I hate to say it, but summer is over.  Retail stores have Back-to-School displays that are thoroughly picked over. Even the school buses in my township have been doing dry runs before classes start on Tuesday.  Even the trees look tired from being leafy and green for so long.

And as my friend Carmella pointed out, Starbucks will be selling Pumpkin Spice Lattes on next Tuesday.  Nothing says “fall” quite like pumpkins.

Summer is gone and autumn is here. And the call of autumn took the interns away and back to college.

I miss the interns already.  We had really great interns this summer.

And it is a little tempting to say “have a great semester, give us a call sometime” and then never talk to those interns again.  Why? Because we’re busy. But we are all so busy so really, that’s not an excuse anymore. The people who are really busy and successful still make time to connect with other people.

But those interns are more than just transient people who come for a summer to work.  Those interns are the people who will someday shape the industry you work in and the world you live in.

Think about it this way: Your interns just went back to college. Chances are those interns are talking about their internship experiences with professors and advisors. Maybe they are even talking to their friends who would be looking internships next summer. If this summer’s intern was great, wouldn’t you want them to pass along the names of other people who might be great as well?

But think further down the line too.  Someday that intern is going to graduate and with graduation comes the need for a job.  Do you want that recent grad (who was a great intern) going to your biggest competitor and working for them? Probably not. If you think like I do, I’d rather they come back and work for me.

Just because the internship is formally over does not mean that you end the conversations. This is the time where you step up the effort to develop a mentoring relationship even more.

So how do you accomplish this?

1. Let your intern know that you would like to mentor them. Not everyone knows how to ask for a mentor. By letting them know that you are interested in building that relationship, you let them know that you value their contributions and think they have potential. It is also incredibly exciting when someone you respect approaches you about building that relationship.
2. Talk to your intern about the classes they are taking and organizations they are joining. It doesn’t always have to be over the phone – email works great too. But don’t forget to take the conversation off the internet and into real life at least once a month.
3. Encourage your intern to start blogging. And stay in the blogging conversation with them. Leave comments on their page or have them guest post on your blog.  Or better yet, do both!

There’s no reason to forget about interns just because they are gone. This is part of networking, part of building your business and part of building your brand.