What’s a typical Intel Internship like?
posted by Coby Schneider on April 13, 2009
This is a question I hear a lot: “what’s a typical internship like at Intel?” The reality is, there is no typical internship; every student hired will do something different, and every intern is unique and brings his or her own personal “tool bag” to the job.
This is a fair question though, so let me attempt to cover what I believe are the top three “typical” components of the Intel internship experience:
Interns are hired to do specific projects with real lasting impact here at Intel. These are real projects; projects that existing Intel employees would do if an intern weren’t hired, and not simply activities designed to keep interns busy for a few months and then closed or left behind when the intern returns to school. Interns work right along side experienced employees and have access to cutting edge tools and technologies. (I often hear interns express surprise that they were exposed to the latest products or initiatives, or given access to a strategic lab environment, but we believe this exposure is necessary to do the job.) Intel interns truly roll up their sleeves and do hands on work here.
Building a network of peers who have diverse content knowledge is key to success at Intel. In fact the number one source of information any employee goes to in order to do his or her job on a daily basis, is the peer network. Intel helps interns build their network by facilitating events where they meet each other socially (it’s not all about work here!), and also get exposure to more senior leaders across Intel. An Intel intern will have more opportunities to get out and meet other people and learn about Intel, than he or she will know what to do with.
Consider Intel for long-term growth. Since Intel looks primarily to the Intern Program for sourcing future recent college graduates (RCGs), a lot of coaching and mentoring happens during the internship. Beyond the project the intern was hired for, interns are encouraged to learn about how their group aligns to the corporation’s strategic objectives, what other groups are doing, etc. At Intel, we believe investing in the development of our interns’ experience while here benefits us later when we hire high performing RCGs.
This is only the tip of the iceberg—there are many, many more components of an Intel internship so please ask your questions away!
Coby
Comments (7)
tagged: Coby, internship
Comments
Apr 30 | Justin Laguardia said:
I recently applied for the Intel Internship in Folsom, California. And I was wondering if interns get to work with computer hardware.
Apr 30 | Justin Laguardia said:
P.S. Thank you for posting. It was informative and helpful.
May 14 | Krishna said:
Thank you,a very important question was answered here. We are looking forward for a post on “What do we(Intel) expect from our interns?”.I completely understand that it is position specific, but it would be very useful for us before we talk to an Intel representative in a career fair to make a first impression.
Jun 04 | Coby Schneider said:
Hello Justin! I interpret your question to be whether or not we have intern positions in the computer hardware space (not about what kind of equipment interns work with). Take a look at www.intel.com/jobs/students (the Student Center) and you’ll be able to explore types of positions available for interns in the “where do I fit matrix”. Some examples of computer hardware positions are design and validation. If I haven’t interpreted your question correctly, please respond back.
Jun 04 | Coby Schneider said:
Thanks for the suggestion Krishna! I’ll be happy to do a separate blog post that elaborates more on this topic. In the meantime, here are 3 typical attributes we look for in prospective interns: The first is problem solving skills. We want employees who are comfortable looking for answers or asking for help when they don’t immediately know how to do something. The second is we look for interns who enjoy learning and are responsive to feedback. Interns are at the very start of their career and we don’t expect them to be perfect or have experience prior to working for us. We DO expect them to develop their skills during the internship and part of learning is being open to feedback. The third is we look for good communication skills. No matter what job role an intern is hired for, he or she will work with others and need to share information effectively. At a career fair, we can get an idea of students’ propensity for these attributes by the nature of their interaction with us (for example asking specific questions vs. just handing over a resume.) I’ll do my next blog entry in a few weeks and since you’ve asked, I’ll be happy to elaborate more on this topic in that post.
Jun 05 | Krishna said:
Hello Ms.Schneider!Thanks for the tips,they should be of some help for the coming career fair.We will be looking forward for a detailed post on the topic. Also,I wanted to share something with my fellow aspirants.I have watched the replay of the webcast on “Spotlight on the Intel Intern Program” February 2009 by Ms.Schneider. It has answered so many questions that an aspirant might usually have.I strongly recommend checking those videos out.
Aug 11 | Debt Settlement Program said:
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