Success Stories

1. What kind of professional skills did you acquire during your internship?
I had entire reign and control of a project from research-to-print. I learned everything from there and between.

2. What is the most unexpected thing you learned?
How long a big project can take and how things change over time when ideas come out of nowhere.

3. What about your internship experience will help you in your future career path?
I have earned a great portfolio piece and experience to help me grow as a graphic designer.

4. If you had to encourage a fellow student to complete an internship what would you say?
Do it! It can only help you. You grow as an individual and professional in whichever path you are taking. Plus future employers love it.

1. What kind of professional skills did you acquire during your internship?
Communication. I think with our generation sometimes we get lost in wanting to communicate solely through electronic resources. In a more professional setting, with many generations, I learned of the greater importance of face-to-face interaction and also different ways of getting my point across. It of course helps when you are in a setting where you feel like your opinions and thoughts are valued, and I was fortunate enough to be in a situation such as that.

2. What is the most unexpected thing you learned?
The most unexpected thing I learned was what I learned about myself. Through personality indexes and strength finder sessions at work I realized how to apply myself in different areas. I think that is a lot of what an internship should be-finding yourself, learning and growing-not only professionally, but in life as well.

3. What about your internship experience will help you in your future career path?
Before I started my internship I was a little unsure of what I wanted to do, I knew what my interests were but I needed that experience for an extra push in the right direction. Now there is no doubt in my mind that I have found what is right for me.

4. If you had to encourage a fellow student to complete an internship what would you say?
YES! Experience is so valuable, especially in today's economy. In order to market yourself you need to prove that you are capable and having an internship will help you do that. Not to mention-it's fun!

1. What kind of professional skills did you acquire during your internship?
Interning taught me how to effectively communicate and "speak business" with others in a small business setting. It also made me realize the importance of being able to work independently and find tasks that need to be done before they are assigned.

2. What is the most unexpected thing you learned?
I never expected that meetings were actually that beneficial. I learned that some are long and laborious, but if done correctly, can mean the difference between success and failure. If you include yourself in the meetings that lead to success, then you become part of that success.

3. What about your internship experience will help you in your future career path?
More than anything else that happened as a result of my internship, I realized that your future career and success are not entirely dependent on your current position your current position or company. I was able to effectively work the tasks I had been assigned, but I was also able to show that I was valuable in other areas of the organization. My internship was setup to have me work in a single department, but by the end of the summer I was working in a number of departments all over the company.

4. If you had to encourage a fellow student to complete an internship what would you say?
Having an internship is the only way to really get a good grasp of what you might want to do, or even more importantly - not do, before you enter the workforce. Not only could it give you jump start on your first job, but it could also keep you from wasting time and expense doing something that doesn't fit. Beyond that, an internship looks a lot better on a resume than flipping burgers.

1. What kind of professional skills did you acquire during your internship?
First and foremost, one professional skill I acquired would be communicating with the client. I remember the first time I have to go ask the client some questions and I was very nervous since I had never had that experience before. By the time my internship was over, communicating with the client became much easier. Second, I broadened my interpersonal relationship skills from working in a team environment. Auditing is unique in that each engagement is a different team of people working together in a conference room for several weeks of long hours. When I came into that environment, I had to adjust and learn about working in that setting and acquired skills along the way. Lastly, there are countless professional skills I acquired during my internship from computer skills to learning more about how businesses work to self-improvement skills. My internship at Ernst & Young helped me to prepare not only for my full-time position with the firm, but for my remaining years of undergraduate followed by MBA at Bellarmine as well as all other aspects in life. The professional skills I acquired on my internship cannot be taught in a classroom or from a book, they are skills one can only acquire through on the job experience.

2. What is the most unexpected thing you learned?
It is okay to not know everything. Everyone is there to help you to learn as they have been in that same position once before. It had been about two years between my internship and starting full-time and there are some things I remember, and just remembering that it is okay to ask for help and everyone is going to help you is what makes the transitioning so much easier.

3. What about your internship experience will help you in your future career path?
Everything! Even the little things one learns on an internship will help later down the road.

4. If you had to encourage a fellow student to complete an internship what would you say?
It is the best thing you can do for yourself to prepare for your career. It is the hands on experience you cannot learn in a classroom that helps you to succeed. You build skills, networks, and gain more knowledge than you realize at the time. My internship helped me to relate the materials I learned in school back to real-life experiences that helped me to understand the concepts being taught.

1. Why do you invest time and money in offering internship opportunities?


2. By employing an intern, how did your company benefit?
Great creative ideas by someone who did not have the 'day job' that limits the amount of time spent on them.

3. Did you experience an influx of fresh ideas and diversity while employing your intern? Please explain.


4. What is the most interesting thing experienced while employing an intern that was unexpected?


5. Have you ever offered an intern a permanent full time position? Please explain.
This was our first creative intern, and after this position she went back to her out-of-town college, so full-time employment was not something that she was seeking.

1. Why do you invest time and money in offering internship opportunities?
It is simply the very best way for our firm to identify candidates we would like to hire on a full time basis.

2. By employing an intern, how did your company benefit?
Our new hires come in with a basis understanding of the organization and experience with all the basics like our computer system, specialized software, and have a connection to the other s in the firm. This greatly shortens the learning curve and they are able to contribute quickly.

3. Did you experience an influx of fresh ideas and diversity while employing your intern? Please explain.


4. What is the most interesting thing experienced while employing an intern that was unexpected?


5. Have you ever offered an intern a permanent full time position? Please explain.
Almost all of our full time hires have come through an internship with our organziation, either with the Louisville office or one of our other offices around the globe.

1. Why do you invest time and money in offering internship opportunities?
We invest in our interns because they are worth it! They add value to our organization. They are bright, energetic, quick learners who offer fresh ideas and hunger for knowledge. In many cases, our interns reinvigorate their departments and push our employees to perform at a higher level. We take care of our people and see that they have every opportunity to excel. One of the reasons Kindred Healthcare has been voted one of the best places to work in the state of KY for four years running is because we invest in our employees’ growth and development. Since we treat our interns like employees, they benefit from our dedication to our people. Throughout our 10 year program, we have maintained high expectations for our interns in terms of performance, so we feel the investment pays off on the job during their internship and beyond as interns are hired on as employees. All of our interns, regardless whether they become employees, are worth the investment. Once they see how Kindred takes care of its people, they become advocates for our organization.

2. By employing an intern, how did your company benefit?
Kindred Healthcare benefits from its interns: they bring fresh ideas and perspectives to the organization; they are assets to their teams because the work they do is meaningful and impactful; we recruit interns in hopes of building our workforce, so we regard interns as future employees. We work hard to make sure that our interns have a positive, resume-building experience while they are at Kindred. We treat our interns like employees. In turn, they act and perform like motivated professionals.

3. Did you experience an influx of fresh ideas and diversity while employing your intern? Please explain.
Yes, we enjoy and benefit from the energy and enthusiasm that interns bring to our organization. Last year, we invited the interns to participate in the inaugural Intern Program Advisory Council. Interns who wanted to be a part of this council helped make decisions about the intern program. Their ideas enlivened the program and gave the interns a sense of ownership over the activities and events. As a result, the program grew and the advisory council will be an important part of 2010 program.

4. What is the most interesting thing experienced while employing an intern that was unexpected?
Our interns surprise us and themselves as they learn from the real-world work experiences they have through our program. We make an effort to carefully place our interns in departments that match their majors. This way, they get an idea of what their first career might be like. For example, we place interns who are studying computer programming in the IT department. We place English majors Corporate Communications or Training. As a result of this careful placement, interns occasionally consider a change in major. When this happens, we give interns the ability to direct their involvement in the program and change to a department that better reflects their new inspiration. These opportunities give our interns the advantage of finding work and a major that inspires them and positions them for a successful, rewarding career.

5. Have you ever offered an intern a permanent full time position? Please explain.
Yes. We frequently offer some graduating interns full time positions. Several graduating interns are hired at Kindred as full time employees or contractors. We track our interns upon graduation and identify who was hired, then report our findings to the Management team annually. Many interns are hired on as contractors when they graduate, then move on to become full time (salaried) employees. Some of our high performing employees benefited from our intern program. In turn, we benefit from their dedication to their work and to Kindred.

1. Why do you invest time and money in offering internship opportunities?
Great opportunity to test drive the intern, and discern potential skill set for a role within our organization

2. By employing an intern, how did your company benefit?
We have experienced wonderful new innovative training curriculum, delivered at no cost to the organization, and an influx of fresh new ideas.

3. Did you experience an influx of fresh ideas and diversity while employing your intern? Please explain.
Absolutely! My eight interns hail from all walks of life, and cross a very diverse background. Thus, each of them offer a breadth of interests, skills, and experience, that no one else on the team has. That creates great synergy within the department.

4. What is the most interesting thing experienced while employing an intern that was unexpected?
I didn't expect the opportunity for mentoring and coaching on a new and meaningful level.

5. Have you ever offered an intern a permanent full time position? Please explain.
Two of our interns have been offered full time roles within the organization, one in Training and Development, the other within sales.

1. Why do you invest time and money in offering internship opportunities?
There are a lot of very bright students that can add immediate value to the organization. Having an intern is a great opportunity to help increase diversity of thought. They offer great suggestions and ask a lot of wonderful questions since they are new to the specific work environment. They are also learning a lot in their classes which they can apply immediately to help the organization and also help improve their own learning experience.

2. By employing an intern, how did your company benefit?
The intern that was part of my team was able to solve complex problems and focus on issues that the team had not had time to fix. It was also good to have someone new come to the team, he raised the bar for the entire team and increased our collective knowledge.

3. Did you experience an influx of fresh ideas and diversity while employing your intern? Please explain.
Yes. The intern that was on my team had learned a lot from school and had a lot of experiences abroad, so he immediately brought new thinking and fresh ideas. An example, was around a tool we were trying to build to evaluate new locations, he was able to come in and tackle the very complex project over the summer. He thought of different data sources and different ways to accomplish the goal that the team had not thought of before.

4. What is the most interesting thing experienced while employing an intern that was unexpected?
Our intern could speak Russian, so it was quite unexpected how the other members of the team reacted. Based on this he was able to teach us about the cultures of different countries that some of the team had never visited. He was also able to apply this to his work and it helped to create new ideas. But the most unexpected benefit was that the intern was so intelligent and bright that it brought the whole team to a new level around their work product and engagement. He was immediately a team player and everyone received him very well. It was a huge benefit to everyone having him on the team.

5. Have you ever offered an intern a permanent full time position? Please explain.
Yes. We ended up offering our intern a full time position because he so successful during his internship. He was able to network and show others across the company the value that he brought to the table. So far he has been very successful as a full-time associate and he continues to do great work and bring fresh ideas to the team.