Do you own a micro-enterprise (9 employees or less)? Could you use some help? If so, I would appreciate your help in finding out what would be important when deciding whether or not to take on a foreign intern. Maybe you have never considered it, in which case I would be interested to know why not. It does not matter where in the world you are. I am interested in all responses. The survey will not take more than 5 minutes of your time. Use one of the links below.
English: http://t.co/NmgEJw4K
Danish: http://t.co/yMPAitjp
Start-ups are where it’s at in the entrepreneurial world. In a sense that’s where the glamour is. Think Dragon’s Den, think Silicon Valley, think crowd sourcing of finance through Kickstarter leading to extraordinary stories such as Pebble.
In these uncertain economic times, a sharpened sense of entrepreneurialism would seem to be no bad thing among university students and on the face of it an internship should help. However for most students, when planning an internship, their thoughts turn to the leading companies in their field, the Siemens and the Microsofts of this world, and in many cases this means going to an organisation whose modus operandi is far from the original entrepreneurial spirit which gave rise to it in the first place. So to experience entrepreneurial skills in action it might be better to work in a small company or even a micro-enterprise with fewer than 10 employees; in fact just the type of company which raises money through Kickstarter.
For every Kickstarter company though, there are dozens of micro-enterprises working away quietly and the question is, how does a university student find such companies and what do such companies think of the idea of having an intern in their very small teams or even one-person businesses? An added element is that in Europe students are strongly encouraged to do their internships in another country which adds a language and cultural dimension to the mix.
So let’s find out. What’s stopping you from taking on a foreign intern? You hadn’t though about it? The language barrier would be impenetrable? You’re so busy you don’t have time? You don’t have the finance to pay for an intern? Something else? I need to know.
Full disclosure: The Uni-Key project is developing a very practical and hands-on learning experience which students can follow before, during and after their internship to raise their awareness of the entrepreneurial outlook. Ideally following such a course should also be accompanied by doing your internship in a small or micro-enterprise where contact with the original creator of the company is close and frequent so that what is learned on the course is reinforced by what goes on during the internship. As well as having an advisory board made up of business people, former students and universities, the project is also doing some research into how to make the intern experience more attractive to all parties involved. My responsibility is looking at what factors are important for micro-entreprises when deciding whether or not to accept an intern. And as part of that research I have devised the very quick survey for micro-enterprise owners to complete which is linked above.
If you are interested in following up on the idea of having an intern then I can put you in contact with a great network which makes the process very simple. If you are interested in the results of the survey then watch this space or go to the project website where you can follow our progress and find out more about what we are doing and what we found out from this survey.
But don’t forget to fill in the survey!