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The NCPMA Insider is a monthly guest article that includes tips from the pest management industry including business development, career development and pest management knowledge.
By Leah Hazelwood
We know that interns are common in other industries like advert
ising, public relations, social media. What's odd, is that you don't see too many interns in the pest management industry ... when all its companies exercise all these functions on a day-to-day basis! If you don't have an intern, you could be missing out on a very beneficial relationship for both you and the intern.
Interns are looking for valuable, real-life experience performing the actual functions of a job they hope to land one day. They are very often willing to work for less pay than a full-time employee, as their hours spent with you are rewarded with not only pay, but perhaps more importantly, hands-on experience that they can use to supplement their education on their resumes to help them land their first job.
So what is it that PCOs can offer interns?
- Experience managing social media accounts
- Writing practice with press releases, business award nominations and articles like this one
- Research experience - geographic markets, fleet changes, etc.
- Sitting in on high-level marketing and sales strategy meetings
- Creating online content for websites, web videos and more
- Event-planning experience for the company's community involvement efforts
- Real-life project management, working directly with vendors on things like vehicle signage
- Internal marketing to employees including company newsletters, competitions and outings
It's easy to post an ad for an internship on college websites. The resumes will roll in if you promise them exposure to real tasks that help a real company keep rolling - rather than the filing and busy work they've gotten with other internships. An internship often brings in a young, college-educated, fresh perspective to a pest management company from people who wouldn't have typically ever considered working in our industry professionally. It's very rewarding to open the eyes of the next generation to the complexity of our operations, and it is rewarding to know that you have helped someone with ambition get that much closer to their goals.
--Leah Hazelwood is the Chief Administrative Officer of Go-Forth Pest & Lawn and Lake Norman Pest Control. She currently serves on the NCPMA Public Relations Committee.
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