Tag: Tech

Another Successful Intern Program Concludes

Original Entry by : Katrina Schollum

By Katrina Schollum, People Partner, Endace

February saw the end of our 22/23 Summer Intern Program, with our four interns finishing their 12-week structured placements with our Engineering team.  It was a great success, with all four interns completing their projects and achieving the goals that had been set.

The Big Reveal

The last day of the program is Presentations Day. Our interns presented the results of their projects to a live audience at our R&D centre in Hamilton NZ, with presentations also streamed live to the Global Endace team.

Intern Presentations Day 2023 - Endace

Despite a few (well-hidden) nerves, our interns did a fantastic job – providing insight into their individual journeys, outlining the objectives of their project, talking about some of the challenges they met and overcame, and demonstrating the solutions they had built.

Each presentation concluded with suggestions from the intern about where the projects could be further enhanced to provide additional benefits to the business in the future. There was also a live Q&A session where the interns did a great job of fielding a variety of questions from the audience

Reflecting on the Success of the Intern Program

It was really rewarding to see the growth in confidence of our interns as they saw how much their contributions were valued by the wider organisation and the obvious pride that they (rightfully) showed in the projects they completed.

Stuart Wilson, Endace CEO, summed it up when he said “.. it’s always such a pleasure to see the extraordinary contributions of our interns. What they manage to achieve, in such a short time, is remarkable. It makes us proud to be part of shaping the future of tech talent in New Zealand.”

Endace’s Intern Program gives interns invaluable insight into how a global tech business operates.  It is a great opportunity to put their university knowledge into practice, further develop their technical skills, and learn about team work in a collaborative environment. They also gain insight into all areas of our business, from operations and finance to sales and marketing.

The benefits of the intern program are very definitely in both directions. Interns are supported by an individual manager and mentor, who also benefits from sharing their knowledge and expertise to guide the projects and help prepare interns to transition from studying to the workplace.

Feedback from our interns at the close of the program was very positive.  They mentioned a strong sense of fulfillment from being able to contribute to direction of their projects, having the opportunity to solve rewarding problems and develop their creativity and professional communication skills.  They also mentioned how much they enjoyed being part of a fun team, with colleagues who were approachable and who valued their opinions and suggestions during team discussions.

Where to Next for our Interns?

Equipped with some new skills and hands-on experience, one of our interns is returning to continue their studies and we look forward to seeing their future industry accomplishments. We are delighted that our other three interns will join the Endace team and continue to grow their talent with us.

And we are proud to continue our strong tradition of working closely with tertiary education providers to ensure Endace continues to be an employer of choice for IT and engineering graduates in New Zealand.

Endace 2022/23 Internship Program Kicks Off

Original Entry by : Katrina Schollum

By Katrina Schollum, People Partner, Endace

The Endace Summer Internship program has been a great success in previous years, and we are happy to say it’s back for another year!  We are very happy to have welcomed four interns to join us in our R&D centre in Hamilton, NZ for the summer, after a fantastic amount of interest from students around New Zealand.  We look forward to supporting the success of our new interns as they progress through the program

Induction Day

The first day of the program is an introduction to our interns on “life at Endace” and how we work.

Our interns learnt about Endace’s history and products and develop relationships with their mentors and managers.  From an opportunity to speak with our CEO, Stuart Wilson, to learning about the details of what to expect, and a delicious lunch networking with engineering team members, it’s safe to say our interns had a lot to absorb and feel excited about what’s to come.

 

Our interns also had the opportunity to engage in gameplaying in order to get to know their mentors.  One of our new mentors, Scott Yearbury, is one of many previous interns at Endace who have volunteered to mentor future interns.

Scott noted “being an intern at Endace was a great way to start my career. It was a challenge, but that challenge and the support provided to me allowed me to push myself to learn a lot and develop my skills a huge amount in a relatively short period of time. I’m excited to be on the other side of this program now and to be able to help provide our new interns with the great opportunity I got.”

It’s amazing to see the full cycle as previous interns become employees – and ultimately become mentors themselves – with the end result being that our talent continues to develop at all levels.

Our Program

Over the course of 13 weeks, the  intern program focuses on commercially relevant, individual projects and provides structured training – including lunch-and-learns to introduce other areas of the business such as Finance, HR, Marketing and Operations – to create a well-rounded experience.  The intern program culminates with our interns delivering a presentation at a shared learning session involving interns and their mentors, members of the senior leadership team and project managers.

Endace is proud of our ties to tertiary education and we see huge value in helping develop talent for IT and Engineering students seeking to join our industry as we showcase Endace as an employer of choice.

The experience provided to our interns is hands-on with intentional learning, which helps in building technical capability and giving insight into how a global tech organisation operates.  We look forward to supporting our interns as they continue to learn and develop, and to celebrating their future achievements.

Successful Endace 2021/22 Internship Program concludes for another year

Original Entry by : Katrina Schollum

Our six interns for our Summer 2021/22 Internship Program joined us in our R&D centre in Hamilton, NZ from the Universities of Auckland and Waikato. Their 13 week R.E.A.L (Remarkable, Enjoyable, Authentic, Learning) Internship Program  saw them working individually on commercially relevant, meaningful projects with the support of their managers and mentors.  We are pleased to say it was another highly successful year!

2021/22 Endace Interns working in the Hamilton, NZ office

Presentations Day

Because of Covid lockdowns, the interns’ introduction to Endace was virtual this year – and so too were their final presentations.

The Internship Program concluded with each of the interns presenting their individual projects to an audience.  This year the audience included Endace team members from five countries: project managers and mentors as well as all the members of our Senior Leadership Team.  We were also very happy to welcome faculty members from the University of Waikato, continuing our strong link with the original birthplace of Endace – very appropriate in our 20th year!

The interns gave an overview of their projects and the specific challenges they were trying to address. They discussed the design of their solutions, implementation challenges they had faced, and also demonstrated their solutions in action. They concluded by outlining how these projects could be applied – and potentially extended further – in the future. At the end of each presentation, audience members had an opportunity to ask questions and delve deeper into the outcomes of the project.

Elements of Success

Throughout Endace’s structured Internship Program, interns get to hone their technical skills and put their university knowledge into practice.  But beyond just acquiring technical skills, interns also have an opportunity to gain an understanding of all the different areas of Endace’s business – from sales and marketing, to finance and operations. They also get to develop their communication and organisational skills by interacting with members of the Endace team from many departments.

The interns are supported throughout the Internship Program by individual managers and mentors. They get to observe how teams work together cohesively – in an environment where ideas are respected and individuals are trusted to do their best work. It was fantastic to see these learnings reflected in the intern’s final presentations.

2021/22 Endace Interns working in the Hamilton, NZ office

Our managers and mentors also benefit hugely from the Internship program – which provides a great opportunity to build leadership skills in their intern support roles and gives them the satisfaction of seeing the impact of sharing their expertise.

Following the presentations, Stuart Wilson, Endace’s CEO, summed up everybody’s thoughts when he said “it constantly amazes me how much interns can achieve in a relatively short period of time!”  He emphasised the importance of Endace’s determination that intern projects should be real, commercially-focused projects – and talked about how the intern projects have helped shape product improvement, automation, being able to scale our testing environments and customer experience for Endace.

Endace’s CTO, Stephen Donnelly, commented that an important outcome of the Endace Internship Program is that it supports the wider R&D sector and helps New Zealand prepare future engineers with exposure to cutting edge cybersecurity technology.  Cybersecurity is an increasingly important industry world-wide, and increasing students familiarity with key challenges, tools and technologies is vital in upskilling the NZ sector.

At Endace we are proud of our interns’ achievements thus far and look forward to following their future accomplishments in the industry.  As we conclude another successful program we will now look forward to the next round in Spring, bringing in further perspectives, learning and career development to Endace.

Our 2021/22 Internship Program Begins

Original Entry by : Katrina Schollum

We are very pleased to have recently welcomed six Interns to join us for their 13 week, R.E.A.L (remarkable, enjoyable, authentic, learning) Summer Internship program in our R&D Center in Hamilton, New Zealand.  We had a fantastic response to, and level of interest in, our individual projects and we look forward to seeing what this year’s Interns can learn and achieve.

Induction Day

Working remotely meant a different look and feel for Day 1 of our program with introductions happening via Teams.  Our Interns were introduced to life at Endace virtually, including a welcome from our CEO Stuart Wilson.

The afternoon kicked off with a team-building activity which was facilitated by Team Up Events and involved 4 different teams in an online race against the clock.  Moving around the continents, learning, answering questions, taking group photos, and lots of laughs – it was a fun part of the day getting to know our new team members and testing how good our online communication skills have become!

One of our mentors, Norbert, confirmed the ‘Travel Around the World’ activity was “fun for us, but also a good chance to get to know the Interns and break the ice – which is not easy working remotely.”  After the ice was broken our Interns and their individual mentors had the opportunity to continue the conversation and begin their projects together.

Our Program

We are proud of our history, contribution to ongoing learning and continuing our strong bonds to our company origins in tertiary education.  From day one, our Interns learn about Endace’s history and products and develop relationships with their mentors.  This year, we are thrilled to have three mentors and managers who, in previous years, were themselves Endace Interns and offer unique insight from both sides of the relationship.  Sam, one of the new mentors, said “being an Intern at Endace was challenging but in the best possible way. I learned so much in such a short time, and the support and guidance I received along the way allowed me to make a smooth transition from study into the workplace. I am excited to be able to pass on some of what I learned to the next crop of Interns.”

Across 13 weeks the Internship program focuses on commercially relevant, individual projects and providing structured training including lunch-and-learns to introduce other areas of the business such as finance, HR, marketing and operations to create  a well-rounded experience.  The Internship program culminates with our Interns delivering a presentation at a shared learning session involving Interns and their mentors, members of the senior leadership team and project managers.

2021/22 Interns’ first day in the office
2021/22 Interns’ first day in the office

The Endace Internship Program is a great way to help computer science students and graduates build talent and experience and grow the industry. It also helps us showcase Endace as an employer of choice for IT and engineering graduates in New Zealand.

Our Interns become sought-after graduates with meaningful, hands-on experience and we will be following their achievements with interest.  ­­It was fantastic to finally have our Interns join us in the office so we could meet face-to-face, and we look forward to seeing them share their progress at the close of the program.