AS WE START ANOTHER INTERNSHIP – BY RYAN MCNULTY, TALENT ACQUISITION PARTNER & KAILA SANDERS, FINANCIAL ANALYST I AND 2016 SUMMER INTERN
Tech Data is ready to start another summer internship program! The process is long, exhausting, and different every year. As we continue to strive to build our internship program from where it is now, I’m always reminded of all the interns that have lead it to where it is today. Later in this post you’ll hear from Kaila who was a 2016 Summer Intern and is now a full-time employee with us. Oh, she’s also still in school and has already started her professional career as a Financial Analyst, no big deal! This is the type of talent we look for at Universities around the country.
How about Matt Johnson? Matt was also one of our 2016 Summer Interns. He had never set foot in a corporate environment before. While spending most of his life playing basketball (he played at the University of Tampa), Matt didn’t know what the internship or a corporate environment would bring. It brought him a full-time opportunity right out of college; we hired him this May, in a Fortune 100 organization. These stories are ones of many, like Pratik Adhav, James Haley, Cameron Kellner, Christian Sullivan, and Kenny Horne from the University of South Florida. Erin Williamson from the University of Florida. Laura Harris and Zachary Gresham from the University of Tampa. The list goes on and on.
Over the past 3 years our internship program has grown by leaps and bounds. This year we had 2,165 separate internship applications and will have selected 23 students from all over the country. We have students from New York and South Carolina, all the way to the University of Alabama! Florida schools are still our strongest source of interns, but over the next year you’ll see us expand around the country. Our President, Joe Quaglia, made it simple for the talent acquisition team a few years ago with the statement that Tech Data wants “our unfair share of the best talent.” That is our goal and that is what we intend to do.
We are excited about our new team coming in this summer. They probably don’t know what to expect or what it will be like. Take it from Kaila, it won’t be what you expected, it will be better!
KAILA’S EXPERIENCE
I so clearly remember my first day as a Tech Data intern, sitting in New Employee Orientation, excited, nervous, and having no idea what to expect. Throughout my internship, I tried to look at every day as a new opportunity. It was an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to network, an opportunity to advance my skills, and an opportunity to grow as a young professional. So quickly after starting, I met incredible people, made great friends, and felt the welcoming spirit of the Tech Data culture. Although I fit in so quickly, I never expected my career at Tech Data to take off the way that it has. And yet, not quite a full year later, I find myself waking up every morning, excited that I get to walk through the doors of this building and continue working in my role as a Financial Analyst I. The transition from being an intern and a student to being a student and a part-time employee to becoming a full-time employee was not always easy. I spent early mornings in class, long days in the office, and late nights studying. Here I am today, however, just a few online classes away from earning my Bachelor’s Degree, while already having started my professional career.
I tell people often that the internship program at Tech Data is truly what boosted me into becoming the young professional I am today. The lessons that I learned throughout the program were incomparable to anything I could have learned in a classroom. With the help of my teammates, I drastically improved my technical and analytical skills; skills that are helping excel in my position today. Through the time spent working on our intern project, I further developed my networking skills, my abilities to collaborate with all different types of teams, and my presentation capabilities. During my internship, I found that my key to success was to work hard every day, meet and work with as many different people as possible, put forth an effort to truly understand many different aspects of the business, and always be open to learning something new. It was so clear that the Tech Data family wanted to see me succeed, and by taking advantage of the opportunities they offered me during my time as an intern, I am now able to flourish as a full-time employee. Although the scope of my responsibility is exponentially larger today than it was last summer, I still am benefiting, in my new role, from the relationships I made, presentations I gave, and skills I learned throughout the internship program. To the incoming 2017 internship class: WELCOME! We are excited to have you as part of our family, and we are eager to help you find success here. Embrace every day, enjoy every day, and never stop putting forth your best effort. Tech Data is so glad to have you!
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