Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals
October 26, 2016
On average, employers begin recruiting interns eight months before their start date, according to NACE’s 2016 Internship and Co-op Survey. How do they source their interns?
Overall, employers most widely sourced from open applications (52.4 percent), although it was also common for them to have been sourced from direct career center contacts (39.6 percent). (See Figure 1.)
Employers in the construction, food/beverage manufacturing, and management consulting industries were more heavily dependent on direct career center contacts to source their interns than were employers in other industries.
Meanwhile, employers in the engineering, motor vehicle manufacturing, and transportation industries were less dependent on career center and faculty contacts, having sourced more than two-thirds of their interns from open applications.
NACE’s 2016 Internship and Co-op Survey was conducted from November 9, 2015, to February 17, 2016, among NACE employer members; 271, or 26.9 percent, responded. The survey report will be available later this spring. Survey participants can access a full copy of the report through MyNACE. Highlights from the 2016 Internship and Co-op Survey are available at http://www.naceweb.org/internships/surveys.aspx.
Figure 1: Sources of intern hires
Industry |
Direct Career Center Contacts |
Direct Faculty Contacts |
Open Applications |
| Percentage of Respondents |
| Overall |
39.6% |
7.9% |
52.4% |
| Oil/Gas Extraction |
41.7% |
4.4% |
53.9% |
| Utilities |
32.9% |
5.9% |
61.3% |
| Construction |
66.7% |
13.3% |
20.0% |
| Food/Beverage Manufacturing |
54.0% |
3.3% |
42.7% |
| Chemical/Pharmaceutical Manufacturing |
39.5% |
9.0% |
51.6% |
| Computer/Electronics Manufacturing |
42.1% |
5.6% |
52.3% |
| Motor Vehicle Manufacturing |
20.8% |
3.3% |
76.0% |
| Misc. Manufacturing |
48.3% |
6.8% |
45.0% |
| Wholesale Trade |
37.1% |
18.6% |
44.3% |
| Retail Trade |
45.2% |
7.9% |
46.9% |
| Transportation |
26.6% |
3.4% |
70.0% |
| Information |
34.4% |
7.6% |
58.1% |
| Finance, Insurance, & Real Estate |
34.4% |
7.6% |
58.1% |
| Engineering Services |
25.8% |
6.7% |
67.5% |
| Misc. Prof. Services |
37.3% |
12.3% |
50.4% |
Source: 2016 Internship and Co-op Survey, National Association of Colleges and Employers