Hiring Students Easily

[cstory]

Hey Guys,

I'm participating in the Lean Startup Machine and we are working with the idea of connecting small businesses / startups with students. I'm working to understand what concerns come up, what methods have been used, and what stops you from hiring students.

--Best Wishes

[Wozcreative]

I find students don't have enough experience to foresee possible issues that may arise and fix/omit them before it can happen.

In my industry, students usually won't have the experience to know:

• How to be resourceful.. if they don't know something, will they know where to find the answer?
• They don't have a "process" which makes things faster smoother.. they usually will do it the long way
• They are limited in knowing the software
• They are limited in understanding production. For some things like printing, you need a lot of experience in producing custom work. They also don't know how to setup final printed files.
• Students don't know yet what they're strengths and weaknesses are. They make take on too much then they can handle and overpromise.
• Students don't know their worth yet in terms of what to charge
• Students often have difficulty managing their time because their still learning.. design is usually very difficult int he beginning stages of any project. The beginning stages is actually the most difficult and most important.
• Their organizational skills are not there. They don't know how to organize the files, emails, paperwork and projects.
• They often can't work on more than 1 - 3 projects, where as I require 6 - 8 projects that I myself handle
• They need a LOT of hand holding, which means it takes away from my time to doing work
• They are very easily discouraged, and don't yet know how to take criticism

[patrickprecisione]

I would like to tell you just one positive aspect of hiring student rather than negative that is: Low salary, that you can save your cost.

Oh yeah. That's true. Maybe you can have the students start out as interns, then gradually become employees. Then it won't cost you anything to take them for a test drive.

[Wozcreative]

I would like to tell you just one positive aspect of hiring student rather than negative that is: Low salary, that you can save your cost.

Ever hear of cheap labour turning into being expensive labour? Some companies cannot afford the time and effort. You're either paying with Time/Effort or with $. Nothing is "cheaper" than the other. This is reasons why I work alone. I cannot afford the time to project manage while what I really want to do is design.

Pros and cons to both options. If you don't care for quality. Get a student. If you're business relies on it, hire a professional.

[Patrysha]

Well at the restaurant, we do hire a small number of students.

Usually they're undependable, don't do a very thorough job and take a lot of breaks and can't understand the concept that no cells on shift means no cells on shift and not no cells on shift except for them. They quit when called on it or get terminated after their warnings run out.

The ones who do well end up staying for a few months to a year and then moving on.