Shannon Bell
Shannon Bell is the Creative Director of brand agency; Re. in Sydney.
A keen advocate of internships, Shannon answered our questions on the more formal side of internships at Re.
Usually, how many interns do you take a year?
It varies how many interns we take. We’ve had three design interns this year. We’ll occasionally have a strategy one too, but we haven’t for awhile.
Do you pay interns? If so, how much? If not, why?
Yes, we pay interns. Interns at Re receive $200/day inclusive of Super.
What would they typically be working on during their time?
Right now, interns assist on brand projects. They can’t be charged to clients so we generally get them to support on the most interesting/creative work or alternatively the work where there’s a suitable task. Our current intern has been doing audits, mood boarding, assisting senior designers on executions.
In the past, we’ve created a specific speculative project for interns to own and run. This meant identifying a proactive opportunity with a client, having the interns run at it under the direction of a DD and then the internship culminating in a client preso (and hopefully us winning some work). This was a great idea, but it took a lot of internal resource and planning to make happen. Personally, I prefer interns being involved in the day to day, helping out on a variety of projects, like a junior would. It gives you a better sense of how they work with everyone and their attitude to doing the more mundane tasks as well as the fun ones.
Do you have a structure for internships? A position description, a guide, a set of expectations?
We don’t have a set structure or description for the role but we do have an online guide for new starters (mainly office stuff, people’s names etc)
Do you have a dedicated member of staff as a direct report?
Interns report to me. They also have a buddy assigned to them – usually a senior designer who will make sure they have someone to have lunch with and can use the printer, etc.
Do you sign a contract with them?
Yes, they sign an employment contract.
How long do they typically last?
They’re typically here for one month.
How do you assess whether it / they have been a success?
We don’t formally assess how successful it’s been.
How often do they lead to permanent roles?
Internships lead to full time roles if the person was great and we have an opening. One of our current midweights started as an intern.
Is there anything you’d like to do differently, but just haven’t had the time, or money or opportunity too?
There is a lot I’d do differently/better if I had the time (in general really). At the moment we’re quite ad hoc with interns. We should probably also do formal assessments of how they’ve gone.
What are your business or personal motivations for hiring interns?
Our/my motivation in hiring interns is that it’s always better to grow people with the business, so they understand how we do things and are embedded in the culture. Juniors keep us all on our toes. They give the more senior designers someone to teach and mentor. It’s a clear signal to the rest of our team that we believe in growing our people.