The 2022 theme for International Youth Day is ‘Intergenerational Solidarity: Creating a World for All Ages’, and as a summer intern at Salesforce, this is something I’m very passionate about. There are so many interns spread out across the UK and Ireland from different backgrounds and experiences. Each of us have been incredibly lucky to experience an internship at Salesforce this summer and we’ve all learned incredible lessons, had amazing experiences, and improved our skills, so I thought I’d connect with some of my fellow interns here at Salesforce to discuss what this means to us.

Roisin McCarthy, Sales Dev Summer Intern.

I have absolutely loved working for a company who value sustainability as highly as Salesforce do. I think we all do try our hardest to be as green and as sustainable as possible. Although it can be a daunting task, when we come together as a collective it becomes a lot easier and it’s important that companies take this initiative to empower their workforce to be involved in initiatives for our planet.

Within the first day of my Salesforce internship, all of the interns took part in a volunteering activity - picking litter along one of Dublin’s canals. As well as this, all interns attended a Seal Rescue information talk where we were all informed on what dangers seals are in and how we can do our bit to help.

All of these events are helping us make our planet a better place and I’m so thankful that Salesforce creates these initiatives in order for us to pull our own weight when it comes to sustainability. It’s so important that we make sure the planet is a better place the next generation and the generations to come, and it’s great to see Salesforce emphasising this importance. Sometimes it’s not that hard, you may not even know you’re being sustainable. Something as easy as taking public transport to the office. All these little steps help and make a noticeable difference!

Sarah Blount, Sales Dev Summer Intern.

Re-educating was not something I thought I would ever be doing while working as a people manager and makeup artist for a cosmetics company. While many of my friends saw the pandemic as a plague that ruined their social lives, I saw it as an opportunity. I knew I wanted a career change but believed I had no transferable skills. I mean, what does applying the perfect wing eyeliner have to do with, well, anything? So I decided it was time to pack away my makeup brushes, dust off the laptop, and go back to full time education at twenty seven.

While researching what to study I realised that during my time working as a people manager, I learned a lot of soft skills - ones that not only would help with my education but would help me in whatever career I chose. These soft skills of time management, problem solving, adaptability, and teamwork are all transferable and suit most careers. Developing hard skills was the challenge, and ensuring that the hard skills would suit the career path chosen. It didn’t take long to realise the opportunities available in tech were limitless and something I could find an interest in. I decided to take up digital marketing and cloud computing as it gave me a border insight into not just tech, but business too.

There were many highs and lows over the past couple years with lockdowns and group projects, assignments and exams, all being navigated in a virtual setting and finding a balance between these and my own personal wellbeing was a challenge. However the main take away from the last couple of years would be, going back to college at a late age is hard, it's hard work mentality and physically especially if you are working part time, but one thing I know for certain is that it is worth it. You have to be willing to temporarily downgrade your lifestyle to improve your future lifestyle, and it's never too late in life to do it. This summer I have continued my education with Salesforce. I have learnt so much more than I would have expected and found not only a career and company I see myself progressing in but a lifestyle that I want to have, it gave me a sneak peak into what my future looks like and I couldn't be more excited for that.

Mark Drumm, Sales Dev Summer Intern.

During my time here in Salesforce, I have discovered many things to be grateful for, whether that be all the amazing people I’ve met, or all the new skills I’ve acquired. But one thing that I am really grateful for from this internship is how much real responsibility I have been given during my 9 weeks here. It is easy to think that an internship would just be coffee runs or doing menial tasks while the other employees do the important stuff, but that is not the case here!

As part of my internship, I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of multiple projects all of which had their own unique challenges, but more importantly had positive outcomes for the company and have given me the chance to learn new skills! I have worked on New Employee Retention incentives and Creating new accounts in the org for Ireland's top 1000 companies. Having the chance to work on important, meaningful projects really feed into that sense of responsibility and making a real impact.

And finally, I couldn't talk about this topic without mentioning being apart of the amazing intern team that has organised a Sky Dive VTO day! This project was so much fun to work on and I am very proud to be apart of the team that is helping six amazing charities through this event, so shout-out to Luke Whelan, Martha Clarke, Oisín Sands & Roisin McCarthy!

Luke Whelan, Sales Dev Summer Intern.

When I was 7 I started in the Citywise Education Summer Camps. I didn’t know then just how much Citywise would change my life, but it has. It’s an organisation whose mission is to foster a culture of Education and Growth in West Tallaght. Through Citywise, I got to travel the world, I got a scholarship to my school, made it into Trinity College and, most recently, I was introduced to Salesforce - a company they have a long-standing relationship with.

Salesforce employees have volunteered their time to coach at Citywise on professional skills, talk to us about careers in tech, and mentor us to encourage us to pursue these opportunities. They built up our confidence and encouraged us to network. With my Citywise-Salesforce Network, the door of the internship appeared and I haven't looked back since. As Salesforce says, bringing people together changes everything.

Martha Clarke, Sales Dev Summer Intern.

As a woman studying business, famous entrepreneurs and CEOs were often referred to in my classes. 9 times out of 10, those famous figures were men. I think corporate jobs can often be seen as a ‘boys club’ with women having to work much harder to succeed in the same role as their male counterparts. My preconceived idea of women working in tech companies was even more precarious.

Coming to Salesforce, it was so refreshing to see how many women were in leadership positions within the company. Throughout my time here, I’ve connected with so many powerful, inspiring women in leadership roles who are invaluable to Salesforce’s operations. Another thing I noticed when looking at famous female entrepreneurs, was they sometimes felt they had to mirror male behaviour to feel they were respected in their roles. Seeing leaders who were pregnant, wearing pretty pink dresses and makeup was so important for me as a young woman beginning her career in Tech. Not only was it refreshing to see these women succeeding in their jobs, but in a way where they weren’t compromising womanhood to do so. It isn’t perfect yet though, I hope to see an increase in gender equality in the workplace as I move forward with my career, but for now, it is encouraging to see that Salesforce is taking a step in the right direction.

Catia Loureiro, Sales Dev Summer Intern.

As an intern of African descent, it feels good to see people like Ebony Beckwith as a Chief Business Officer and Chief of Staff to Marc Benioff. To me, this means equality - one of the core values in Salesforce - is reflected and not just talked about. Seeing a black woman in an executive role is an extremely powerful message for young people like me.

I am so grateful to have the had the chance work in Salesforce as an intern in Ireland. I am the only black female intern around five other black interns who are male, so I feel like I am representing the kind of black females who can look at Ebony Beckwith and think, if she is in her position, there is a possibility I could do the same in the future. That representation and visibility is so important.

Equality and diversity are key ideologies in how companies can do their part to shape the world, and I think Salesforce and other multinationals have a part to play in transforming peoples lives and make a change in the inequalities that exist globally by ensuring equal representation throughout their business, starting at an executive level.

Niesha O’Connell, Sales Dev Summer Intern.

Over the last 9 weeks, I’ve learned and experienced so much as an intern at Salesforce. Prior to this position, my only work experience was in retail and one of the most important lessons I’ve learned here is that I can finally put my personal skills to use! Within my first few weeks here I noticed that what used to get me in trouble is actually encouraged in Salesforce.

All throughout school, college and my retail career, I was constantly in trouble for being too chatty, too loud, and too bubbly. This left me frustrated for many years as I felt I was in trouble for being myself. Now in Salesforce I can use my loud and chatty personality to my advantage. As an intern, my bubbly personality has been encouraged and acknowledged in a positive manner, rather than as a critique. As sales is such a customer based position, having the ability to interact confidently with customers and managers, and build relationships will stand to me in the future. I look forward to a career in sales where I can let my personality shine.

Oisin Sands, Sales Dev Summer Intern.

I was fortunate enough to participate in the Salesforce internship already last year! I reached out to a manager on LinkedIn to ask about the program which ended in them being my referral, which was a great benefit during the application process. Last summer was vastly different as we were completely remote due to the Covid pandemic, but thankfully Salesforce had recently acquired Slack which made contacting other interns, managers and team members so much less formal than email! It removed the fear to ask any question or ask for time to fulfil my project work. This year, there are more interns, a hybrid work schedule, and lots more in-person volunteering events organised by FutureForce to meet so much more people. The office culture has changed everything. Having in-person contact time with my team and manager has allowed me to see the real world skills needed to begin my career and continue to grow the skills I learned during last year’s virtual internship. This summer has been a deep dive into Salesforce culture, our Customer Success stories, and how we plan to continue our personal growth to hopefully become BDA's next year!

If you are eager to start a career in Salesforce, check out the Futureforce website or check the Careers Site for open vacancies. To learn more about Salesforce’s commitment to equality, check out our website and you can also have a look at Salesforce’s values here!