From the interview process to the internship work experience, women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) at Dell are supported whole heartedly — not only on this International Women’s Day, but every day.
Different from the Start
Lorena Millo, a double major in finance and chemistry, noted how thoughtful Dell as a company was from the time she met a senior vice president at a recruiting event. She noticed how vivacious the SVP was, and that all the people at the Dell table were friendly and welcoming. She found that to continue throughout the interviewing process, a welcome change from other companies with which she’d interviewed.
“When I went to interview, people wanted to get to know you and not just grill you for 30 minutes,” Millo said. “A lot of the other interviews that I did were very technical and that’s all that the focus was on. But with Dell, it was very different. It was more of a conversation.”
While the interview did include technical discussion, interviewers focused on getting to know Millo holistically, not just as a finance or chemistry student.
“They asked me about my two majors and that was something that they liked about me, which is usually not how it goes,” Millo said. “People more typically ask why I have two majors and if I am not interested enough in finance by itself. So it was kind of surprising that they like that about me.”
Owning the Work
Hiral Trivedi, who worked as a web application developer intern, appreciated the support from her team as well as the opportunity to create solutions on her own.
“My team wanted a web application,” she said. “They had the tables and research which they wanted in some form of a user interface, but they gave me the opportunity to design this system myself.”
She got to work on several ideas, designing a whole user interface. As she worked on the design, her team joined her to discuss what looked good and what would need additional modifications.
“It gave me the opportunity to explore even more options, more ideas, and then they always encouraged me,” she said. “They were open enough to say, ‘Okay, you can do this. We want this, but you decide how you want to do it.’”
Multiple Mentors Make Work, Life Easier
Nicole Elliott, an industrial engineering major, noted a great acclimation period during her internship. She appreciated being assigned multiple mentors, each with a unique purpose. She had a buddy from outside her work area who helped with general knowledge of working at Dell, including general HR information. In addition, she had two mentors specific to her area of work.
“Within my project, I had two mentors,” Elliott said. “One was within Internet of Things, within Quality, and another mentor was within Dell Customer Connect, within Quality as well. Both of them were very important and very helpful within my projects, and I like that they both serve different purposes on different sides of the spectrum for my projects.”
Elliott was especially excited about Internet of Things, in particular, and how it is evolving at Dell.
“You have so much data, and sifting through it and making sure that you’re only analyzing the data that is purely necessary is challenging,” she said. “All in all, this type of industrial revolution of technology is really energizing.”
Dell supports women in numerous ways, from interns to the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network. Dell salutes all women on International Women’s Day on March 8, 2017.
