Some might find it interesting to be able to compare their summer internship count with their peer agencies. It’s a sluggish economy in several sending countries. Perhaps your agency is feeling the brunt of a downturn, … perhaps not. We won’t know for sure until we share. The cool part about this Brigada lense is that you can share anonymously, without giving up your exact name. Just do us a favor and describe your agency in general terms. For example, “We’re a large agency — with somewhere between 500 and 1000 full-timers — and our summer internship program generally attracts 100 applications. 75 usually make it through all the filters.” … and so on. Be as precise as you can without breaking any confidences that you’d just as soon not reveal.
Naturally, it’s not all about numbers. And sometimes the numbers reveal things too subtle to show up in board meeting reports. Now you can learn them here, in Brigada. And the bigger, more important question will be — if there are trends, why are they happening? In other words, if numbers are down, is it due to the economic slow-down? Or… is today’s younger generation less likely to commit for a summer ’til they’ve been there for a week? Those are the questions we’ll want to banter around, once we’ve identified trends.
So, please ask your fellow-mission staffers to chime in, especially the recruiters and summer short-term coordinators…. We’ll look forward to them joining us. Let’s get the count, then figure out whether that represents a down-turn, or an equal footing, or an up-sweep. Thanks for taking time to tell your story. Let’s do this! :-)
To read and/or comment on this item on the web, just browse to….
https://brigada.org/2009/01/9_25.html
We are a small international missions organization specializing in engineering and architectural design. We have 6 offices world wide with about 50 full time staff. We mobilize interns in the Spring, Summer and Fall. Our application deadline for the summer just closed and we have over 60 applicants!