By Cristina, Channel Team Intern in Plano, Texas.
As a college student today, it often feels like it’s essential to get top grades, volunteer, participate in sports, play an instrument, and find a cure for a rare disease in my spare time just to get a job interview. And now, on top of this, two relatively new words are at the forefront of every college students’ worries and every recruiter’s checklist: internship experience.
This is where McAfee comes in. In case you haven’t heard, McAfee has given 147 high school and college students around the globe the opportunity to gain real world experience through a variety of internships. I am grateful to be one of the college interns with the chance to work full time to acquire a greater grasp on business operations, and perhaps most exciting of all, from a broke student perspective, get paid for it. As an intern at McAfee, I am acquiring valuable experiences, skills, and relationships as well as being given an edge in my future career.
McIntern Perspective
There are many perks to being an intern.
For instance, the Plano interns have fun excursions together, such as a laser tag and whirly ball teambuilding session and unique networking events. In addition to that, speakers have taught us key skills, like how to build a strong personal brand and provided insight into our own personality types in a workplace context.
To me, one of the most valuable aspects of this internship is that, instead of wandering into an arbitrary position after graduation, I get to shadow dozens of coworkers in a wide range of areas. Doing this has helped me find the roles I am most drawn to explore in the future and get an overview on how different parts of the company tie together.
Ultimately, my favorite experience so far has been the Channel Team Meeting. The entire North American Channel Team descended upon Plano for two days of training and teambuilding. I already knew McAfee was a cool place to work; a fully equipped game room and dogs on Fridays was enough to convince me of that. But two full days with the whole team proved the people are truly remarkable too.
One of the teambuilding activities was the Amazing Chase scavenger hunt. We ran around Plano in the stifling heat of a Texas summer and completed fun and silly challenges. I was a member of a top-notch team which included the Senior Vice President of Global Channel Operations as well as the Director of Channel Sales. Despite being surrounded by brilliant people with imposing titles, I did not feel like ‘just’ an intern. In fact, the scavenger hunt was a good representation of my overall experience at McAfee. We all play to win and we each have role in our team’s level of achievement, regardless of status. Even as an intern, I want to deliver to McAfee as much value as it offers to me.
#IAmMcAfee
Like many in my generation, I want meaningful work from a company that aims to better our society. By nature, cybersecurity matters. The rapidly evolving industry is crucial to protecting everything from our families to our nations. I feel privileged to intern for a business that makes a positive impact and truly cares. McAfee sets the bar high in these areas and I will accept nothing less than this in the future.
In the end, this opportunity will be indispensable for me and many of the interns in shaping our upcoming professions and catapulting us towards our dream careers, whether those lie at McAfee, elsewhere in the cybersecurity industry, or just in an area of interest from coding to sales. I am McAfee because my internship experience here provides me a platform for success.
For more stories like Cristina’s, follow @McAfee on Twitter.
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