Career Development for College Interns

On August 4th, IBM GROW hosted its first ever micro-session geared towards college interns, students, and early professionals

GROW is dedicated to providing women in IBM Cloud and Cognitive Software with resources, tools, and networking support to help make navigating any career less daunting. Since its foundation, it has given members an immediate support system and has fostered an environment where women can motivate each other to achieve their goals.

I had the privilege of presenting alongside Emily Koehne, a fellow IBM intern, at this event. She is a rising Junior at Boston College majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Management and Leadership. She is currently interning on the Cloud and Cognitive Software Sales Enablement team where she has built a custom Jeopardy game system.

Emily and I worked together to create a unique and informative presentation filled with our top tips on networking, communication, and resume building. After touching on the basics, we covered useful tools, templates, and etiquette for anyone to get started in building their career.

Some of our key takeaways include:

• Be yourself!
• Set short and long-term goals for your career.
• Do your research & prepare questions ahead of time.
• Be willing to expose yourself to a variety of career options.

Today the global GROW Community in Cloud & Cognitive Software is more than 3,000 strong and GROWing. It is a diverse community of women, men, LGBT and people of color. It represents the diversity of Cloud & Cognitive Software and IBM as well as our commitment for building, engaging and supporting diverse talent in technology, both inside IBM and in the external community.

#networking #communication #careerdevelopment #resume