Turning interns into employees

For 30 of the past 40 years at James Martin Associates (JMA), we have offered internships and scholarships to students in the fields of horticulture, landscape architecture, forestry, agricultural management, landscape management and construction management. Both efforts significantly help with recruiting and hiring qualified talent.

Recruiting interns.

There are several ways to recruit interns at the high school and college level. We attend national and state career fairs such as those offered by the National Association of Landscape Professionals and the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association. We attend local job fairs at high schools and colleges as well.

Another way we recruit is by forming strong relationships with teachers and professors who recommend us to their students and even allow us to present our company and current openings with students in their classes. Some of our employees have taught horticultural and landscape architecture classes, which in turn further promotes the kind of work we do at JMA.

A good recruiting tool to take advantage of is social media. Having a presence on social media and posting positions on platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook boost awareness. We’ll send periodic email blasts to our clients to let them know about our newest opportunities, too.

Read more in our July issue here.