Day in the life of an intern at WEX

Participating in an internship has become mainstream for college students and some even start their careers post-college with one or two internships before landing their first full-time job. As seen in the charts below companies value recruits who have a few internships under their belt. A recent Fast Company study of students between 2013 and 2022 found that 60% of all students in the US have participated in an internship, and 50% have done more than one internship.

All that said, we thought it would be fun to share what interns at WEX have done this summer and give you a taste of what an internship might look like for you in the future. Madison Mitchell, Ben Stellhorn, and Olivia Tighe share their experiences below. Enjoy!

Meet Madison Mitchell, Partner Marketing Intern for Exxon Mobil and Esso

WEX intern Madison Mitchell

Madison Mitchell, Partner Marketing Intern for Exxon Mobil and Esso
Location: Portland, ME
School: University of Southern Maine

I arrive at WEX HQ a little before 9AM. For those who haven’t been to the headquarters, the building has a beautiful view of the waterfront. One of the perks to being in the office is getting to see all of the boats and cruise ships in the harbor! Another perk is getting free coffee at the Navis cafe with my WEX badge. It’s a great place to socialize with coworkers and start my day. Once I’m back at my desk, I set up my computer, go through my emails, and get ready for the team’s morning huddle.

Every Monday and Thursday at 9:30, the Exxon Mobil and Esso marketing team have a thirty minute stand-up. Sometimes, we talk about work-related things, and other times, we talk about our weekends and things that go on after hours. It’s a great way to connect with the team and see what everyone else is working on.

Part of the summer internship program includes a series of speaker talks. Today’s is with Lisa Goldkamp from WEX Health. As someone who works on the Fleet side of WEX, it’s interesting to see the differences between the two, and I was surprised to learn about how similar the divisions are. Lisa had some great advice for interns: she told us we are in a unique position to be bold and assist on exciting projects!

For lunch, a few other interns and I went to Navis and LB Kitchen and brought our food up to WEX’s rooftop. The Buoy sandwich from Navis has been my favorite this summer, and their cookies are the best!

WEX interns on the roof at HQ

After lunch, I go back to my desk to check my Workfront projects. I currently have seven Workfront projects in the queue. Most of my requests go to Lisa Sposato, Exxon Mobil’s designer. Once Lisa has designed a piece of collateral, I proof the design for factual and grammatical errors, or I comment about some aspect that needs to be changed or added. Each project goes through about two rounds of revisions before it’s finalized. I try to check progress on the projects once a day.

WEXtern Journal: an intern-curated newsletter

Every Thursday, five other interns and I meet to brainstorm ideas for the biweekly newsletter, The WEXtern Journal. Today, we are trying to decide what our last issue should highlight. This week is National Intern Week, so that is definitely a top priority, and we think it’s important to find tools to help interns after their WEX internship. To do this, we’re going to highlight the resume-building workshop WEX held for us and other ways interns can get ahead on the job search. We’re also hoping to interview some special guests for the final edition.

For National Intern Day, Hannah Jabar in Early Career Talent Acquisition organized a Paint Night for all of the interns. Some local interns and I got to paint at WEX HQ, and being able to socialize with other interns in person is really the best part of the event. What I lack in artistic talents, I make up for in social skills. I’ve made a few friends this summer through the internship program and working with them in the office has been a highlight of my internship experience.

After Paint Night, I go home and unwind after a busy day. Sometimes, I walk my dogs or sit outside after work to get some fresh air, but tonight, I just read a book and listened to music—the perfect way to end a great day at WEX!

Meet Ben Stellhorn, Partner Marketing Intern

WEX intern Ben Stellhorn

Ben Stellhorn, Partner Marketing Intern
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
School: Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business

Today my alarm woke me up at 6:30AM so I could get ready for my 7:00AM team meeting. Each week, I meet with the Partner Marketing team where we go over updates. This meeting was focused on data visualization, and how we can become more effective data storytellers.

After this, I had a 1:1 meeting with my manager Erica and other manager/mentor Morgan. I updated them on my progress for the summer project I am doing. This summer, I am working on one big project which is a brand audit for four partner brands: Kum & Go, Marathon, Phillips 66, and Wawa. We also went over a few of the smaller projects I am involved in, including updating paper applications and creating a customer journey map.

After a productive morning of meetings, I was able to set aside some time to work on my brand audit project and any other tasks I had for the day. I decided to leave my house to go work on the Santa Clara University campus. While there, I was able to finish one of my slide decks for the brand audit. As a fully remote intern working in California, it is always nice to get a change of scenery and work in new surroundings.

During my lunch, I grabbed a sandwich at my favorite sandwich shop and caught up with a friend who also works a remote internship for another company. It was great to take a quick break from work and connect with a friend.

Once back at home, I attended the weekly newsletter meeting I have with a few of my fellow interns. In today’s meeting, we laid out a roadmap for the fourth and final newsletter for the summer.

Around 2:00PM, I walked over to meet with another WEX intern who lives down the street from me in Santa Clara. We decided to go to the virtual painting night together, although it was more of a painting day event for us on the West Coast. We had a great time meeting each other and catching up, while also getting to paint with other interns virtually! It was a great event organized by Hannah Jabar, Global Talent Acquisition Program Manager at WEX, to celebrate National Intern Day.

After the painting session, I went back home to finish up a few things I needed to get done for the next day of work. Around 4:00PM, I shut down my computer for the day. I then made dinner with my two roommates to unwind after a long day. Overall, it was a productive and busy day of meetings, project work, and fun intern events.

Meet Olivia Tighe, Digital Content Marketing Intern

WEX intern Olivia Tighe

Olivia Tighe, Digital Content Marketing Intern
Location: Boston, MA and Portland, ME
School: Duke University, Durham, NC

My day usually begins at 5:50 when my alarm goes off for my morning workout. I’m spending my summer training at Harvard with a large conglomerate of college swimmers in the Boston area. I usually practice from 6:30 to 8AM before quickly running home to grab breakfast and hop on my computer to start my day.

Most days I start with a quick check in with my manager, Nori Gale who co-leads a content team for WEX. We usually catch up and go over the things we’re working on and are looking forward to. I feel super lucky to have that time with Nori as we’re able to connect and get to know each other, despite the internship being remote.

On this particular day I had a few really exciting meetings for upcoming projects and events. My first meeting was in preparation for an event that the Women of WEX employee resource group is presenting this fall on Authentic Leadership. In this hour we were able to discuss many of the themes for the event and get some fun details to use in the promotion of the event.

After this meeting I had about an hour where I was able to put the finishing touches on a few projects including the extra special edition for the newsletter and eat a quick lunch. Since this week is national intern week we wanted to include an edition with additional intern highlights and more advice for the employee advice column “Words of the Wise.”

My afternoon featured four meetings. The first was with a few of the interns on the “Newsletter Crew.” We proofread the follow-up edition and sent it off to be approved. I have really enjoyed working on the intern newsletter. It has created a nice community within WEX for me and has made working virtually more inclusive for all of us!

Internship experience gives you a higher success rate when applying for a job

The second meeting of my afternoon was the Monthly All Organization Meeting for the Marketing Department, where current and upcoming work is shared throughout the marketing department. I find it helpful being included in these meetings as it helps me to understand the broader implications and goals for my work.

The third was a panel discussion with three former WEX interns who took on full-time roles at the company post-internship. It was interesting to listen and learn about their respective experiences as they all had virtual internships in different departments. My final meeting of the day was in preparation for an upcoming intern event that I will be facilitating. It was great to get the ball rolling on the planning of this discussion and a nice way to wrap up my day.

Since I am spending my summer in Boston, after work I usually like to get out of the apartment and explore for a bit. I’ve picked up running which I’ve found is a great way to learn about the many different neighborhoods in Boston and escape the rat-infested block I currently call home! I have also been enjoying cooking, so tonight’s adventure of a meal was vegetable risotto with a homemade veggie broth. It ended up being delicious! I usually wind down quickly after dinner for a strict 9:15 bedtime to get ready to take on the next day!

Intern bios:

Madison:

Madison Mitchell is a Partner Marketing Intern for Exxon Mobil and Esso. She is a fourth year student at the University of Southern Maine graduating in December 2022. Her degree will be a bachelor’s in Marketing and Management with a minor in the Honors program. Prior to working at WEX, she worked as an administrator at a local daycare in Portland, Maine. There, she built and launched a website for the company, which increased enrollment by 40% in the first year since the launch date. Madison has also done some freelance work creating websites on WordPress.

Madison is excited to get some firsthand experience in the marketing world at WEX! She has enjoyed getting to play a role in a variety of different projects and being able to meet a wide range of new people. She will be in her Co-op role until the end of 2022, and she is thrilled to be learning from her wonderful team!

Ben:

Ben Stellhorn is a Partner Marketing Intern. He is a fourth year student at Santa Clara University, Leavey School of Business. He is majoring in Marketing with minors in Entrepreneurship and Political Science. He is actively involved on campus, serving as Vice President of Public Relations for student government, as well as a Content Strategist Intern for SCU’s marketing department. Prior to his internship at WEX, Ben had a few other marketing and PR internship roles.

While at WEX, Ben has been working on a brand audit for four partner brands: Kum & Go, Marathon, Phillips 66, and Wawa. Through his project and internship, Ben is learning more about the payments and fleet industry while also getting valuable marketing experience. Ben loves working on the Partner Marketing team and can’t wait to continue learning!

Olivia:

Olivia Tighe is a Digital Content Marketing Intern. She is a student-athlete at Duke University in Durham, NC, studying Psychology, Political Science, and Markets and Management. At Duke, Olivia is active in her community, as one of the swim and dive team captains, a team representative to the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, a mentor to first-year student athletes, and was the chair of the Swift quad executive board this past academic year.

This internship has provided an opportunity for Olivia to delve into the world of corporate marketing. Conducting a site audit, writing blog posts, doing SEO research, are just a few of her internship projects. Prior to WEX, Olivia has experience in the local Maine startup scene where she interned with Atlantic Sea Farms, an innovator in the burgeoning seaweed processing industry. Olivia is excited to continue to learn and work with her incredible team throughout the school year.

When and how to apply for summer internships at WEX

Learn more about our internship program and search for all our internships on our website by filtering for the word “intern.”  You can also search for us on WayUp and other job posting sites.

When you fill out an application you will be considered for various roles. WEX will reach out to you for a screening call when there is interest.  After that, candidates speak with the hiring manager and peers as part of a formal interview process. We typically fill our internship positions by March or early April. We look for cultural fit plus skills that align with the job description. Hannah in talent acquisition recommends:

• Format your resume to highlight the skills requested in the job description.
• Do research on WEX to understand our market and solutions. Our corporate blog, “Inside WEX” blog has many ”Meet a WEXer” feature stories which can help you understand our culture and what it’s like to work here, or this article on four returning interns. Read about other WEXers like Kim Sorensen, Anne Gale, and Jason Simpson to learn more about the WEX experience.
• Bring energy and enthusiasm to the interview(s).
• Be prepared to share examples of your experience, successes, and learnings.
• Send thoughtful follow-up notes to everyone you meet as part of this process.

“Often the best internships are the ones that challenge you, and nudge you outside of your comfort zone,” Hannah says. “This is your safe space to fail and learn. Take advantage of that space and the opportunity in front of you.”

To learn more about applying to join WEX as an intern, please visit our Early Career Opportunities page on WEXinc.