an intern for your intern

I have worked many many places, I have been an intern paid and unpaid for years. The work has varied from leading my own projects to being a human repository for simple questions. No matter where I work there is always a frustrating period of learning. Not learning new skills, but learning new systems. The amount of time spent training and retraining temporary work forces hasn't been recorded but I am sure the amount of time spent would be staggering.

Imagine this: an AI powered system that can automate the on boarding process for new hires. an intern for your intern.

Paperwork, scheduling, basic information like where the office is and how to get there, payment, NDAs, employee accounts, interviews, offer letters, meet and greets, and training could all be automated for your team. Even past the initial stages of bringing someone onto your team, small and mundane tasks like filing and spreadsheet creation could be streamlined and completed in the background. Employees can focus on solving problems, not, “tell me how you input an image into that PowerPoint?” Interns can spend time doing what they should be, learning from the best in their biz to grow into tomorrow’s leaders.

At the moment, the best interns are the ones who learn to gain responsibilities and projects while also completing all of the managerial minutia that comes with just about any internship. It never ceases to amaze me when an internship posting actually say, “Don’t worry you won’t be getting coffee, we get our own” like it is a point of pride? We should strive towards a future where tasks such as filling invoices by venue or processing all 18,000 customers accounts for spelling errors shouldn’t just be appalling but unheard of.

The Office of Career Services at Southwestern University offers career and internship development and counseling to students. Students who held internships while in college had a 13% higher chance at finding a full-time job and a 35.3% higher reported happiness levels than students who did not complete an internship.

Case and point, if I had a little bot that could walk me through the first few days on the job, answer mundane questions, and organize my tasks more efficiently, who knows what I could do.