MARKETING | 2 MIN READ
Making Connections
Facebook’s summer internship initiative
Written by Paul Strack
@pstrack
Earlier this spring, we along with 25 other central Arkansas companies were selected to participate in the inaugural Career Connections Business Partner program sponsored by Facebook. The folks at Facebook describe this as a “first-to-the-world internship readiness program.” So we’d like to think that this is a pretty big deal.
Facebook is taking this program seriously, and has committed a significant amount of resources to insure its success. Part of this investment includes rewarding participating businesses with $1000 in Facebook ad credits. As a business partner, we participated in a day of training at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub. About 15 Facebook team members from New York provided live training sessions on:
- Best practices in how to structure an internship
- Tips on how to manage, create and support projects and other opportunities for our Intern – officially termed our Career Connections Fellow
- Ways to ensure out Career Connections Fellow feels connected to our workplace.
And since this was our first time ever to consider hiring an intern, I found this to be very valuable.
Career Connections swag!
Over 400 Arkansas college students from across the state applied for these 26 – 30 available positions. Approximately 50 of these applicants were invited to a 2-day training session of their own at the Innovation Hub. After these sessions were complete, the Facebook team provided us with potential candidates to interview.
I was extremely impressed with all 4 candidates. Their training sessions consisted of resume preparation, interview techniques, and of course, instruction on how to place Facebook ads. (Surely you knew that was coming.) We couldn’t have made a bad decision with any of these individuals. Once the interviews were complete, we were asked to rank our candidates in order of preference, and the Facebook team then “matched” candidates with companies that were the best fit.
They did quite well with our selection, Clayton Ellis. Clayton recently graduated from ASU Beebe with an Associate’s in Business, and is currently working on his Bachelor’s at UCA! He is quite energetic and has recently completed his first week with us. And yes, we do expect him to come back next week too. We have challenged Clayton to assist us with some of our marketing initiatives, and will soon be handling some social media posts. So be on the lookout for those.
But we also want Clayton to tell more of his story, and his experiences. And he will get that opportunity in an upcoming blog post. When that is complete, I am certain you will all be ready to join me in a rousing rendition of “For He’s A Jolly Good Career Connections Fellow.”
Cheers!
Over 400 Arkansas college students from across the state applied for these 26 – 30 available positions. Approximately 50 of these applicants were invited to a 2-day training session of their own at the Innovation Hub. After these sessions were complete, the Facebook team provided us with potential candidates to interview.
I was extremely impressed with all 4 candidates. Their training sessions consisted of resume preparation, interview techniques, and of course, instruction on how to place Facebook ads. (Surely you knew that was coming.) We couldn’t have made a bad decision with any of these individuals. Once the interviews were complete, we were asked to rank our candidates in order of preference, and the Facebook team then “matched” candidates with companies that were the best fit.
Career Connections swag!
They did quite well with our selection, Clayton Ellis. Clayton recently graduated from ASU Beebe with an Associate’s in Business, and is currently working on his Bachelor’s at UCA! He is quite energetic and has recently completed his first week with us. And yes, we do expect him to come back next week too. We have challenged Clayton to assist us with some of our marketing initiatives, and will soon be handling some social media posts. So be on the lookout for those.
But we also want Clayton to tell more of his story, and his experiences. And he will get that opportunity in an upcoming blog post. When that is complete, I am certain you will all be ready to join me in a rousing rendition of “For He’s A Jolly Good Career Connections Fellow.”
Cheers!
