Shrewd Hiring Strategy for Tricky Times

“Our priority is kids who are from the area,” Gaitskill says. Interns are from universities in Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, as well as schools like New York-based design school Parsons and the Rhode Island School of Design. “And I get to interview them all,” he points out.

The Charlottesville, Va.-based Crutchfield also has had an active and successful internship program for many years, according to Vice President of Human Resources Mark Maynard. It’s been part of the overall business strategy for the past two years, “and it’s paid off.” The consumer electronics cataloger prominently plugs “Crutchfield University’s Internships & Co-op Opportunities” on its Web site.