Werner’s Internship Program – How I Kick-Started my Career

As fall career fair season officially wraps up, I’ve been reflecting on my journey and how I landed a job at Werner Enterprises. Career fairs serve as an exciting time for students but can also be overwhelming. While attending a career fair, Werner’s career booth stood out to me among the hundreds in attendance. Members of Werner’s team were willing to give younger students a chance. I introduced myself to the Werner recruiter and learned about their internship program at their headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. I also learned their new internship opportunities in their Atlanta and Chicago offices. As a marketing major at The University of Georgia, I was thrilled to hear about this local opportunity. Additionally, because Atlanta is a satellite office of Werner, they host two interns instead of thirty, meaning I could receive more one-on-one training. After going through the interview process and receiving and accepting an offer, I was ready and excited to start my internship with Werner.

During my internship with Werner, I learned many valuable lessons that will help me in my career for years to come. My biggest takeaway, though, was the importance of a strong company culture for any successful business that extends to satellite offices and remote positions as well.

Werner’s core values are inclusion, leadership, safety and service, community, innovation and integrity. Despite working in Atlanta and being removed from the company’s headquarters, I consistently saw Werner’s core values in my coworkers’ and superiors’ actions and attitudes.

Inclusion

In the months approaching the beginning of my internship, I began to feel nervous about being a “remote” intern. Even though I would be working in a Werner office, I was still fifteen hours away from most of the interns and was worried that I would miss out on meeting and interacting with them. Thanks to the structure of Werner’s internship program, I never felt disconnected from the other interns. Even before starting my experience, I received Werner swag in the mail. This small gesture was the perfect way to make me feel like I was already a part of the team.

One of the assignments during our internship was a group project where we used our knowledge of Werner to present a solution to a strategic problem. Working with my group was one of my favorite aspects of the program because it allowed me to meet students from around the country and form lasting connections.

Leadership

I saw examples of excellent leadership every day in my internship with Werner. The leadership team in Atlanta was constantly investing in their team to build them into strong leaders. They continuously push their employees to achieve as much as possible, not only because they want to create results, but because they want to grow the industry’s future leaders.

Outside of the Atlanta o