Cultivating soft skills can catapult a career. Thanks to internships at nine GGV portfolio companies, 21 GGV NextGen Fellows ended the summer with more than the fundamental skills related to data, engineering, marketing, sales, and other fields of interest.
In fact, many fellows shared that this summer marked their first introduction to collaborating cross-functionally, navigating time zones, or even working in an office.
In their own words, here are some takeaways from this year’s GGV NextGen Fellows:
“I've learned that learning happens in the most unexpected ways. Just talk to people. I've talked to almost all functions of my company: devrel, the design team, sales of course, but also product management … The ability to see how each piece works is something that's truly valuable for me. Having that perspective is something I will utilize down the road.”
“In between that small time period [of planning a project and executing on it], I kind of developed a lot of impostor syndrome. Then I remembered what Jon [Fortt] had said about impostor syndrome and looking at what you bring to the table and highlighting what differentiates you from other people.”
“What really stuck to me throughout all of our talks was to always make intentional relationships [and that] failure is redirection. I think a lot of us tend to get stressed when we fail, but I've kinda noticed that the greatest things come to me after I fail. And I realized that had I not failed, I would’ve been miserable at what I wanted to do at the beginning.”
“Of the three themes that stood out to me personally were 1) that career progression is not linear, 2) that you learn faster by making mistakes and by doing, and 3) that you have to explore, network, connect, and ask questions.”
“I learned about how to securely design stuff before even getting to implementation. And as a technical program management intern, engaging stakeholders, communicating my plans effectively, and getting the resources to actually execute effectively is something that I had to develop over time. It was a great experience for me because I think I've learned how to be a better leader.”
“Our startup culture encourages cross-functional collaboration. So engaging with designers, product managers, and testers has taught me how to effectively communicate technical concepts to non-technical shareholders and ensure that everyone is aligned toward a common goal … By adopting a design perspective, we can purposefully engineer the relationships we wish to nurture, crafting meaningful bonds that will last even after my internship.”
“I'm studying finance, so I think being on the People team was a great way to develop my professional people skills and have a sense of what a startup is like. We worked very closely with the finance team and getting to see our spend goals and our burn ratio for different years was super interesting. The GGV Fellowship has been an awesome supplement to the internship.”
“I really learned a lot this summer, but I also learned about soft skills. So the importance of communicating effectively and storytelling—that's applicable everywhere from presentations to working with other people. It's everywhere.”
“From the importance of SEO to the elements that go into affiliate marketing, dashboard data, and trending items, I feel like that was a really big learning curve for me. And then a final lesson that I learned is that communication between upper and lower management is very important.”
“[For HashiCorp’s Intern Culture Awards], I was awarded the communication award. That felt really good to be recognized for all the work that I put into being involved in the process of being an intern and reaching out to people in different roles and learning about what they do at HashiCorp, working with the early careers team, and being engaged in all of the amazing events that they put on … A highlight of my summer has been being able to meet so many new people and learn about so many new roles.”
“I got the opportunity to be in person this summer with the last month being remote. So for me, this internship showed me what it might be like to work in a hybrid environment in the real world … Being someone who has always been interested in entrepreneurship, I felt like I learned a lot from hearing the different conversations, the importance of what your brand is, and remembering that a thank-you note can go a long way.”
“I learned about prospecting, professional communication, how a corporate workplace works (because I used to work in a hospital), personal branding, collaboration within sales, what good looks like in sales—and persistence. I had some really hard accounts this summer that I was able to break into, and it was just good to see that you just have to keep going after it.”
“I'm really thankful for the phenomenal exposure to the product team. This was an incredibly unique experience to work with an incredibly high-performing team. I talked directly to users at companies like Snapchat, which as an intern has been phenomenal to have that responsibility.”
“Being part of a team that helps individuals navigate their immigration journey … It's an incredible feeling to contribute to a workplace that values diversity and actively creates ways for talented individuals around the world to join our team.”
“It was a great opportunity for me just to learn and get into the tech industry [and also] learn about how to be a good professional, how to be a good student, and how to basically keep learning and growing with whatever I'm doing.”
“Entering into a job market in a downturn [can be] highly valuable … It's going to be helpful as an employee to stay on the revenue side of the business or demonstrating your value to a firm can significantly reduce your chance of being laid off.”
“Work for passion, and don't be afraid to ask for help. One of the biggest takeaways is just to do it. And only by putting the action first can you turn all the ideas into reality.”
“I had a huge learning curve during the summer, but I feel like I became more well-rounded as a person in general. I also learned how to do sales, which I think is pretty important since many roles are about selling stuff, whether it’s a service, a company, or a product … This internship definitely inspired me to consider working at a startup in the future.”
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