Internships provide an opportunity to expose students and recent graduates to a career that matches their academic and personal interests. At the same time, the skills gained from practical experience will make them more valuable as an employee. Completing an internship allows students and recent graduates to better develop strong teamwork skills balanced with the ability to work independently.
In our mission to connect the world’s finance teams, award-winning Lockstep is passionate about engaging interns across various fields to hone their craft while preparing the next generation for success. Over this past year, Lockstep has hosted several internship positions, across the enterprise.
Internships are not just resume boosters for students approaching graduation, their benefits are felt across their careers.
“Before starting my internship, I was nervous because finance and accounting are not my strongest subjects but working at Lockstep has taught me that it can be fun,” notes Ambre Piece, Lockstep’s Summer and Fall 2021 marketing intern.
Internships are essential for college students to explore opportunities, put academic learning to the test, and develop an understanding of their core likes and dislikes as they enter the job market.
“Many of the projects I have worked on gave me an opportunity to learn and put to use a number of core technologies used by marketing professionals,” says Pierce. “These projects have given me the chance to build upon my knowledge and experience in the marketing field.”
Pierce isn’t the only one to build a new skillset as part of her internship. Lockstep’s famed Engineering Internship allows interns to widen their imagination. This internship is intended to give programmers just starting out in their careers, a chance to shine. We want to give candidates the opportunity to learn from our talented senior staff to gain career growth support from our executive team and give everyone the experience of contributing to the Lockstep accounting platform.
“My fellow interns and I were able to see a complete project from start to finish,” says Sakae Watanabe, Fall 2021 software engineer intern. “Throughout the process, we received constructive feedback and code review from senior team members. The project provided great opportunities for growth in a professional environment. Presenting the project to the engineering and management teams during a sprint demo provided a sense of accomplishment.”
Internships help students learn the core value of effective communication skills, efficient time management, and discipline. It also helps in learning other similar soft skills needed for a good professional environment. The internship also helps in creating a network and contacts with people in the industry.
“I liked working on the note system because it gave me some freedom to figure out how to implement it as well as work with experts who were very helpful,” comments Charlie Taylor on his Summer 2021 engineering internship. “We were able to use tools like Azure Blob Storage to store files which required some file management and documentation reading to get working correctly.”
Based on research by higher education researcher, John Pryor college graduates who completed internships were twice as likely to be engaged in their work and 1.5 times more likely to report high levels of wellbeing than those who did not have internships. The results suggest that it’s less important that a graduate attended an Ivy League or other esteemed institution and more important that the student was involved in experiential learning opportunities that could adequately prepare them for their professional future.
“At Lockstep, we embrace internships because we love making an impact on the early careers of our interns. We provide mentoring, skill advancement, and meaningful projects for our interns,” notes a Lockstep team member. “While the internship opportunities at Lockstep are quite competitive, those with the technical proficiency and right attitude will find themselves rewarded with a memorable and rewarding internship opportunity.”
“I would pursue a career in fintech in the future. I enjoy seeing everyone have a chance to contribute to company’s success,” says Watanabe. “Start-up environments offer an opportunity for the work I contribute to be recognized and appreciated.”
“Following my internship, I would love to continue to pursue a career at a startup. While at Lockstep, I have learned a lot about finance, marketing, and sales. The marketing team at Lockstep has taught me so many skills that I can apply in the future. From day one, every employee was so welcoming and supportive, that it made my internship here a great experience,” Ambre Pierce notes.
Whatever the future holds for out fantastic interns, their experiences at Lockstep will carry with them well beyond their academic pursuits.
Interested in a career at Lockstep? Check out Lockstep’s Career Page for a listing of all of our current opportunities.
