Journey to my Summer Internship

I started my internship search with an amorphous criterion of “something different”. Having worked in high tech and consulting so far, this definition only eliminated two, albeit large industries, leaving still endless number of exciting opportunities around the world. Several company presentations and interviews later, it was clear that I needed to narrow down my focus.

In a conversation with my HBS career coach, she asked me “what would be your ideal internship?” “Well”, I said “perhaps something that allowed me to learn a new industry, strengthen or develop a weak skill… while allowing me to be with my family for the summer.” As soon as I said that, I realized that it was the right fit and reflected what was most important to me. Guided by those criteria, I narrowed down my search to roles in the Boston area that would allow me to improve skills where I was weak or experience marketing, operations or sales.

As luck would have it, I interviewed with Danaher, a global science and technology company with operating companies in many different industries and locations. They had a marketing role open at Beckman Coulter Genomics located in the nearby town of Danvers, MA. I hadn’t heard about Danaher prior to the job search process and wanted to find out more about this company. So I reached out to current and past students who have worked at the company in full-time and internship positions and spoke to my hiring manager at length about their experiences and expectations, respectively. I was impressed by the amount of impact that interns can have and even more so, Danaher was well regarded for developing their associates into senior leadership positions.

By the time I received the offer from Danaher, I was very excited to face the challenge of working in a new industry and invigorated by the steep learning curve that it represented. My hiring manager at Danaher also shared with me the internal process for defining internships and criteria of a successful internship. I appreciated the thoughtfulness that went into the selection and scoping of the internship projects. It was clear that Danaher expected real useful work to be done in the summer which was exactly what I wanted to do!

I accepted the offer shortly afterwards and closed the chapter of my summer internship recruitment, elated.