{"id":24794,"date":"2022-08-05T08:00:45","date_gmt":"2022-08-05T15:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=24794"},"modified":"2022-08-04T15:08:52","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T22:08:52","slug":"taking-the-leap-a-poly-intern-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/taking-the-leap-a-poly-intern-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking the Leap: A Poly Intern Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The opportunity to experience professional work in the tech industry and the different career paths within it helps upcoming talent enter the workforce informed and inspired. Internships are one of the most comprehensive ways to gain this experience, and this year, Poly welcomed 54 interns from across the United States. Christine Zhou, who worked as a marketing intern on Poly\u2019s Zoom Alliance team, participated remotely, and she shares how the internship at Poly has impacted her and her peers.<\/p>\n<h4>A Poly Intern Experience: Christine Zhou<\/h4>\n<p>From the very first day of my internship, I was excited to learn how to be a better communicator, pick up leadership skills and work with Zoom, a household name. Now, as I approach my last day, I realize I have gained all of those and so much more. My biggest takeaways from this incredible 10-week internship experience are connection, development and celebration.<\/p>\n<h4>Creating Memorable Connections<\/h4>\n<p>I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Poly interns had the opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations with executives and the CEO himself. These leaders shared insights into their role and career journeys across our conference and personal rooms. With Poly technology, no comments were left unheard, so our chats felt very interactive\u2014even to a remote intern, like me.<\/p>\n<p>As part of my marketing role, I collaborated daily with creative and technical teams on a global scale. I networked with Zoom colleagues and even coordinated Poly\u2019s presence at this year\u2019s <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/events.zoom.us\/ev\/DDxs5N9-wlyCEfiNOwAAFgAAAGh34awe6CtMRBNYtxZVyK5JhqC0PUV55394ea65l4oHmvF40nn5~AIEU_nyFS5nhyh3dOkfIPMKD71x13yJXZ9cy2mB4j_IiAHK5chUw2wG6_JSGgjO5xGxGYk4\">Zoom Education Summit<\/a><\/span>. Each intern\u2019s networking journey is different, but everyone I connected with was open and welcoming, no matter how packed their calendars were!<\/p>\n<p>A Business Analyst intern in the Global Customer Solutions Teams, Behnoosh Sethna, explains, \u201cThe Friday Intern Brown Bag Lunch was a wonderful way to network with other interns and peers in an informal setting, in which we tend to share more about ourselves. Having it on a Friday helped us wind down after the week and share our learnings with one another.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>Professional Development<\/h4>\n<p>Throughout my internship experience, I explored Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and networked with Poly employees who gave me great advice for navigating the tech industry. One of my learning highlights was the Rapid Intern Development &amp; Education (RIDE) series. My favorite session was the Past Intern Panel in which current Poly employees shared how the internship program helped them flourish and shape their careers. Other session topics included Poly product training, Microsoft Teams tips and tricks and career management.<\/p>\n<p>Bobbie Burton, a Learning &amp; Organizational Development intern agreed, \u201cThe RIDE sessions have been super helpful in getting to know Poly, the people at Poly and how to be successful as young, emerging professionals. I especially enjoyed the session on how to strategically manage and navigate a professional career, which was led by Deborah Rousseau, the US Intern Program Manager, and LaTorsha Hill, Senior Director Talent Management and Talent Acquisition. In addition, I have truly valued the opportunities to ask questions about employees\u2019 professional journeys and to learn about the various functions within the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>Celebrating Interns!<\/h4>\n<p><img class=\"wp-image-24803 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Picture188-226x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"318\" height=\"422\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Picture188-200x266.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Picture188-226x300.jpg 226w, https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Picture188-400x532.jpg 400w, https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Picture188.jpg 406w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 318px) 100vw, 318px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At Poly, having fun is part of work. Interns participated in virtual scavenger hunts, volunteer day and a desk decorating challenge. The \u201cWestminterns\u201d in Colorado claimed the desk decorating title by transforming their cubicles and conference room into a Hawaiian paradise.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the internship, we will all share presentations covering our contributions and takeaways to highlight our diverse goals, achievements and the lessons we\u2019ve learned. It\u2019s awesome that so many Poly employees from across various teams plan to show up to support and celebrate our work.<\/p>\n<h4>Onward and Upward<\/h4>\n<p>Something I learned from Gloria Loredo, Poly\u2019s Chief Transformation Officer, is that life isn\u2019t linear or predictable. It\u2019s so true. Every day at Poly contained a new surprise and experience\u2014it made summer fly by. No matter where our group of interns end up in our careers, we\u2019re leaving with lasting bonds, wisdom from employees and newfound skills to help us face the future of work in the tech industry and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The opportunity to experience professional work in the tech industry [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":24796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1623,524,525,508],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24794"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24794"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24813,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24794\/revisions\/24813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}