What Our Internship Is
Our internship provides participants with training, theory, practice, and real-world business experience. We know that some companies offer internships where participants do menial tasks, act as assistants, make photocopies, and watch other people do the real work. Our internship is not that. Our interns get the opportunity to do real work and get real experience to prepare them for their careers. Research and test out what works and does not work by learning through doing.
Our internship is not for everyone. Our internship is for people who want to work as part of a team that is building something ambitious one piece at a time. In our internship, you will learn new concepts about business, people, and yourself. You will practice looking at situations and thinking from new perspectives. You will have tasks that may feel unfamiliar or outside of your comfort zone. Our interns are expected to grow as individuals and as part of a team. Part of our internship is about discovery and we expect people to make mistakes. We ask that you fail forward by learning from your mistakes so that we can improve and try again. Another component of our internship is learning and behaving consistently with our company culture which will be different than what you are used to.
How to Get the Most from Our Internship Program
To get the most benefit and maximum value out of our internship program, you will need to do the following:
- Show up each day with an open mind and a willingness to learn new things. You need a willingness to do things differently and to think differently than you have before.
- Approach new information and situations from the point of view that, regardless of what you know, there are things that you do not know yet. Thinking that you already know something or arrogance will get in the way of being effective at your work and will limit the value you can get from our internship program. Being willing to consider new points of view will allow you to discover a new level of effectiveness.
- Take any information and theory that you learn and validate it with real experience before determining whether the theory or information is accurate or not. Without real world experience and results, theoretical knowledge has limited use and no effect on practical results. Also understand that as people change over time, theory and information may change so we need to retest and validate all theories to ensure their relevance.
- Do complete work without cutting corners to taking short cuts. Cutting corners will produce less than optimal results and may require redoing the work.
- Do the work even if you do not agree with it. Much of the value is in testing things out and learning from the tests. If you do not understand the purpose, ask questions so that you do understand.
- Do the work to understand the point of view of others even if you do not agree with it. You do not have to agree with everything, but you need to be willing to understand with an open mind.
- Take the actions and practice while being willing to make mistakes and fail to produce the desired results. Learn from each mistake or failure and try again. Fail forward.
- Discuss what you are learning or what you do not understand with other people. Human brains process information better when discussing it with other people. It can help clarify or bring understanding to the information.
- Be courageous enough to ask questions every time you do not understand something. There is nothing wrong with not understanding and needing to ask questions. Be committed to understanding and learning so that you can be as effective as possible.
- Ask for support when you do not know or are uncertain of:
- What to do next
- How to do it
- If it will get done by the deadline
- Do as much work as you can to get the most practice and to learn how to do things more effectively.
Who We Are
We are building a better world, one business at a time. We are simple and humble with lofty ambitions of making a large difference in the world while making a profit. We believe that it is possible to make a difference that benefits everyone involved and make money at the same time. We train self-employed individuals and small business owners in Canada and the United States to work less and make more money by making small changes in the way they operate that result in increased profits. We do this by offering business coaching, business consulting, courses, and seminars.
Why We Offer an Internship
We have several reasons for having an internship program that benefit the interns, the world, and RSC Business Group Alpha. The internship program is one way that we fulfil on our Vision and Mission and making the world a better place. This is accomplished by training people in our internship program so that they are more effective in their lives and careers. That spills over and affects the people that they are around in their daily lives as a side effect. Interns gain experience, knowledge, and skills that will benefit them in any career and any lifestyle that they choose for themselves.
Expectations of Our Interns
We expect the following from our interns and if you become one of our interns, you are agreeing to behave consistently with these expectations:
- Are trainable
- Willing to learn new information & concepts
- Willing to follow instructions from management
- Willing to do the work that they are given
- Willing to look at them-self to see what they truthfully think, believe, want & intend
- Communicate with their manager & follow the lines of communication
- Inform their manager if they have a grievance as soon as possible
- Ask questions about concepts & work as soon they have a question
- Ask for clarification if they don’t understand the assigned work as soon as they realize that they don’t understand
- Speak to their manager about absences as soon as they know that they will be away or there is a conflict
- Ask their manager for time off as soon as they know that they want time off
- Speak to the manager about exam periods and unusually busy time periods as soon as they know those time periods exist
- Offer suggestions for improvement when you have them
- Be punctual for scheduled meetings, phone calls & appointments
- Do what it takes to meet deadlines
- Keep their promises (including all work that is scheduled)
- In the event that a promise looks like it won’t be kept, interns should speak to their manager & all those who are involved or affected by the work or promise that would not be completed
- Willing to work as part of a team
- Share information with team mates
- Co-ordinate work with team mates
- Communicate with team mates so that they know what you know
- Respond to all communications, requests & inquiries by the next working day
- Including email, phone messages, text messages, instant messages & Skype
- Tell the truth and not lie
- Accept corrections from superiors
- Enjoy meeting and talking to new people
- Enjoy initiating conversations with business owners and professionals
- Committed to doing 100% of the work
- Interested in creating solutions to challenges
- Willing to apply what they learn in the real world
- Want to work as part of a team that depends on them to do their part
- Is organized
- Set goals and work to achieve them
Available Positions for Interns
Currently, we have the following positions available for our internship:
- Marketing Associate
Learn to speak and meet with business owners and professionals. Learn to start and maintain business relationships.
- Advertising Marketing Associate
Learn to create marketing that generates leads. Learn how to communicate with business owners and professionals.
- Personnel/Human Resources Associate
Learn to recruit, assess, interview, and select applicants for a position. Learn to orient and setup new persons in the company.
- Research and Development Market Research Associate
Learn to discover and analyze what the market needs and wants, how organizations work, and how to fix business problems.
- Sales Associate
Learn to determine what someone needs or wants, and then offer a solution that fits their needs, wants, and budget.
How We Manage
Our management style is one of supervision. This means that we inspect the work that you do to ensure that it is done correctly. We do this by assigning work, then checking in on how it is progressing in the middle of the assignment, and then inspecting the work at the end. If the work is done completely, it is declared complete. If there are corrections or adjustments to be made, they can be made when checking in on progress in the middle or at the end. If additional support or training is required to complete the assignment, it will be provided. Work is only considered complete when the supervisor declares the work complete.
Interns tend to work within teams of three; each team reports to one team leader. If there is a shortage of interns, a team may contain one intern however you will still work with other interns. Your work depends on the work of others and visa versa.
How the Internship Works
We do not have an office where everyone works together each day. We work remotely from an appropriate location that has internet access. This style of working is very different from working in an office and often requires more discipline since there are different distractions when working from home or a library or coffee shop. Some interns prefer to work together so they meet and others do not. We are flexible about where our interns work, however, it must be in a location with reliable internet access and they must have the ability to speak by phone, webinar, or Skype at certain points during their work hours. For calls by phone, webinar, or Skype, the environment must be quiet so a coffee shop is not appropriate.
We use Google Drive extensively for our work and to share documents. We use Google Calendar to manage tasks, to view what other team members are working on, and to schedule meetings. Access to Google Drive and Google Calendar will be provided by RSC Business Group Alpha with your email address.
Our weekly training calls are done by conference call and GoToMeeting webinar software. The conference call can be accessed by phone or through GoToMeeting’s VOIP. If you are using GoToMeeting’s VOIP, we request that you be in a quiet location that is free from background noise. We record the training calls and background noise makes it difficult to understand the recording. These weekly training calls are mandatory and occur on Thursday evenings from 7:30pm to 9:00pm.
Each position in the internship is split into different teams with different tasks. Interns rotate through each team so that they experience all of the different tasks. Rotation periods vary in length depending on the internship applied for; a rotation period can be anywhere from 3 weeks to a maximum of 2 month. To complete the internship, interns must go through every rotation.
The internship is unpaid since this is an opportunity for training and development.
What We Provide to Interns
We provide the following to all of our interns:
- Weekly training through conference call and online webinar
- Management and support through phone and email
- Weekly meetings/calls to review work
- Company email account
- Business cards
- Opportunities to learn and experiment
- Opportunities for real experience
- Company phone that requires an internet connection to make calls, if required. The company phone must be returned to the company at the end of the internship.
Requirements
- A computer or laptop
- Reliable internet access to use through out the work day
- Sign our confidentiality and non-compete agreement
- Sign out internship contract
- Agree to our company policies
- A phone (can be provided by the company if required)
- Able to attend the weekly intern training calls on Thursday evenings from 7:30pm to 9:00pm
Costs to
Participate
There is no cost to participate in our internship program. However, you are responsible for paying for your own living and transportation to and from meetings and events.
Some positions, such as marketing, may require attending events or meetings. You can estimate that you will travel to two or three meetings or events per week, depending on your position. Some weeks, it will be two, however, if you budget for three, you will be safe. Your cost of living includes internet access and telecommunications which are required for the internship.