The intern experience at Arc XP: innovating in a remote and hybrid workplace

Within days Arc XP’s summer 2022 intern class were hard at work. The software engineers built components for the new web application, while product analysts created in-app guides, scrum masters facilitated ceremonies and marketers redesigned advertisements to diversify content.

It might sound like these individuals landed full-time jobs working for a company in one of the fastest growing industries, but in reality, they got to do all this as summer interns.

Ideally, an internship allows a college student to gain experience working on relevant projects, learn about the field, and make industry connections. While all internships provide value – even if it’s simply a resume builder – not all internships are created equal in terms of field experiences and knowledge gained.

This summer, I undertook a ten-week internship with Arc XP, along with 15 other highly ambitious interns joining as developers, designers, product managers, scrum masters, marketers, sales coordinators, and analysts. We joined various teams within the organization, building tools and capabilities for Arc XP’s cloud-native digital experience platform (DXP) which helps brands, enterprises and media organizations to create and distribute content, drive digital commerce, and deliver powerful experiences for customers worldwide.

As autumn approaches and our internship comes to an end, the 2022 summer interns and I share our experiences and provide a glimpse into what it’s like to work at Arc XP.

Interning in a hybrid environment

Three days before my start date, I was mailed a laptop, along with other equipment needed for remote work. I remember feeling worried that spending part of each week working remotely would make it difficult to become acquainted with my team, my role, and the company culture. After all, how can I gain hands-on experience from behind a screen?

My apprehension towards hybrid work was quickly resolved after being greeted by 1:1 meetings with all my team members, Q&A sessions with company executives, welcome lunches, and a company-wide trivia event, all on Zoom and all within the first week.

With a hybrid work culture, we, as interns, had the opportunity to connect with a diverse group of people with unique backgrounds from across the world and learn how to drive innovation and support inclusivity when we are not in the same office – or even time zone. “At Arc XP there is a sense of community and diversity,” said Emily Nolasco, a Scrum Master Intern. “Everyone within the company is open to change and there are opportunities to come together and feel united. Everyone is innovative and dedicated to making the company the best that it can be.”

Treated as more than an intern

I quickly realized that my internship would not be filled with the stereotypical ‘intern tasks’ such as making copies, fetching coffee, and filing papers for hours on end. Instead, I was fully immersed in the daily tasks and workflow of a digital marketer. I was encouraged to speak up in meetings, ask questions, and was treated as a valuable member of the team.

When speaking with the other interns throughout the organization, I learned that this hands-on experience was not unique to my team and me. From developers to scrum masters, technical to non-technical roles, all interns reported being treated by their team as a full-fledged team member as opposed to a typical short-term intern. “I was looking for a team where I could meaningfully contribute to production-ready code that reaches many people.” said Software Engineering Intern, Jason Liu. “At Arc XP, the projects I’m working on feel impactful, and I feel like I’ve made significant progress in developing them.”

Hackathon Week

During our eighth week, we participated in a week-long hackathon, an opportunity to work with other interns to identify pain points within the organization, create a solution, and at the end of the week, present a fully executed original product. The hackathon created an atmosphere of collaboration, creativity, innovation, and optimism – with benefits spreading far beyond the final product.

Typically, hackathons are associated with technical internships, but at Arc XP, all interns contributed equally, regardless of our role. As a marketing intern, I worked with a diverse team comprised of both technical and non-technical roles. Together, we developed a prototype for a rewards program, a product for e-commerce customers. While my engineering teammates created the product, I worked with the other non-technical interns to strategize the product launch by creating an implementation timeline, identifying target industries and personas, drafting messaging tactics, and designing marketing collateral.

For software engineer intern, Jason Liu, the hackathon was a chance to gain confidence in his abilities and put the knowledge and skills he learned to use in creating an innovative mapping app. “I used some of the things I learned during this internship to create a winning hackathon project,” said Jason. “To me, it showed me that I’ve become a lot more familiar with my tech stack, being able to finish this project in just a week.”

“We demonstrated an application of product analytics to show the power of using data to directly identify client needs,” said Scrum Master intern, Kaylin Luck. “It was a fun and challenging project to work on, and we are extremely happy with how our presentation was received. This project showed that we, as interns, did in fact have a chance to leave an impact on the organization.”

“Break as many things as possible”

Beyond the work we did during hackathon week, innovation and creative freedom was a common theme throughout the entire Arc XP internship experience. During week one of our internship, Agile Coach Leader, Cp Richardson, advised us to “push the envelope and break as many things as possible.” He encouraged us to innovate and go beyond commonly accepted boundaries; and our managers gave us the freedom and resources to do so.

“I organized a bug bash within the Composer team for our new Story Templates feature, where the whole team got together and put on their testing hats to discover new issues and break the feature.” said Product Intern, Shri Ramesh. “My manager let me run with it even though I was barely a month into the internship. My team was super supportive, we had a great time, were productive and resulted in super generous and constructive feedback from Arc XP.”

As a marketing intern, I was asked to reflect on Arc XP’s existing social media content and brainstorm ideas to diversify our content. I spent several days analyzing LinkedIn analytics and researching industry trends. While presenting my findings to my team, they were engaged in what I had to say, asked questions, and provided additional thoughts. Because of their support, I felt comfortable challenging our existing social media tactics and providing alternative ideas to increase Arc XP’s digital footprint. In the end, my team trusted me to repurpose my video production skills and design a video for our paid LinkedIn campaign.

“Everybody wants an internship at Google, Amazon, Meta, etc., however, at a lot of those organizations you are just a number,” said Cp. “At Arc XP, our interns immediately, the first couple of weeks, are making changes that are going to impact our clients. And those ideas that they have are things that we are going to implement.”

Knowledge for the next career step

Though the importance of an internship was impressed upon me since before I started college, I don’t think I fully understood the value until recently. Through this experience, I realize that no college course can compare to the value of jumping into an industry and having genuine field experiences that push me out of my comfort zone and help uncover my strengths, weaknesses, and passions — and that is exactly what my internship with Arc XP did.

I asked my fellow interns to describe their experience in one word, and the majority chose ‘rewarding.’ At Arc XP, interns are valued for the unique and energetic perspectives they bring to the organization. We worked on meaningful projects while learning from and collaborating with diverse people from all around the world.

As my internship comes to an end, I am filled with gratitude for the people at Arc XP for welcoming me into the organization, supporting me, and taking the time to share their knowledge and expertise. Looking back on my experience over the last ten weeks, I am grateful that my team valued my perspective and skills. They allowed me to have a real impact on the work being done and contribute meaningfully to the organization, resulting in a unique and rewarding internship experience.