From Classroom to Collaboration: Celebrating Our Interns

Internships are undoubtedly the best way to gain professional experience. At Vectorworks, we take great pride in how our internship program has grown to give undergraduate and graduate students an unmatched experience to develop their skillsets and careers.

We recently celebrated National Intern Day, a day founded by WayUp as an opportunity for employers to commemorate and thank their hardworking interns. This holiday has brought national attention to the challenges and inequalities faced by entry-level candidates, inspiring investments into internship programs and interns themselves.

Vectorworks has hired many interns in its 35-year history. However, the official Vectorworks internship program began in 2015 and has grown into a yearly three-session program. Spanning almost every department in the company, interns receive valuable work experience in their field while also building their professional and workplace skills. Our interns have developed successful careers within and outside of Vectorworks, and we are grateful for their accomplishments for the company.

This summer, Vectorworks hired interns in marketing, video production, talent acquisition, accounting, events and software engineering to name a few. They each were paired with a mentor on their team to guide them through their internship, career and overall provide motivational support and role modeling.

“I've had two mentors that I've worked with throughout my internship, and we’ve had an enjoyable dynamic, especially this summer,” said Ally Wood, CAD content developer intern. “It's never boring when the three of us are together in the office! I have great teachers who’ve also given me the space to thrive on my own. It's validating to know that they trust my ability to take some of the work off their plates, as well as being great practice for leading my projects when I'm no longer an intern.”

To celebrate our interns, the employee experience team gathered all current and past interns to participate in an engaging, virtual scavenger hunt. Interns were placed in random groups and were tasked daily to find items in their home offices and share them in the group Slack channel. Then, all current and former interns gathered for a virtual trivia happy hour on National Intern Day to test their knowledge about the company and the holiday itself.

“We wanted to spotlight our interns and give them the recognition they deserve,” said Liz Pickering, former intern turned talent acquisition specialist. “It’s sometimes easy to be overlooked as the intern, so our internship program makes every effort to celebrate and thank them for all they do for their teams. It’s rewarding when mentors come back and boast about their interns’ work ethic, dedication and willingness to learn.”

What’s even better is several of our interns have transitioned into full-time employees within their teams such as Associate Software Engineer Dominic Picolo. “I had an enjoyable internship experience when I first interned in the summer of 2021. I enjoy the collaboration aspect here at Vectorworks because as I developed features, I could see the excitement and interest steadily get stronger with everyone I worked with. My small enhancements were very favorable with our software beta testers!”

Vectorworks values collaboration and encourages efficient and effective communication throughout the workplace that empowers all Vectorworks team members, including interns, so we can achieve success together.

Internships are offered during spring, summer, and fall sessions. Learn more about our career opportunities at vectorworks.net/careers.