I think I may have mentioned something earlier in the thread, but I have stayed away from interning people because we are so busy and it's hard to give them the attention and direct someone which is only fair when it's a largely unpaid position. I was however convinced to give a guy a go, and he worked 3 months for me over xmas/new year. We paid a stipend of $100 a week from memory, and he was FANTASTIC. One of the best things I've done for a long time in my business. He re-designed our website, did some dev work on small projects. We treated him like an employee in all regards in terms of setting him goals, giving him performance assessments etc. There was no expectation of a position at the end, though had I of needed someone with his skills, I very likely would have tried to fit him somewhere, he was that good. We gave him a performance bonus near the end, which he appreciated and deserved.
It was very low risk for us, low cost, and ultimately by his own commentary, valuable for him. We gave him a written reference and has secured himself a very good job. He did have family who helped him financially, which I completely understand isn't possible for everyone.
timmmay: Graduates aren't particularly useful for a while after they're hired, they need a lot of direction and supervision. University doesn't prepare people for jobs well.
Are you saying that their focus on the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and marae protocols doesn't deliver what employers are actually looking for? Well, colour me surprised!
timmmay: Graduates aren't particularly useful for a while after they're hired, they need a lot of direction and supervision. University doesn't prepare people for jobs well.
Are you saying that their focus on the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and marae protocols doesn't deliver what employers are actually looking for? Well, colour me surprised!
You must have gone to a different university to the one I did... or walked in to the wrong lecture in at the start of term? I did that once, didn't realise I'd made a mistake until I got handed some anthropology course notes with absolutely no calculus in them.
I think the problem is that your son is too general in IT area. Just like most graduates, he touched lots of areas but didn't dive into a specific one.
He needs to find out a way he likes, such like:
Web development Networking ICT support Data science Software development Mobile Development etc...
All he needs to do is to develop more skills in that area. That's say he wants to do web development. Maybe he needs more knowledge like AngularJS, NodeJs and so on.
As professionals in IT, people can easily find what candidates have when the recruitment processes are running.
It's a long journey and your son needs to find a way to start.
Now it's time for me to write the closing chapter in this thread with a happy ending...
Sometimes I spend too much time on Facebook, but this week it paid off. I noticed that a company co-owned by one of my friends won a place in the 'Fast 50' high-growth awards. The thought occurred to me that they might be needing some more staff. So I contacted my friend and was referred to the co-owner who handles recruitment.
One thing led to another and my son Ben now has a job which starts on Monday. It's part-time for the first 3 months, leading into a full-time position next year. In this particular role, his 'all-round' skills have proven to be a benefit because it's a small company and the owner needs help with Graphics, Animation and a bit of work on Chinese-language websites. All of these are skills my son has, whereas he is a bit behind on the coding side of things.
This just goes to show that often, the best jobs are never advertised, but they come via personal contacts, rather than websites like Seek or Trade Me.
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