Early last week I happened to be in Lauren’s office when she received a phone call—it was someone calling the references of a TalentEgg intern and writer for a very cool position on the web team of one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies.

By Thursday, she had been offered the role and Lauren forwarded me an email exchange between them about the opportunity. This was at the bottom of the chain, written by the intern:

I had an interview last week with [CompanyX] for the role of marketing specialist working for the [web] team. My interview went really well and he really liked hearing about the projects you’ve given me at TalentEgg.  My experience at TalentEgg related perfectly to the position at [CompanyX].

It made me smile and I realized that, although TalentEgg is only a little over two years old, many of our interns, writers and assistant editors have already gone on to some amazing roles, including a marketing internship with a major bank, an editorial internship at The Walrus (one of the most prestigious and competitive internships in Canada!), and web editor of Wine Access magazine.

We’ve always been a very small core team supported by a group of smart, hard-working interns—some full-time, others part-time; some paid, others unpaid.

As someone who started at the company as an intern during its first summer more than two years ago, I know how valuable an internship at TalentEgg can be.

As long as you do the work that needs to be done, you can also get any experience you want.

You can experiment on new projects. You can be exposed to the work of each department. You get to work with students as well as with some of Canada’s biggest brands.

And although we sometimes struggle as young, inexperienced managers, we try to provide the best experience possible by keeping communication lines open. Seeing success stories like this one, where an intern was able to transfer her skills and experience to the next step in her career, makes it even more rewarding to work here (and it makes it a bit easier to navigate the challenges of being a young manager).

Plus, when we say students and recent grads should take on internships to help them launch their careers, we can actually back up that statement with solid examples from our own team!!

If you want to know more about launching your career through internships, check out these articles we’ve published on our Career Incubator:

• How to get your dream job: Make the most of your internship by Marisa Baratta (now interning at SweetSpot.ca!)
• Internships are the way to get your foot in the entertainment industry’s door by Kate Morawetz, who did just that and now works in a coveted role at MTV Canada
• If you put in the effort, someone will notice by Cassandra Jowett (me!), an article that features an “archive photo” from TalentEgg’s first summer