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The Economist:
Why do you take on social data interns?
We’re keen to support people who want to know a bit more about data journalism but don’t have a natural route into the profession. By showing what we do to undergraduates we hope they’ll have a better understanding of how it works in reality and how we create our content. Plus, we’re a very busy team so having an extra pair of hands really helps.
What type of tasks do interns usually help with?
They support with anything that needs doing. We want to provide an all-round experience so it could be anything from gathering data to understanding and processing big data, helping our journalists with daily charts and writing stories to gaining experience working alongside our visualisers who present our data.
How does your organisation benefit from having an intern?
They’ve been fantastic and have been able to get on with real work across the department which has been a huge help to the team. They observe and ask questions about what we do which really helps us think about how we explain ourselves and how we’re perceived externally. This fresh perspective on what we do and how we operate is hugely insightful and beneficial.
What do interns gain from a placement with you?
They get to see and understand how our business works. It’s a valuable way for them to try new things and test theories they’ve learnt in a real-world situation. They also get to learn new skills. I remember Zara, our most recent intern, being surprised by how much we use R in our work, and she had the opportunity to use a variety of tools to test visualisation of millions of pieces of data. This is real marketable skill.
What would you say to any other organisation thinking of taking on a social data intern?
One hundred percent say yes. Every intern we’ve had has always had so much to offer and we’ve not seen any downsides. We’ve never had to ‘hand-hold’ and have found them to be hard working with relevant skills, so they’ve been able to work on real projects resulting in publishable content. On a social level, it’s also great to bring young people from different backgrounds into the wider team.
Dods Group Ltd
Dods Group Ltd is one of the biggest political intelligence, events, media, and training specialists in Europe.
Why do you take on social data interns?
Social data interns are a great addition to our small team. Many students with an interest in politics and data think the only way to get into politics is by working with a politician or political party. We want to show them that there are many career pathways into politics and the services we provide are examples of some of these.
What type of tasks do interns usually support with?
We tend to give our social data interns projects for them to complete over the course of the internship, so they have the opportunity to follow something through from start to finish. This could be anything from data auditing, reviewing systems and analysing data quality to desktop research and mailouts to parliamentarians.
How does your organisation benefit from having an intern?
Working alongside an intern is fantastic. Unlike a new starter who will tend to know a lot about our work, interns don’t have the same depth of knowledge. This means they ask lots of questions and need us to explain what we do. This helps us as an organisation to reflect on how we communicate our services externally and how we record and share best practice internally. We’re also keen to try and encourage better integration between our teams so we find having an intern shadow within different departments really helps bring teams together.
What do interns get from a placement with you?
They get real world experience, and we always provide detailed feedback about their time with us. They’re used to an academic environment so it’s great for them to put their theoretical knowledge into practice. They also learn new skills which could be anything from using business software to learning how to address politicians in an email. We love seeing their confidence grow during their time with us and we support them with practical career advice such as how to update and write their CV.
What would you say to any other organisation thinking of taking on a social data intern?
Do it. Having an intern requires minimal formal planning and getting them to spend time on one or two longer projects during their placement helps manage their workload. We’ve found interns to be so helpful to our team and are great for our business. They provide a fresh perspective and bring people from diverse backgrounds from around the world into the business which is hugely beneficial.