Our new intern started this week. The most important thing to remember about an intern is she is not a temp. Sure, she will only work for you temporarily, but you cannot give her crap jobs like filing and answering the phone like you can a temp. Unless of course she is interning for the position of administrative assistant. Ours is not. She is interning to be an accountant, with all that sexy *cough* tax stuff that comes along with it.
I was a bit shocked when I found out we were getting an intern. We have never had one before and summer is not exactly a busy time for us now that we are out of the audit business. But hey, no one asked me.
She is a lovely girl, our Young Apprentice: friendly, cheerful, and seemingly intelligent. I have not worked with her myself yet but the Big Kahuna says she seems to catch on quickly and asks good questions. Note that Young Apprentice has only been here two days. I shall reserve judgment for at least a full week or until such time that I actually work with her on a project.
The idea behind this particular student internship is so Young Apprentice can determine if she has an interest in accounting and tax. Most employers offer internships to incoming seniors with the hope the student will like it so much he or she will accept a full-time position with the firm after graduation the following year (provided, of course, the internship does not expose the student as a total slacker.) The big public accounting firms hire dozens of interns so they have a nice pool of resources to choose from come full-time hiring season.
We have a mere one intern who will not graduate for at least two years. She also grew up here. Can she possibly want to stay in town after she graduates? Young people notoriously flee from this area at the earliest opportunity. Perhaps the recent advent of the UC campus has infused Merced with hipness.
However it turns out, I am all for encouraging young things to grow. I wonder how many projects I can give her and still look like I have enough work to justify my salary.
