5 Ways to Tap the Power of Interns

3. Do careful screening. We treat these hires just like any other team member. Here are a few of the things that we require:

No typos. We eliminate any candidates who have typographical errors on their resume or cover letter. This is an industry of nuances, and even small mistakes can cost an advisor a lot of money. My thought is if they are not careful with their résumé, when they have all the time they need to get it right, how will they do in a pressure environment when someone else's money is on the line?

A certified copy of their transcript. Generally we won't take anyone who doesn't have at least a B average. I ask for a certified copy only because there has been so much publicity about grade fraud recently.

Kolbe A. Every candidate takes a Kolbe A assessment. This is a $50 tool we use that helps us assess how the candidate approaches work and solves problems. Both Peter and I are Kolbe certified, so we also give them a mini lesson in how Kolbe works so they will better understand our team.

Team input. We have them interview all the team members. I encourage the team members to be honest and tell the candidate exactly what they like about our firm, and the challenges. We use the feedback from the team before determining whether to hire or not.

A writing sample. Sometimes, we have them take an article I have written and summarize it in two paragraphs. This shows me their communication skills and once again how good they are with the details.

A project. Occasionally we will offer a small project, for which we pay a nominal sum, like $50. The purpose of the project is for us to get good information about something the business really needs. One of them was "What changes would you make in our website to better promote our SEO?" The project report shows me how they think and solve problems and how well they communicate on paper and in person. Plus we tend to get some really good feedback that helps the business move forward.

4. Pay them. We think it is important to pay interns. This is a real job and I don't want them to feel abused. We usually peg the pay slightly higher than the norm in the area. Because they are part-time, there are no benefits. If they are with us around Christmas, I usually give them a modest Christmas bonus.

5. Include international interns. We have had success with international interns who are in the States on educational visas. It is actually illegal for them to work for pay while they are here. However, many of them need work experience for their résumés. This group has been hardworking and very good with the details. Unfortunately, we cannot always use them for telephone work because their accents may not be understandable for our American clients. I would take any of these we could get!

I just returned from a weeklong business trip to the U.K., where Peter and I were looking at different locations for our software business. As part of our due diligence, we met with numerous universities. Among other things, we were looking at their programs for interns that we could hire.

It was shocking to see how much the British higher education system varies from ours—and yes this could impact your future financial services business. The Brits just recently started charging students for their university education in the last few years. The fees, which seemed relatively modest to me, ran about $10,000 to $15,000 a year for tuition—still much cheaper than most U.S. colleges. The fees actually seemed to have a positive impact on the education system, because the schools realized they had to offer something of value, or no one was going to pay for their higher education.

The No. 1 value proposition all the schools had was this: Would their students be employable upon graduation? Their administrations went to enormous efforts to make sure their graduates could get good jobs. This meant more than skills; it also meant a good work ethic and a lot of practical, usable experience. Each school saw the importance of changing lives by making sure their students had superb skills and became great employees. This was just one small piece of creating a stronger economic environment. A strong internship program was clearly part of that initiative.

Contrast that with the U.S. I am sure there are schools that have this focus here, but many seemed to be lost in the "education for education sake" mode. Students see college as a place to go when they don't know what they want to do with their lives. Brits can no longer afford this luxury.

One last success story: About five years ago we hired a great intern from Carlson School of Management. Early this year, we made him president of our U.S. operations. He just turned 26! We couldn't be happier.