Despite what you see on social media, not everyone has their career planned out at 20 years old. That was definitely the case for Brielle Bastian, Gavin McDonald and Olivia Boxmeyer when they joined Van Meter as interns.
They didn’t have all the answers going in, but their internship helped them understand what they wanted in a job.
Fast forward to now, and they’ve transitioned from interns to full-time employee-owners. Here’s how they turned an internship into a career.
From internship to career: three Van Meter team members share how hands-on experience, relationships and initiative shaped their path
Too Good to be True?
All three had a similar reaction when they first started their internships. “I was like, when is the other shoe going to drop? This feels too good to be true,” said Boxmeyer.
Then, as time went by, nothing changed. “After a couple weeks, people were still treating me the same way,” said McDonald..
Their initial skepticism turned into a realization that they had found something special. “The culture is lived out at this company, not just talked about,” said Bastian.
More than Spectators
If their expectations were off about workplace culture, they were way off about the work. The interns weren’t just there to observe for a few months. Boxmeyer’s final project as an intern was to create a lead vendor guide, and the company implemented it for employee-owners to use after she left.
“I felt like I left an impact, even in only three months of being here,” she said. “It was cool to see our project actually implemented.”
The other surprising part of the work was the variety of industries they were working with. As an automation and industrial sales intern, McDonald met with customers out in the field. He said it was eye opening going from a steel plant to a food manufacturer that makes ice cream.
“It went from seeing them use these crazy electronic furnaces to melt down steel, and then the next week, going to see them make ice cream,” he said. “The scope of customers that we work with is pretty amazing.”
You Get Out What You Put In
If you ask any of them how they got the most out of the internship experience, you would get a similar answer. What you put into it matters.
Boxmeyer didn’t wait for opportunities to come to her. “I would just look at the organizational chart, find people and email asking if I could come watch them,” she said.
Her takeaway was simple: “You get out of it what you put into it.”
Bastian interned at Van Meter three different times and says she did about 30 different job shadows to experience every side of the business. After job shadowing Human Resources (HR), she thought she could see herself doing that and came back to Van Meter as an HR intern before transitioning into a full-time recruiting position after graduating.
ADVICE FOR FUTURE INTERNS
When it Clicks and What Happens Next
At some point, the experience shifted from, “this is interesting,” to, “this is where I want to be.” It happened quickly for McDonald.
“Lura [President & CEO] would stop in the hallways. If she was on the phone, she’d put her phone down and say, ‘Hey Gavin, how are you doing?’ It was crazy,” he said.
Boxmeyer said Van Meter set the bar very high at the end of her internship, but she didn’t have any other experience to compare it with.
She interned with a different company the next summer, but it didn’t live up to her Van Meter experience. Her future became clear. “I wanted to work at Van Meter. I didn’t even care what I’d be doing.”
She reached out to an HR contact at Van Meter to see which roles might be a good fit. Now, she’s helping customers manage orders as a lighting project coordinator.
McDonald had the same mindset when a sales role wasn’t immediately available after his internship. There was a second-shift job available in the Cedar Rapids wire center. Instead of waiting for his perfect opportunity, he said, “You know what? I’ll do what it takes to bring me on and keep going.”
He has since transitioned into his current role as a product sales representative. He travels to customer jobsites providing inventory management services that organize materials and maintain appropriate inventory levels to meet their needs.
Bastian found HR through dozens of job shadows. McDonald found a sales role through internal connections. Boxmeyer found her role by staying engaged and proactive.
None of them started in the “perfect” role, but they have all settled into the right one.
Turning an Internship into a Career
If there’s a common theme between all three stories, it’s this: You don’t have to have your future figured out when you start. Internships aren’t just about gaining experience. They’re about discovering what you enjoy doing, what’s important to you in a job and how you fit.
The outcome depends on how much you put into it.
