We often hear that “nobody goes to college for a career in relocation.” In some ways it’s true; ours seems to be one of those industries that people find themselves building careers in without ever really planning to. One thing that may help change this, and raise mobility’s profile as a worthy vocation, is our summer intern program.
The idea for an intern program was suggested by our President, Dave Bencivengo, during his first Town Hall meeting of 2016 as a means of attracting, engaging and retaining talent. The idea caught the interest of Lindsey Cramer, Counselor in our Morris Plains office, who raised her hand to get involved.
“Along with a few other colleagues, I represented Weichert Workforce Mobility at a career fair at Seton Hall last year,” says Lindsey. “And a lot of students seemed genuinely interested in our business and wanted to know if we offered internships. When Dave mentioned it, it seemed a good time to revisit the topic and see what we could do.”
Once Dave greenlighted the idea, Lindsey assembled a team of colleagues representing different areas of the company to determine what a Weichert internship would look like and what areas of our business could provide the deepest engagement, and construct the program from the ground up.
“Together, the team agreed that the goal of the program should be to highlight what makes our company and our industry interesting so that our interns become advocates to recruit other students,” said Lindsey. “You don’t have to be a business major to work in our industry; in fact, our industry offers opportunities that span numerous majors.”
To help with the interns’ immersion into the world of workforce mobility, Lindsey and the team are planning a rigorous curriculum for students selected into the program.
“We want this to be a full engagement internship,” said Lindsey. “We’re hoping to have them come to team meetings and town halls and maybe even client meetings or best and finals if opportunities present themselves, to give them full exposure to what our industry is all about and hopefully build more interest in it.”
The program is scheduled for launch this summer, and team members will be recruiting candidates (for eight intern positions in total) at a number of upcoming job fairs, including a return to Seton Hall. A program launch date is tentatively scheduled for early June. Once the 2016 program is completed and its effectiveness is assessed, plans would be made to roll it out to other offices.
“An important objective for the program will be building our pipeline of qualified talent,” said Lindsey. “If they’re good interns, we hope to create opportunities for them to fill open positions down the road.”