A Summer Riptide Month (Part Two)
The 2023 Summer Riptide internship program at Agile Rainmakers wrapped up a fantastic, memorable two months on Friday. The passing of my extraordinary father midway through made it extra challenging emotionally for me. Thank you for all your condolences. I am working through it. Now what? And, how does what’s next relate to our ubiquitous, abundant friend, water
Feedback
Water is a miraculous simple compound (H2O). And, it can reliably perform unique feats of life sustaining activity as it passes through us. For example, water evaporating from our skin allows us to cool off. Water is engaged in a feedback loop of heat and sweat to keep our bodies at normal temperatures. That’s vital in a heat wave as we all know too well this summer.
Similarly, feedback is vital for the Agile Rainmakers Summer Riptide program. Here are recommendations from this year’s interns for next year:
Increase the frequency of calls before the internship starts, also known as Dawn Patrol, so there is greater familiarity with Agile Rainmakers. Add themes to those calls and something to ponder when they end.
Make the 25-page intern training document we go through more interactive and captivating. Add breaks to the training.
Enhance teamwork with client projects where each requires technical and creative skills.
Have initial client meetings happen at the end of the first week of training.
Limit the Mission and Vision exercise to a few times a week rather than daily.
Shorten the end of day meetings to 15 minutes from 30 minutes.
Swap responsibilities among interns from a different major for a day.
If you are not asking your interns for feedback with a detailed survey, you are missing out on all the ways you can improve your internships.
Gratitude
The interns were highly productive and truly enjoyable. Some select quotes from their end-of-summer surveys follow.
"I am overwhelmingly grateful that I was able to pursue this opportunity this summer, and feel that it has been and will continue to be invaluable to my career development and to meeting my goals."
"I have never had a boss care in such detail and with such authenticity in the past. He constantly told me what I could improve on, and when I did something well he let me know."
"I think Agile Rainmakers is a great company and will continue to grow and improve in the years to come."
"I really had an amazing time interning here and getting to know the other interns. I’m so lucky to have had such a fantastic first job experience, and most importantly, I had fun."
"While financial compensation wasn’t the main goal of my internship search, I have learned so much through this internship that any amount of financial compensation would not compare."
Their gratitude inspires me. And, I am grateful for each of the interns. It makes me want to take their feedback to heart and not sweat it.
Passing Through
Once again, the challenge is to create and sustain a work environment that allows for all of this to transpire. So, persevere through the heat, sweat out the internship design details, and turn feedback into recommendations so next summer you can enjoy some gratitude. There's nothing like passing through with gratitude, is there?
Here's to you and your awesome future.
Until then, keep your feet on the board and keep riding your wave!
Robert J. Khoury
CEO Agile Rainmakers