The Bandwidth Internship

Located on NC State University’s Centennial Campus, Bandwidth draws not only business in the communications technology field from around the country, but also students looking for internships around the Triangle. From Duke to NCSU, to Elon to UNC, Bandwidth finds unique and talented students studying subjects ranging from marketing to computer science and everything in between and puts them to work. What really goes on in the day of an intern at Bandwidth? We’ll tell you that it’s anything but boring.  As the summer rounds out, we wanted to explain a little bit more about the Bandwidth internship and why it rocks. Here are a few facts:

We wear a lot of hats

Kevin, junior at NCSU

I started my internship at Bandwidth back in May originally in the marketing department as a lead generation/market research intern, but I wanted to learn a little bit more about other parts of the company. Our CMO noticed I had worked previously with Google AdWords and introduced me to the Director of Marketing Analytics & Acquisition. Now, I’m working on the Search Engine Optimization project. I’ve been provided the opportunity to meet some of the most talented people in the industry, and at Bandwidth, I’ve picked up more experiences and skills than I can count with my fingers.

We’re part of the team

Emily, junior at UNC

I work on the Cloud Services team at Bandwidth and when I first joined, the company was halfway through a fitness challenge, which gave you one full day of PTO (if you completed a certain number of fitness hours by a certain date). Although I started at Bandwidth halfway through the challenge, I was allowed to participate and complete half the number of hours. This really encouraged me to exercise more often, since I needed to complete 20 hours in one month, in addition to working 40 hours per week. One cool perk about the challenge was that our hours doubled when we worked out with other Bandwidth team members, which was a great way to get to know my coworkers. I played tennis and soccer weekly during lunch, which was fun and rewarding at the same time!

In my short two months as an intern, I participated in TADHack Raleigh, a hackathon organized by Bandwidth, and even got to ask our CEO David Morken questions at AMAs (Ask Morken Anything). Everyone here is extremely welcoming and is always available to help with questions. I was even lucky enough to be able to hold my own Lunch & Learn with another intern. We gave a presentation about Bandwidth’s App Platform and even taught non-technical people how to code! It was a great experience that I didn’t think an intern would be able to do. My coworkers treat me like any other employee, not as someone to get their coffee. Bandwidth is a family and I truly feel like a member of it.

We make an impact

Jake, senior at Elon

Having interned at Bandwidth over the last seven months, I have seen the impact we make here on a firsthand basis. I started out learning who our customers were and what markets we are currently reaching out to. Since then, I’ve been tracking down new leads and have even been the first person to contact some of those leads. It’s easy to see how much of an impact we as interns make in the marketing department, when I get to watch a lead become qualified, and gradually turn into a sale, which directly generates revenue for the company.

Bandwidth has also allowed us to get involved with some non-traditional aspects outside our role. In June, Bandwidth hosted the largest North American onsite location for the TADHack Hackathon and allowed interns to not only help out, but compete as well. We collaborated with employees and contributed to the design and layout of the event in how it should be organized, and in the end two students (now interns) won the Grand Prize Hack. Bandwidth has given me the opportunity to contribute in ways that most interns don’t have the ability to.

We learn new things every day

Josh, senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

During the two months I have worked as a software development intern at Bandwidth over the summer, I’ve been given the chance to design four separate software projects from the ground up. From my first day, I was paired with a mentor who devoted hours and hours to giving me 1-on-1 guidance consisting of reviewing my code, teaching me about industry practices, and playing tennis with me during our lunch breaks. The projects I’ve been assigned to have not only been exciting and fun to work on, but also highly learning-intensive. My favorite project so far has been a startup idea that we’re currently doing market testing on. I’m really excited about this project and think it has the potential to be useful in the average person’s everyday life. We’re nearly ready to launch the project, and I wouldn’t have had the experience or satisfaction of working on this project from start to finish without the hands-on and explorative nature of my internship.

We’re more than just colleagues

Ady, recent graduate of Duke

On top of everything listed above, boys and girls gotta eat, right? Every now and then, the interns go out for lunch in Raleigh. We’re avid fans of Taco Tuesday and other food themed-days, and these lunch dates aren’t planned by our supervisors, but by us.  It feels great to work at a company that promotes both great work and great friendships. At the beginning of the summer there were only a few interns working, and now looking at August we have more than ten interns scattered around various divisions of the company and “Intern Lunch Part Trois” is in the works in order to meet and greet any new people we haven’t quite gotten to know yet.

So what do you think?

How does this type of internship sound? We like it a lot. If you think you might too, check out our fall internship opportunities at the Bandwidth Careers page today.