Recently, Vault.com, an employer rankings platform that provides intelligence on what it’s like to work within particular industries, companies or professions, shared its annual internship rankings and showed the world something that anyone involved with NetApp’s internship program already knows—that it’s one of the best internship programs in the U.S.
According to Vault, NetApp’s internship program ranks 27th in the country, among companies from a variety of industries. The rankings are based on input the companies provide on their internship programs, as well as survey rankings by current and former interns who rank the programs based on criteria such as quality of life, compensation and benefits, the interview process, career development, full-time employment prospects and diversity.
This makes the second recognition for NetApp’s internship program in the past year, with the Vault results joining a ranking by WayUp that also placed NetApp in their Top 100 internship programs, which is based on a combination of public vote and input from a judging panel of HR and industry experts.
Says Intern and University Grad Hire (UGH) Program Manager Justin Tomlin, “We know NetApp has a great workplace culture and we know we have an amazing internship program that allows interns to grow and develop—personally and professionally. I think these survey results just bring to light what so many employees and former interns already know—NetApp’s internship program is phenomenal. These rankings just give us a chance to really latch on and say, ‘Here’s the stats.’”
What is it that makes NetApp’s internship program so special? We talked with some of our current interns and former interns who now work at NetApp full-time, as well as with Justin and Senior Manager, University Relations Trent Peterson to find out.
Education, Exposure and Experience
NetApp’s internship program runs for 10-12 weeks primarily during the summer and it provides plenty of opportunities for fun and camaraderie. In the U.S. alone, NetApp offers internships for college and graduate students at nine of our Americas locations, and that doesn’t include internship opportunities in Bangalore, APAC and EMEA. According to Justin, we employ approximately 120 interns per year in the Americas alone.
Trent says to qualify for the program, interns must be currently enrolled in a bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral or professional (such as law school) degree program. The goal of the program is to deliver what NetApp’s University Relations team calls “The 3 E’s—Education, Exposure and Experience.”
“That’s the goal of this program—with Experience, it creates a sense of community for the interns. With Education, it enables them to learn and do better for themselves, as well as for NetApp. With Exposure, it gives them insight into NetApp and our executives, sites, what we do and our culture. All of those things are meant to make sure they like NetApp and make them better for our company,” Trent says.
Access and real work
There are a few things that NetApp does that make the internship program stand out from others in the industry, particularly with the interns. One of those is the amount of access the interns have to executives and managers. The summer program, for instance, features a Leaders Speaker Series where executives across the company discuss their roles and careers with the students.
“NetApp interns have a chance to access that top-tier of leadership, including CEO George Kurian. Every summer, George takes part in the speaker series and interns get the chance to spend some time with George, hearing his story, advice for interns, insights on why university talent is important to NetApp’s overall success, and, ultimately, have a chance to ask questions of their own,” says Justin.
Bridget King, who interned at NetApp during the summer of 2017 while she was attending The Catholic University of America, says the Senior Leader Speaker Series was one of the highlights of her internship. Now an NGS project manager in the U.S. Public Sector office in Vienna, Va., Bridget says she and her fellow interns had the opportunity to meet with Senior VP of Americas Sales, Thomas Stanley, as well as hear other company leaders speak via video conferencing during the series.
“It was a great opportunity to hear from the senior leaders of the organization and to see executives taking the time to engage and interact with interns. The opportunity to connect with those leaders really stood out to me,” Bridget says.
Darrian Parker, a solution architect intern in RTP and MBA student at North Carolina State University, agrees. “That was my favorite part of the program, just learning from the executives. NetApp is a big, Fortune 500 company, so being able to come in as a person starting their career as an intern and really learn from those people, that’s a huge opportunity that not a lot of people are aware of,” he says.
Darrian also appreciated the transparency and level of engagement in the company that NetApp provides for interns. Being able to attend All Hands meetings and hear about the state of the company, as well as hear from executives about their career paths, really impressed him.
Another aspect of the program that stands out is that NetApp allows interns to do real-world work, not just low-level projects. NetApp internships are tailored to what the team working with the intern needs in terms of work that needs to get done.
“These interns are not brought in to do busy work or have a generic experience; they are hired to address challenges their teams are actively facing. Interns bring with them fresh perspectives and oftentimes innovative mindsets. This winning combination allows interns to contribute greatly to their team’s success and grow an immense amount in a relatively limited timeframe,” Justin says.
What this also means is not only do interns get the opportunity to work with the teams within the department or function they’re assigned to, but they also get cross-functional exposure across the company.
“Every summer, interns are hired across a variety of different departments. Their projects often require cross-functional approaches, but they are also given opportunities to come together as a group to network across their different roles and have exposure to the overall company,” Justin says. “They get to see what all goes into running a successful company, not just regarding their individual department, but also the company at large.
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