Eight Things Interns Look for in an Internship
A conversation with Kennedy Cosgrove and Grant Van Cannell
For this episode, I brought in two people who are living this topic right now: my daughter Kennedy, who is going into her junior year at Miami University of Ohio studying Human Capital Management and Leadership, and Grant Van Cannell, our neighbor across the street for the past eight years, who is heading into his senior year at the University of Dayton studying Business Management.
Between the two of them, they have done internships across insurance, wealth management, golf technology, and sales. They know what a good internship looks and feels like, and they have strong opinions about what makes one worth choosing. This conversation is useful whether you are a student figuring out where to spend your summers or a firm trying to understand what it takes to attract and keep talented young people.
1. Full-time commitment.
Grant put this one first, and it makes sense. When you are choosing an internship, you want to be fully immersed in the company, learning day to day operations and really understanding whether this type of work is a fit for your long-term goals. A part-time arrangement limits that experience significantly. For firms, offering a full-time structure signals that you take the internship seriously and that there is real work to be done.
2. Fair pay.
Kennedy was direct about this one: interns show up, put in the time, and contribute real work. They deserve to be compensated fairly for it. I agree completely. At PCIA, we have always paid our interns, and I believe every firm should. When something is free, the level of commitment on both sides tends to reflect that. A paid internship creates mutual investment, which produces better work and a better experience.
3. A welcoming environment.
Both Kennedy and Grant named this one independently, which tells you something about how much it matters. Interns are walking into an unfamiliar environment and trying to find their footing quickly. When people greet each other warmly, when colleagues are approachable, when the culture makes it easy to ask questions and lean on teammates, that changes everything about how productive and confident an intern can be.
One thing we do at PCIA is an assessment that helps the team understand how each person fits and works alongside everyone else. One of the questions it asks is whether each person has a good friend at work. That turns out to be one of the most consistent predictors of engagement and satisfaction. Interns are looking for that same thing, even in a short-term role.
4. A defined and meaningful daily role.
Grant made a point that stuck with me: if you are sitting around with nothing to do, you are not going to work hard or stay engaged. Interns want to come in knowing what they are responsible for, with enough to keep them interested throughout the day. This is actually one of the more challenging parts of running a good internship program. Figuring out what to give an intern that is both genuinely useful to the firm and genuinely valuable to them takes intention. When you get that balance right, it works well for everyone.
5. Company reputation.
Kennedy raised this one: interns are building their resumes and thinking about how their experiences will reflect on them professionally. They are doing their research before they say yes. They are looking at how the company shows up in the community, what other professionals say about it, what the Google reviews look like, and how the firm presents itself on social media. Reputation matters to interns the same way it matters to clients.
6. The overall learning experience.
Beyond the day-to-day role, interns are thinking about what they are going to walk away with. What did they learn? What did they see? What did they get to be part of that they could not have experienced in a classroom? Some of the best experiences I have seen interns have at PCIA came from being present at events, sitting in on client conversations, and watching how a team handles something they had never seen before. Those moments stick. They are what an intern actually talks about when they describe where they worked.
7. Location and commute.
Grant had one internship opportunity that was nearly two hours away. He crossed it off the list immediately, and honestly, that is a reasonable call. An hour each way is workable. Much beyond that starts to eat into the value of the experience before the day even starts.
This is something I understand personally. PCIA was in Ann Arbor for over 20 years while our whole team lived up in the Brighton area. Eventually, we built our own building in Brighton specifically because of that commute. When we made the move, people got time back in their days, and everything about how the team showed up changed. Location is not a small thing.
8. Access to senior leadership.
This was my favorite one on the list, and both Kennedy and Grant brought it up. Interns do not expect to be treated as equals to the CEO. But they want to feel like they are genuinely part of the business, that the people at the top are approachable, that they can get some of their time and perspective. When an intern gets access to leadership, even occasionally, they start to understand the big picture. They understand why the work they are doing matters. And they carry that with them long after the internship ends.
One thing I would add for students who are still figuring out their path: every internship teaches you something, even the ones that do not go the way you hoped. Discovering that a particular type of work or management style is not right for you is a genuine win. You only get three summers as an undergraduate. Use all of them. Go somewhere different each time if you can. By the time you graduate, you will not just have experience. You will have a real sense of what kind of career and what kind of workplace you are actually building toward.
To reach Mike Cosgrove at PCIA directly, call 810-224-5255, email mcosgrove@pciaonline.com, or visit pciaonline.com.