Finding Leadership in Those Being Led: The Intern Story at nth Solutions

Every company has aspects with which it defines itself to be unique. For nth Solutions, LLC, a large part of what makes us special relates directly to who we are. Now of course, a company’s success is always based on the individuals who compose the team, and our expertise at nth covers numerous fields that combine to form a successful business. However, there’s one unique aspect of our staff that truly sets the company apart: our interns.

From its foundation, nth has always valued the concept of being a leader by furthering ideas – not only those for products and the business, but also those of our community. That’s why the company has always had great interest in mentoring local high school students who hope to gain insight into what it means to be a part of a workplace. In the beginning, however, that was the extent of what the job entailed. As a product development and engineering company, nth aimed to offer experience of performing simple tasks on an assignment-to-assignment basis. Every intern essentially saw the same aspect of what it takes to work in a business: how administrative performance is a crucial part of the customer satisfaction experience.

That mindset changed, however, with the insistence and caliber shown by two unique individuals early on. With a passion for the business and a strong, self-guided leadership ability, those students led to a shift in the intern story at nth, as the company quickly realized that there was so much more untapped potential young minds could bring to the team.

Soon, nth began to hire interns based on positions specific to the company. Allowing each student to make contributions unique to his or her own interests resulted in the best type of outcome: a self-perpetuating cycle. Flashing forward to the present: every year, new high school students join us here at nth and find their own niche in the multitude of disciplines relevant to our core business, including product development, software development, web design, graphic design, and writing (hint hint!) And as the cycle continues, seniors take on the positions of Lead Intern Managers to guide their peers and aid with the hiring and training processes for the next year.

However, as nth knows to be true, each new intern is entirely unique and thrives in different ways from the experience of working at the company. Likewise, each intern offers something entirely unique to the company as well. Here is just some of the wisdom that nth has gained from our interns and what it means to be a thought leader.

  1. The most successful path towards development – both as a company and as an individual employee entering the field – is through interest, opportunity, and choice. So, it’s important to place talent in an area of strength. With guidance of course, but also with a level of freedom.
  2. Teaching into the next generation is always a long-term win. As both technology and business constantly change with time, the best way to maintain the pace of innovation is to foster the up-and-coming minds of the future.
  3. Have the courage to try something different! See different perspectives, and explore different ideas. Every intern who has ever worked for us has contributed a new brick to our path as a growing company, and trusting those contributions has allowed us to overcome innumerable roadblocks and challenges along the way.
  4. Know your strengths and guide accordingly. Sometimes, having just enough of the right type of guidance can serve as the catalyst for the greatest innovations.
  5. And finally, as all of these lessons show, you can find leadership even in those being led.