Manager and Mentor

How does one manage an intern? Is managing an intern similar to managing a full time employee?

How does one manage a campus hire? Is managing a campus hire similar to managing an industry hire?

I think there are differences. These show up both in terms of amount and nature of supervision (if that is the correct term) required.

Frequency of supervision (meet once in how many days) differs. For an intern, it might make sense to meet him/her at least once a day. Would you do that with an industry hire? Possibly not!

Nature of supervision (kind of support provided) differs too. An intern might require more mentoring - being told the answers, more structure in work assigned, and a larger element of ‘psychologically settling down’ conversations. An industry hire/full time employee might want more freedom in both terms of shaping out the goals and working towards them.

First and second elements in mentoring need to be led the manager.

On the other hand, the last element (psychologically setting down) may be better led by a peer/combination of peers. But manager surely has a role to play in setting up these peer relationships.

 

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Sourav