lead-level Technical Writer needs to commit at least two hours a week to meeting with the intern, evaluating his or her work, and sharing constructive feedback. He or she must also be available on short notice to intervene and troubleshoot projects on the intern's behalf. Merely throwing the intern to the wolves will not work to the company's advantage, even though it may have been the way the intern's supervisor learned.

We were all beginners once, and internships are not the right vehicle for torturing the trainee. Our advice: don't hire an intern, or accept an internship, if either party isn't willing to make a formal and enforceable commitment to "safe" learning and regular constructive feedback.

By accepting internships, interns leave the world of theory and enter the realm of economics-driven pragmatism, often for the first time. Internships must meet the needs of the manager to whom he or she reports; the intern must accept the manager's priorities and resulting guidance. To avoid exploitation and generate better productivity and long-term allegiance, the arrangement must also meet the needs of the intern.

Summary    

In practice, internships must have the following:

• Specific objectives
• Measurable goals
• Explicit accountability (from both parties)
• Documented accomplishments and references
• Rights to actual portfolio samples and professional references

If all five criteria are not agreed to and documented in a formal Internship Agreement, internships always fall short of their potential.

For more information about what works and what doesn't, contact Andrew Davis at andrew@synergistech.com, or the directors of participating academic programs, such as Ms. Lu Rehling( rehlingl@sfsu.edu ) of San Francisco State University's Technical & Professional Writing Program.