Perspectives from Marketing Internship Providers

Internship research published in marketing and business education journals primarily examine student perspectives about internships or reports results based on other business disciplines. To more accurately understand how employers perceive marketing interns and internships, 352 managers located in the Midwestern United States were surveyed. Respondents rated five skills and qualifications they deemed most important and rated previous interns on their abilities and expected firm benefits. Key findings include recognizing preferred methods of recruiting interns (including the emergence of social networking), identifying the tasks interns perform, and considering firm demographics on internship perspectives and practices.