The dos and don'ts of converting from an intern to a full-time employee

As you wrap up your internship and start thinking about what next steps to take in your career, one thing to consider is whether to seek full-time employment with your host organization. If you had a positive internship experience there, it is only natural to want to work there as a permanent employee.

Here is a guide by Talanta’s Head of Learning, Emily Justin-Szopinsky to help you make the transition from an intern to a full-time employee.

Q: Is there a specific time an intern should tell their manager that they are interested in becoming a full-time employee?

A: There's not necessarily a set timeline but you want to make sure that you have added value to the organization before you start talking about converting to a full-time job. When we consider four to six months in general, you don't want to start talking about this until the end of the third month or going into the fourth month or even a little later. Often host organizations take longer than even your internship to decide whether or not they're going to offer you a full-time position.

Q: What questions should an intern ask themselves about their performance before they ask for a full-time position?

A: Are you adding value? Is that value clear? Are you communicating it and aligning it with the company and team’s goals? Once you've got a couple of those under your belt then you might want to start, subtly but transparently speaking with your manager about possibilities for future opportunities.

Q: What should an intern find out about the host company as they seek to become a full-time employee?

A: So if you're interested in continuing with the company, what you want to do is ask your supervisor. What are the things that they are that they're looking for? Is there a role available? And What do they need to see from you? To know that you're the right person to bring in for any available position that definitely. Also, make sure that what you're doing is aligning with the organizational goals and the team goals, and make sure that you're communicating about that. Understand how what you're doing is moving the needle for the company, and then make sure that the right people in the company, know about that and see that.

Q: What should an intern NOT do as they seek full-time employment?

A: Do not start your job and tell them that you want to hold a full-time position. Not all host organizations are looking to hire interns. Secondly, if you haven't added value to the organization, they are not considering you. You don't want to create a perception of you that you're just there for the full-time job or that you're just there for the money. Show that you're there to learn and then go from there.

Q: What should an intern that has added value to the organization and has proven themselves worthy of the position do if no vacancy is available?

A: That happens more often than it doesn't. And that's okay because just having done the internship is a great experience that you can leverage for future career goals. So you can do this in a couple of ways. One is going in and updating your LinkedIn and your CV and concentrating on information that other organizations are looking for in people. For example, what tools did you use? Did you learn how to use Java? Did you use some programming tools? Did you learn how to use graphic design, tools, like Canva? What did you learn how to do in terms of digital tools?

The second thing is, what soft skills, did you learn and practice? Were you collaborating with remote teams and working with multicultural teams? Did you learn how to empathize with clients? All of those soft skills and you can go ahead and take a look at the list that is on the National Association of Colleges and Employers. There are eight soft skills. See what you learned and add those to your CV and also to your LinkedIn.

Next, think about who are the strategic people that can maybe recommend you to other organizations that might be hiring. What kind of organization are you looking for? What kind of role are you looking for? Do you want to continue in the same industry as your host organization? Are you looking to change? I guarantee you that within your host organization, several different people can help to connect you. Find out who are the people that can connect you, let them know what your future career goals are, and ask them if they could do a couple of introductions for you.

The last thing is to reach out to key people whom you've developed a good relationship with during your internship, ask them to recommend you on LinkedIn, and ask them to write recommendations for you that you might be able to include on a website. Those sell you far more than your statements or your experience having trusted experienced professionals to vouch for you in a public space is also really valuable.

Q: And in the case, an organization offers the intern a job, but the intern is not interested, how do they reject the offer, while maintaining a good relationship with their host organization?

A: If you're offered a position and you're not interested in it. Number one, thank them for considering you. I would also give them constructive feedback from your end. So you might say, Thank you. I'm honored that you would consider me for this position, however, then give the specific reasons why you're not interested in the position. And so it might be, my salary needs are a bit higher and what you've offered me won't allow me to make the amount of money that I need to make to live. So I need to find another alternative. You might say, I'm looking for a job where I go to the office, I want to meet other people, if it was a remote internship.

This will help them to either come back with a counteroffer if there's something that they can do to meet your expectations, or it will help them understand why you particularly weren't interested in that position. So it will help them to be able to segment a little better to find someone that might be interested in the position with the conditions that they're offering.

It is good practice if you aren't interested but you know someone that might be interested, you could recommend that person to them.

Q: And in the case that they offer you a job and you are interested, what should be the next steps?

A: When they make you a formal job offer, I always recommend taking 24 hours and thinking about it. Don't just say yes. I know that you've been in an internship for like probably several months you've probably thought about it a lot, but even so when they make you the actual offer take at least 24 hours, read through it, talk about it with at least a couple of different professionals, talk about it with people that are from the industry or at Talanta. You can always reach out to the support staff and ask us what we think about it but get feedback from other people. Marinate on it yourself and decide. Does this work for me? A hundred percent?

Secondly, once you've accepted it, you need to negotiate the conditions, such as salary, benefits, work format, learning, and growth opportunities. In terms of salary, you want to be fair to yourself. Understanding what the value is that you bring to the organization. You want to be fair to the organization.

Also, consider learning opportunities, flexibility, and vacation. So, depending on where you live, there are often local vacation laws or whatever.

Working at a company that offers very generous vacations, makes a huge difference in your quality of life. So I consider that very heavily when I consider what a job offer is because it allows me the quality of life that I want to have. You also are going to want to consider things like flexibility. If you have a flexible schedule where you're able to have time where you can be bringing in revenue from other places, maybe you have side projects, or maybe you do freelance. That's also something that you should be considering I think those are like the main things that I would say so conditions.

And then if they're offering you a job in a place where you don't live, so if the company is out of New York and you're living in Kenya, for example, you need to understand what they need to do to be able to hire you? What does that mean for taxes? Do you have to pay taxes in Kenya? And do you pay taxes in the US? How does that work? How are they going to pay you? So I recommend taking the time to make sure that you understand that you get what you need and the organization is getting what they need so that you can move forward and motivated and productive for everybody.

Q: Any last piece of advice for interns?

A: Just some advice and some things to avoid. So, the number one mistake that I see people making around job conversion is having the conversation too early. So it is important to make sure that you understand how the organization works, what the organizational goals are, and how, what you're doing relates to that. And that you're able to communicate that effectively with the right people.

Another issue that I see is people feeling shy about letting their managers know what they want, and you don't need to feel shy about it. You just need to know when is the right time to have that conversation. Which is gonna be several months in when you've shown your value and how to have that conversation. So you don't want to go into it saying, ‘Give me a job’ or ‘Hey, I want a job’. You want to go into it a little bit more humbly and ask, ‘Is there a job available? If there is, I'm interested, let me know what you need to see from me for me to show you, that I'm the right person for that position.’