The beginning of a career comes with a lot of questions. What kind of work excites you? Where do your strengths fit? What can you learn from the people around you? And, perhaps most importantly, where could you go from here?
At AvePoint, our summer internship program gives early-career talent the opportunity to explore potential career paths through meaningful projects, mentorship, and collaboration with teams across our global business.
This year, our interns came together for a two-day summit to cap off their summer with us. Designed around a simple idea – Start Here, Grow Here – the experience gave them a chance to step outside their day-to-day roles, connect with one another, learn from AvePoint leaders and employees, and think about what comes next.
Connecting Beyond Their Teams
Throughout the summer, interns work closely with the teams they join, contributing to real projects and gaining hands-on experience in their fields. The summit gave them an opportunity to widen that lens.
Over two days split between AvePoint's Jersey City headquarters and newly expanded New York City office, interns connected with peers from across the business, met leaders outside their immediate teams, and learned more about the people and functions that make AvePoint work.
The summit began with a welcome from AvePoint's Chief Product Officer and included conversations with leaders and employees from across AvePoint, alongside plenty of opportunities to build relationships more informally, from exploring New York City together to dinner and happy hour.
Those connections are an important part of the experience. Early in a career, understanding how different teams collaborate – and getting to know the people behind the work – can be just as valuable as the experience gained within your own function.
Learning From People Who Started Here, Too
For interns considering what their professional future might look like, some of the most valuable perspectives came from people who had already made the journey.
AvePoint employees who began their careers shared how their own journeys unfolded, from navigating their first full-time roles to taking on new responsibilities and opportunities across the business.
Their stories reinforced an important lesson: There isn't one prescribed path from internship to career.
Growth can come through the work you take on, the relationships you build, the questions you ask, and the willingness to keep learning.
And for our current interns, it was a chance to see that an internship at AvePoint doesn't have to be an isolated summer experience. It can be the beginning of something much bigger.
Putting New Skills Into Practice
The summit wasn't only about listening and learning. Interns also had opportunities to work together, exchange ideas, and put the skills they'd developed throughout the summer into practice.
Through collaborative projects, group discussions, and conversations with employees across AvePoint, interns practiced communicating ideas, working across different perspectives, asking thoughtful questions, and presenting their work with confidence.
These are skills that extend far beyond any single role or internship. They help early-career professionals navigate the workplace, contribute to teams, and adapt as new opportunities arise.
Start Here, Grow Here
An internship is a starting point. What comes after it can take many forms.
For our interns, this summer was a chance to contribute to meaningful work, learn from people at different stages of their careers, build relationships across AvePoint, and leave with a clearer sense of where their own interests and ambitions might take them.
For some, starting here may eventually mean growing here, too. Many AvePoint employees have turned an internship into the first chapter of a longer career with the company, taking on new roles, responsibilities, and challenges along the way.
Wherever our interns go next, we hope their summer at AvePoint gave them something worth carrying forward: meaningful connections, greater confidence, and a stronger sense of what's possible.
Ready to start your own career journey? Explore internship and early-career opportunities at AvePoint and see where starting here could take you.