Practice these intern insights to boost your career

July 28 marks National Intern Day, a time to recognize and celebrate interns AKA the world’s future leaders and gamechangers! At Adobe, we celebrate Intern Day all around the globe, spotlighting the hard work of our interns and giving them the recognition they deserve.

This year, Adobe welcomed its biggest class of interns to date with over 1,200 across all our regions. When interns join Adobe, they’re able to experience firsthand how our commitment to innovation redefines digital experiences while bringing their own creative ideas to life. We talked to 10 of our 2022 interns worldwide to find out what they’ve learned and gained through their Adobe Life journey. Here were some of their top takeaways.

Tap into your curiosity - Ayushi Baidya (India)

Ayushi is a sales force automation (SFA) analyst intern this summer. While learning about the sales process at Adobe, how it is used to convert leads into sales, and many other aspects Ayushi hasn’t hesitated to ask questions. According to her, each question asked, helps to improve and strengthen your skills, which builds character that people will be inspired by in the future.

“My biggest takeaway is to stay curious. Always ask questions, clear your doubts no matter how silly without any fear of judgement because everyone will always encourage and guide you.” Ayushi has loved the surprises she’s experienced at Adobe – from getting to participate in an official roundtable team meeting to online social activities with other interns – and she’s embraced her curious ways through every novel experience.

Be proactive – Miles Spearman (United States)

Miles Spearman is on our social media team this summer, working on social media strategy and creating social campaigns for Adobe’s events like Adobe MAX. He’s working to develop consistent content streams for our TikTok channels – @Adobe, @AdobeVideo, @Photoshop, @AdobeExpress – which he recommends following if you don’t already!

Miles has managed to do such great things by taking initiative in his work. “Don’t be afraid to reach out to any teammate to join their project. Before starting I was nervous to let my manager know that I was interested in social strategy but also creating the assets that go to our TikTok channel, and she gave me multiple opportunities to build on my video creation skills while tying it into my social and marketing strategy.  I appreciate my managers and my teammates so much, for they have treated me so well as an intern and I have learned so many things.”

Ask for forgiveness, not permission – Ilya Maier (Switzerland)

Joining Adobe as a software engineering intern during his first year of university studies, Ilya was thrilled and simultaneously nervous to be taking on such meaningful projects as an intern. As he’s adjusted to life at Adobe, he has discovered his freedom to try out new things and experiment with his work.

“When our CEO visited the office here in Basel, he told us, ‘Ask for forgiveness, not permission.’ He said this while talking about how we should approach working on our projects. In my opinion, this is exactly what enables creativity and innovation that we have at Adobe. We actually just talked about it during our daily [stand-up] today, whilst thinking of how to implement a new feature, and it felt exciting to have this freedom of trying out new things and experimenting a bit.”

Now, Ilya feels that everything is doable as long as you put your mind, heart, and time into it. Although he was scared to start his internship, he’s now excited about working on projects and solving challenging problems.

Express yourself and your ideas – Chaitanya Mathur (India)

Chaitanya is a product intern based in Gujarat, India. He was drawn to Adobe for our encouragement of creativity and innovation for millions of people in their daily lives. Throughout his internship, Chaitanya has been working to develop creative solutions to drive progress for our customers and business alike.

“The biggest takeaway for me during this internship was how to express myself and my ideas. I did learn many technical skills, but most importantly I learned how to communicate and come across creatively and in an engaging manner.”

Chaitanya is exhilarated to see how impactful his internship project has been for the company. “Overall, it was an innovative and immersive learning experience for me.”

Creativity ignites innovation - Yui Mikuriya (Japan)

Yui is a technical consultant intern working on the onboarding training for Adobe Experience Manager this summer. She joined Adobe because of her love for our creative solutions and how they incorporate the latest technologies. Yui enjoys going into the office, working with her team in-person, and getting insights from other teams.

Through her conversations with colleagues and experiences working with ground-breaking technologies, Yui has the following takeaway: "I truly believe that innovation comes from creativity, and Adobe is the best nest for that!”

Raise your hand – Eleanor Kilvington (London)

Eleanor Kilvington has worked on a variety of projects as a talent marketing intern, from collaborating with our talent scouts, finding suitable candidates for our roles, and even attending university fairs. Her experience at Adobe has exceeded her expectations, with endless support from her team and one-of-a-kind experiences.

Her biggest piece of advice? “Say ‘Yes’ to as many opportunities you can. It’s a great way to meet people you wouldn’t typically be working with, and it allows you to learn and improve your skills further.”

Don’t be afraid to make moves – Apoorva Srivastava (India)

Adobe was Apoorva’s first step into the corporate world, and he was very nervous to join. However, when he started working, his mentors and manager were extremely supportive and flexible. The work life balance has been perfect.

As his nerves subsided, Apoorva learned “to take initiative whenever I can and wherever I can. Adobe has taught me that taking the first step is the most important step in any new venture.”

He even took the initiative of asking our CEO, Shantanu Narayen, a question during an event. “It was an amazing opportunity and a very insightful experience,” he shared. “Shantanu was so frank and easy to talk to; the whole interaction definitely stood out for me in my entire internship experience.”

Network, network, network – Faith Hagan (London)

Faith, a brand experience intern in London, has always used Adobe's software to design and apply innovative ideas with business opportunities to inspire people. To Faith, joining Adobe’s workforce and becoming a part of a community committed to spreading creativity, quality, and opportunity was a dream come true.

Now during her internship, Faith is making the most of the opportunities to personally and professionally connect with others. “One of the most essential lessons I've learned thus far is the value of strong communication and how networking improves collaboration. Communication and creating relationships with as many people as possible is the key to success in a professional atmosphere, which Adobe excels at. Productivity, efficiency, engagement, and growth all benefit from effective communication.”

Planning is key – Dilip Lakkoju (India)

Dilip is a technical consultant intern at Adobe, who is working on two projects this summer: an individual project and a team project. New to the corporate world and balancing multiple projects across teams/business goals, Dilip has discovered a lot about how to best accomplish tasks solo and in groups.

What's a top skill Dilip’s learned at Adobe? “Planning!” he told us. "I have been through the projects along with the team and the guidance I received from the mentors was very insightful. I began to realize many things. From planning a project to its execution, there was a lot of input from the team. In fact, the learning experience was lot more than what I had expected.”

You can improve your luck – Gaby Senderov (United States)

As an Adobe Sales Academy intern, Gaby has received hands-on experience of the day-to-day life of a business development representative, from prospecting to cold calls and even running customer discovery calls. She has helped our public sector federal account team manage active federal government accounts, an opportunity she never anticipated from an internship.

Gaby understands that a lot of outreach efforts in sales results in a “no.” However, this fact of life only encourages her to work harder. “Going the extra mile is always worth it because in sales, what most would deem as ‘luck’ is actually something that you can actionably work towards,” Gaby said. To put in the extra effort and time to be thorough in your work and boost your luck in hearing a “yes” is deeply rewarding, and Gaby strives to take that approach in every day of her internship.

Teamwork makes the dream work – Shruti Sinha (India)

As a software engineering intern, Shruti has worked on some really exciting and challenging problem statements, with real-life implications stretching beyond her realm of imagination. “Since I joined Adobe while still being a university student, I never expected myself to be able to cope with such complex systems, work with such talented individuals, and handle the challenges thrown my way,” Shruti shared.

Shruti’s project this summer involves both her team and another team at Adobe. In order to best understand everyone’s goals and needs, Shruti needed to cultivate teamwork. “One quality that has been inculcated in me by my mentor since day 1 has been collaboration and inter team communication. My project ended up filling a huge use case for the other team as well, and they acknowledged my effort to teams working in my domain. Getting that validation from all over Adobe was a huge proud moment for me.”