At Cressey Performance, we have a few interns in the spring (1/5 – 5/10), summer (6/1 – 8/30), and fall (9/1-12/23).  Over the past three years, this internship program has “kicked out” some coaches who are doing great things in the industry, including names you’ll recognize like Brian St. Pierre (who we wound up hiring as our first employee), Kevin Neeld (now a hockey expert and director at Endeavor Fitness), Kevin Larrabee (now on staff at Mike Boyle’s place), Chris Howard (Cressey Performance’s newest employee), and Roger Lawson (World-Class Rock, Paper, Scissors Competitor):

There are several more who are either still in school or out in the world doing great things – and we’re really proud of them.

In light of the successes of these folks (and, presumably, the outlandish intern-hazing death circuits we’ve featured in this blog), Cressey Performance internships have become coveted ones.  In fact, for the three internship positions we had available for this summer, we had 33 applicants.  It proved to be a huge challenge for us to narrow it down to our final few, as we had strong applicants, and many of them came with recommendations from good friends/colleagues of mine in the industry.

With that in mind, since I know we have a lot of industry up-and-comers reading this blog, I thought I’d throw out my top five mistakes that intern applicants make – at least in my experience.  Not surprisingly, most (if not all) of these bulletpoints also apply to to the application process for a job.

Mistake #1: Spelling “Cressey” incorrectly. – I’m dead serious; this really happened.  One international applicant read about the internships at www.ericcressEy.com and download the application form at www.cressEyperformance.com, but somehow found a way to spell my last name “Cressy”on the mailing envelope and at least 4-5 times in his application essay – which was stapled to the application with the word “Cressey Performance’ across the top.  Attention to detail and the ability to follow directions are important – and this cut us down to 32 candidates pretty darn quickly.

Mistake #2: Not proofreading your application essay. – This was an issue for quite a few others.  It’s really unfortunate, as some folks may be great coaches who are articulate in speaking, but just don’t come across well in writing.  However, we’re talking about a 500-word essay.  It wouldn’t be wrong to ask 2-3 friends, parents, or colleagues to have a look at it to make sure it’s clean.  So, you could say that in my eyes, a poorly written application essay doesn’t just show that you’re unprepared in the context of a crucial skill in the working world, but also that you aren’t comfortable asking for help.  I want all of our interns to be secure (and humble) enough to admit when they don’t know/understand something so that we can teach them.

Mistake #3: Glazing right over the application. – We had this issue with a few applicants for different reasons.  Two applicants glazed over the application and just included their essay and resume, and while they were good candidates in terms of the essay and their qualifications, the simple fact that they did not include the application added five minutes to our internship coordinator Pete’s day as he tried to track down their contact info, references, and desired internship period (spring, summer, or fall).  A few others had such poor handwriting that we had to contact them with follow-up emails to determine what they were really trying to relate.  Pete is already a super-busy guy with the regular goings-on of CP, so someone who comes up short on such a simple task stands out to us as someone who is going to throw up “inefficiency roadblocks” as an intern down the road, as opposed to becoming a thriving member of the team.

Mistake #4: Acting like an immature bag-of-worthlessness in your social networking profile(s). – Research from the University of Dayton’s Career Services showed that approximately 40% of employers check out job applicants on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. before making a hiring decision.  CP is proud to be among those 40%.  Dropping F-bombs left and right and posting pictures of you boozing are not good ways to win over potential employers and internship supervisors – especially since we know many of our interns become very popular with clients and eventually form Facebook friendships.  And, many of our clients are impressionable young athletes; you need to prove to us that you are mature enough to be role models for them.

Mistake #5: Attempting to always go through Eric. – Yes, I just referred to myself in the third person, but that’s not the point.  We had a few applicants who would call or email constantly to request more information about the internship: dates it runs, application deadlines, housing recommendations, etc.  As I noted above, in addition to being our business director, my business partner Pete is also the internship coordinator.  He took this position not only because he’s beyond qualified for it, but because I don’t have the time or desire to manage the logistics of the preparation for the program.  My responsibilities are working with the interns once they arrive, and – to that end – I refer all inquiries directly to Pete during the application process.  Still, we have had several people call/email who big-leagued Pete by refusing to interact with him, instead requesting to always speak with me.  Invariably, when I speak with them (if I do contact them at all), the questions all wind up being ones that Pete could have fielded easily – and with more detail than I could.  So, the take-home lesson is to always deal with the internship coordinator – because he a) controls your future more than anyone else, b) will immediately black-list you if you big-league him, and c) will actually give you the best responses of anyone in the process. Remember that there is a difference between being proactive and being a pain in the butt; persistence is fine, but cumbersome is something difficult is another thing altogether.

You’ll notice that none of these five mistakes had anything to do with coaching ability, academic performance/GPA, and previous experience.  Very simply, we can rule out a good 50% of candidates simply because they haven’t established themselves as professionals.  As an example, Roger Lawson was one of our most popular interns of all time with clients – and he did it with ZERO academic background in fitness (he graduated with a degree in English Literature).  However, his application and essay were thorough and professional, and he was humble and “politely persistent” – so he made it past the first round over people who had as much as six years of experience in the classroom and training world than he did.

Some recommended reading for those out there who are worried about making it past this first stage:

How to Win Friends and Influence People – It should cost you about $1 on Amazon, and you should read it within a day.

Made to Stick – Discusses the importance of first impressions and how to make yourself “stick” in someone’s mind during the selection process.

Never Eat Alone – It’s about networking, but not the cheesy kind where you just name drop.

Peak – This book explains a lot of why our business  (or any business) is successful.

In my next post, I’ll talk about what separates the folks in the final decision process after the initial “cuts.”