Today is National Intern Day, and at InterWorks, we want to celebrate our interns that have joined us this summer! First, here’s a quick definition of what National Intern Day is all about:

“Launched by WayUp in 2017, National Intern Day has served as an opportunity for thousands of employers to commemorate and thank their hardworking interns. The holiday has brought national attention to the challenges and inequalities faced by entry-level candidates, inspiring investments into internship programs and interns themselves.”

An Overview of the InterWorks Internship Program

Before diving into this summer’s InterWorks intern class, here’s a brief overview and history of the InterWorks internship program. We established and formalized our internship program after I had been here at InterWorks for a year. The hope was to give real-life experience to students (mostly from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater) and allow them to work with a variety of InterWorks employees.

Over time, the program has evolved where interns now work with and report directly to team managers and technical experts across the company. Weekly one-on-ones occur throughout the summer to ensure interns are successful and receive applicable feedback. In addition, each intern will have additional content expert(s) that they will work with. Each summer, the group picks a set of individuals they want to hear from, and we have a weekly lunch-and-learn series.

Above: Our summer interns visiting the InterWorks Tulsa office for National Intern Day.

We’ve had interns in Business Intelligence, IT, Marketing, Employee Experience, IT and BI Sales, Accounting and more. Best of all, interns work on real projects for the summer. They have worked on internal reporting, pro bono work for clients like Downtown Women’s Center and the United Way of Payne County, as well as delivering and accomplishing other high-impact external projects. Several of our interns have been converted into full-time hires, while others have gone on to work at companies like Greenhouse, ThoughtSpot, KPMG and EY. Others have gone on to the Air Force or law school.

Our ultimate goal is to set students up for success no matter where they go after being with InterWorks. It’s also worth noting that Internships can and have acted as a trial run for employers and interns both to discern whether they’re a good fit, and that’s no exception at InterWorks. Our interns have always been paid and immersed in the InterWorks culture experience. The program started small, but we now have had anywhere from 4-17 interns each summer.

On a personal note, I think interns bring fresh thinking, new ideas, excitement and energy to InterWorks. They help inform our culture and keep a strong pulse on the wants and needs of up-and-coming talent, and we always want to stay as current as we can in that regard.

InterWorks Interns for Summer 2022

Without further ado, here are our summer interns for 2022:

Blair Spencer	Employee Experience Intern
Brayden Edwards	Information Assurance and Security Intern
Destinee Muse	ServerCare Intern
Gage Ward	Employee Experience Intern
Gavin Holzworth	BI Intern
Jocelyn Meridith	IT Intern
Marshall Proctor	Information Assurance and Security Intern
Mason Bayer	IT Intern
Michael Douglas	Information Assurance and Security Intern
Michael Ray	IT Sales Intern
Nick Gootos	IT Intern
Wesley Cannatti	BI Intern
Will Ranson	IT Intern
William Waddell	IT Intern

 

All but Jocelyn (who just graduated from high school and tech program at Meridian Tech) are OSU students working on undergraduate or graduate degrees.

Above: InterWorks summer interns exploring Tulsa.

Thoughts from This Year’s InterWorks Interns

Will Ranson: “Obviously, the culture is awesome, and InterWorks always puts it first. It’s given me a good benchmark for culture in future jobs. This isn’t my first time here. I did an internship with Employee Experience last summer and returned this summer to explore an internship in IT. I’m still new to IT, but it’s cool to learn how things are actually done in the industry.”

William Waddell: “My favorite thing about InterWorks is the people. Everyone is great, especially those in Employee Experience and IT – people like Tim Rhymer. At other places, people might get bothered if you ask them a lot of questions or ask for help, but people at InterWorks are genuinely happy to make time for you and teach you things. I’ve learned a lot about the value of relationships here.”

Michael Ray: “My internship was originally in IT Sales, and I learned a lot there. But what I really like is that I’ve had the freedom to explore other areas of InterWorks, like learning Tableau from some people in BI. A lot of companies don’t put in that effort for their people, and being able to follow my own path, wherever that leads, has been one of my favorite parts of InterWorks.”

Wesley Cannatti: “One thing I’ve noticed is that everyone at InterWorks is willing to drop what they’re doing to help you out or just let you pick their brains. I think being a flat organization helps a lot with that. Because the culture is so open, I know that I even can go to senior people in the organization like Mat Hughes or Johnnie Hurns and find great insights. Culture at InterWorks is truly a “team” culture and not a “me” culture.

Brayden Edwards: “The people are really nice, welcoming and don’t treat you any differently because you’re an intern. They teach you things in way that’s actually helpful and not demeaning.”

Michael Douglas: “The culture at InterWorks has been open from day one of my internship. I feel like a valued member of the company and am never treated like an inconvenience or dead weight.”

Thoughts from Former InterWorks Interns

Juan Pablo Urrutia: “During my college career, I took an internship with InterWorks. My friends and family thought I was crazy to go to a place like Oklahoma for a tech job. I did, too, for a little bit. However, this experience taught me incredible skills and lessons across the board. These are experiences that helped me prepare for my professional career and experiences that I will continue to look back on as I move forward. They are truly a leader in what they do.”

Ben Calder: “I was given a lot of autonomy to learn and fail with new tech that interested me. I had the full support of the company when I wanted to turn those interests into something tangible I could be proud of. But the best part of InterWorks is its people, and the folks I befriended during my internship were far more impactful than any project I worked on.”

Above: Group lunch and a tour of Downtown Tulsa.

Thoughts from InterWorks Intern Managers

Brandon Mitts: “The summer internship program at InterWorks has been invigorating for the office. I worked alongside OSU Strategic Communication senior Blair Spencer. Blair has added so much to the Employee Experience team with her hard work, sense of humor and encouraging conversations. Blair has had the chance to experience first-hand what makes InterWorks different. Her interactions with multiple teams have opened her eyes to the opportunities for #bestpeople to do their #bestwork at InterWorks.”

Andrew Wooten: “An internship at InterWorks has a number of benefits for the interns. First, they get to experience a workplace culture that is truly great! Thinking of my own career, if I had the opportunity to experience the InterWorks culture while I was in college, I would have held other workplaces to this high standard and not settled for anything less.

Second, they get “real” work experience. While one of the goals of any internship is to get an idea of how a specific career might look and determine if that career is a good fit for a person, we take it a step further at InterWorks. Our interns are not given menial tasks to simply pass the time or work that nobody else wants to do. Rather they are experiencing a true “day in the life” and, in nearly every case, they are able to take on the same type of work that full-time employees do. We often also see interns spend time in multiple departments or roles, so they have an opportunity to experience more than just a single role.

Thanks to Everyone Involved!

Starting and growing the InterWorks internship program has been one of the most fulfilling things we’ve done at InterWorks. It’s a privilege to have them at InterWorks, and they truly enrich the broader InterWorks culture. In our opinion, the future of tech is bright! We’d also be remiss if we didn’t thank all the InterWorkers who play a role in making our interns’ experiences great. Special thanks to Eli Sprague, Timothy Adams, Amy Finley, Aaron Richardson, Brandon Mitts, Jessica Ross, Nicholas Laurenti, Dustin Wyers and Andrew Wooten for their involvement with this summer’s intern class! Finally, a big thanks to Behfar Jahanshahi, James Wright and Johnnie Hurns for being so supportive of our internship program from its inception to today.