Monday, April 15, 2013

Blach creates fantastic intern program

Apr 12, 2013, 2:41pm PDT

Blach builds killer intern program


Print Editor- Silicon Valley Business Journal
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So you think Google, Facebook and LinkedIn have marquee internships, then you haven’t spoken to Mike Blach, CEO of Blach Construction.
I sat down for a cup of coffee with Blach this morning and learned about his internship program. The San Jose-native hires up to 25 summer interns yearly from colleges throughout the country, including interns from his business neighbor across the street Santa Clara University.
In fact, this summer he is even bringing on one of the professors from SCU who teaches civil engineering. The Ph.D. is going to get on-the-job experience that he will bring back to his classroom in the fall. It’s SCU’s way of getting the profs out into the real world so they can incorporate their experiences back into the classroom.
But lets talk about the program. It has grow over time Blach said, and its very structured. The students work along side the employees in various departments — HR, engineering, finance and marketing. He sees it as training tool and a potential job pipeline for Blach and its working. The students find out if this is where they want to work and Blach Construction decides if they are right for the company.
Tierney Silier is a perfect example of the process. She came in as an intern and then became a full-time hire with Blach. In fact, she now heads up intern hiring at the company.
Even after interning, getting a job at Blach is not a given. The hiring process is rigorous he said. The potential hires will go through three interviews. He says they take the process very seriously.
It’s probably one of the reasons the company has close to zero turnover.
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