The intern focus group identified areas for improvement in the internship program's logistical support and guidance. Interns desired more standardized information from HR and managers on housing, company processes, and day-to-day expectations. However, they reported the internship experience overall was positive and independent. Suggestions included providing checklists for managers, expanding cross-functional learning, designating department contacts, and including maps and local information for interns. Continuing the supportive company culture was also recommended.

1. Intern Focus Group
Corporate Communications
June 28-29, 2017

2. Main Themes
More information
and direction Independence Positive experience
Interns desired
standardized
logistical
information from
HR and managers
and more housing
guidance.
Most interns agreed
this is more
independent than
other experiences.
This was viewed
positively, except
for lack of project
clarification.
From the interview
process to the actual
internship, interns
reported an
extremely positive
experience.

3. Q1. What is going well with the PCB internship program or what
needs improvement?
• “HR was not particularly clear on logistical things.”
• “I could have had more information beforehand.”
• “My manager has been crazy busy.”
• “In that packet they handed out I feel like there
could have been more useful stuff in there.”

4. Q2. Was there anything you didn’t receive that might be
helpful? Anything you did receive that was not helpful?
• “A tour of the plant for us working at corporate.”
• “I would have liked was a general overview of
clock Trak.”
• “I didn’t know where the bathroom was, I didn’t
know where to put my lunch, little things like
that.”
• “An internship should be getting as much
experience as you can in a short amount of time.”

5. Q3. How did your expectations from the interview process align
with the actual experience?
• “The key thing more me in interviews is that I
got to meet with managers in my department so
I knew who I was going to be working with, I got
to listen to them talk about the business and
what they like about their job, it sold me pretty
instantly.”
• “Knowing the project during the interview
process would have helped make the decision
process easier.”
• “This internship has been more than I expected
during the interview process.”

6. Q4. How are you settling in outside of your internship work day?
• “The intern events they have already have were good
and helped me become more familiar with the other
interns and managers.”
• “I struggled finding a place to live.”
• “A little bit more direction would have been helpful.”
• “When they sent out the list of people they only said if
people were local or not local to Minnesota. Minnesota
is a really big place so that wasn’t very helpful.”

7. Q5. Would you recommend or refer others to apply and if so,
what would you say?
• “They want to see you succeed.”
• “This culture and this atmosphere is really
supportive and really helpful in a lot of ways so I
definitely recommend it for that reason.”
• “I kind of wish it almost had a little more direction
and day to day, but everyone in this office is some
of the nicest people I’ve ever met.”
• “It's a lot less structured than then other
experiences I've had.”

8. Conclusion and Suggestions
• Standardized check-list for managers
• More focus on cross-functional learning
and broad company operations
• Establish department key contact
individuals for interns
• More housing guidance
• Add facility maps, org charts and info
about the local area to packets
• Continue fostering the successful
company culture and intern projects