Landing the right internship can be a pivotal moment in someone’s early career. A real-world opportunity to learn, grow and work within an actual company. At Koch, the learning goes beyond even that. The Koch internship affords all interns the opportunity to meet with the CEO, Charles Koch, in person for a Q&A session.
“This event shows how deeply our leadership at Koch values developing our employees,” says Colton Clark, Koch Early Careers program manager. “It takes time to develop talent, and Chase and Charles Koch’s involvement sets a tone for the rest of our leadership and peers to mentor and help interns and new employees along on their path toward self-actualization.”
Over the past couple of years, Charles Koch has been joined in the session by son Chase Koch, who is president of Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT).
During the two-hour session, attendees learned from both Charles and Chase that career paths rarely go exactly as planned – as evidenced by challenges, twists and turns they had experienced in their own early careers. They encouraged interns to give themselves the time to try different roles to discover exactly where their passions lie and what they are most gifted at accomplishing. There was also wide-ranging discussion around the future of Koch.
“There’s a lot of intern excitement around what is happening at KDT and what is coming for the future,” Colton says. “As well as how disruptive technology can and will affect the long-term future of the enterprise.”
This year, Koch welcomed more than 440 interns, representing 81 schools across 48 locations worldwide. The program was recognized as one of the Top 100 best internship programs in the U.S. by WayUp.
