During the 2022 Summer Intersession, rising senior Rachel Piraino completed an internship with Fidelity Investments. Read on to learn about her experience!
If you’re interested in doing your own internship but don’t know where to start, make an appointment with your Career Advisor by going to Handshake.
What was your internship? This summer I was a Research and Data Analyst intern at Fidelity Investments.
Why were you initially interested in this internship? I knew I wanted experience within the corporate environment prior to graduation, so I started looking into opportunities for summer 2022 in January 2022. Mary worked alongside me and guided me during the application process! When the recruiter told me about the position, she listed technologies I really enjoyed working with and projects that really interested me.
How did you find your internship? I heard of another position at Fidelity via a recruiter on Handshake, so I applied to that one and unfortunately I didn’t get that role. The Fidelity team reached out to me a few weeks later to see if I was interested in another internship within the company, and this is the position I had for this summer.
What did you do as part of your internship? I was on the Client Engagement Platform team this summer and I worked on an application called TACO, or tools for advanced contact-center operations. TACO is an internal application. This application places all of their Amazon Connect platforms into a single user interface as there is no current epicenter for the AWS tools to be manipulated. The overall purpose of the TACO is to create a one stop shop for the AWS services while removing human error and saving time and scalability. The user can easily control what is deployed and to where!
Has this internship helped you work towards your future career goals? If so, how? Yes, my time at Fidelity Investments has helped me grow within the professional environment. I was able to go into the Boston office and meet co-workers on my team and other interns! I had the pleasure to meet some amazing people during my time and they helped me learn and grow within an agile learning environment.
What was your biggest lesson/takeaway from the internship? My biggest lesson that I learned was to have confidence in your abilities as an intern. My biggest take away from working with Fidelity is the strong meaning of community and a healthy work environment. Everyone was extremely willing to help others and show their support for their team. Fidelity is a massive company but I was able to make my own community and network around me. They also have fun events like Pilates, coffee chats, in addition to resume workshops and elevator pitch seminars. There is always someone new to meet and interact with which makes working at Fidelity all the better!
What advice would you give to someone interested in a similar internship opportunity? Something that really helped me during the interview process that I would recommend to others is to take advantage of your academic experience and be able to reflect upon what worked and what didn’t, especially in a group setting. Personally, I was able to use my past group projects as both learning experiences and solid proof of what I am able to do as part of my portfolio. As for being in a corporate environment I also think bringing a good energy to the team you’re on and a willingness to work and try new things is extremely important. I was able to shadow my scrum master in a few meetings and my manager exposed me to upcoming projects related to Amazon Web Services. You get what you put into your internship, and although Fidelity is a huge company, I was able to advocate for myself during my time there and get exposed to new concepts and ideas that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to without Fidelity.
