Effi is a global tech startup and therefore has seen its fair share of international interns. We have had some great intern experiences and some not so great intern experiences but we have learned a great deal from every single one. All of our interns have made us a stronger and more global company and we are thankful for everyone. Keep working hard Effi interns!

We would like to share some negatives (and positives) we have encountered and complied for you if you are on the edge about hiring international interns.

Communication

Communication is often brought up in both the positives and negatives categories. The different languages your international interns will offer will allow you to communicate with more global customers, but will make it slightly harder for you to communicate internally. To communicate with an international intern you need to be patient.

Read more about how to communicate effectively in the workplace across languages.

Paperwork

The hardest part of hiring international interns is the paperwork. Visas, passports, and contracts all depend on the type of internship you are hiring for, whether you are paying them or not, and what country they and you are residing. If you are paying them you will also have to help them set up a national bank card. Do some research before offering a position or you could see yourself in a very messy tax issue with a rather large price tag.

Some Extra Spending

Like paperwork this depends on how much you are willing to offer your intern. Some companies offer to pay for plane tickets and housing. However that is not mandatory. The most common extra spending is in visa sponsorship that most interns will need to obtain a visa, specially if they are fresh out of university and lack funds in their home bank. Checkout your countries visa requirements and ability to work on passport guidelines.

If you want to avoid these possible issues but don’t have time to research you can always hire an international intern company to help you find interns, however they may also charge a pretty steep fee.

Termination Morality

On the rare occasion you get a bad or lazy intern, it may be harder to terminate them. It won’t be harder in the contract sense but defiantly in the moral sense. These interns have traveled across the globe to work for you. Sometimes they depend on you for housing and will be stranded without the position. Make sure you are ready to commit to all possibilities before offering to much to your interns and follow all regular hiring practices.

Document Translation

Writing in a foreign language is one of the hardest steps to learn and often even fluent speakers write strangely to native users. Thankfully we have Google translate. However as anyone who has had to take Spanish in high school knows Google translate can only do so much. Some meanings may be lost in translation as documents are run through a translation machine or written in a forgien language. Some time will be taken out of the regular day to spend on clarifying any translation issues so be prepared.

Still on the edge about hiring an international intern checkout our article Top 5 Positives of International Interns before making any rush decisions.

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