A Pandemic-Proof MBA Internship: Insights from a Virtual Summer at Salesforce

I put down the phone and threw my hands in the air, looking out the window on the bright April afternoon. My Salesforce recruiting contact had just extended me an offer to join the Large Enterprise Customer Success team as a Summer 2020 MBA intern. Not only was I receiving this news while the internship plans of many of my classmates were being cancelled or altered due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the opportunity was with a company I had long admired in my pre-business school role in non-profit fundraising. I felt extremely fortunate.

The fortuitous feeling continued when I started work in late May. I was directed to help roll out a system to standardize and better measure the diverse engagements that Salesforce’s Success Managers carry out with their customers. My role was to leverage Salesforce’s wealth of data and analytical platforms to build business intelligence tools that could convey the impact of the project to Customer Success leadership. The project gave me the chance to further hone my analytical skills and connect with colleagues across Salesforce’s ecosystem, all without leaving my living room!

Even before the pandemic, the Salesforce work-from-home contingent was already a vibrant, interconnected community, and my sojourn as a member allowed me a preview into what an increasingly common tech industry role could look like. Remote working does present its challenges. I found myself constantly wondering if I was forming strong connections with my colleagues without the reinforcement of face-to-face interactions, and even though they are just a quick chat away, learning the ropes in a new role is even more challenging when you lose the ability to drop by a teammate’s desk with a quick question.

What you gain in an all-virtual environment are more opportunities for quiet thinking—even if only in the few minutes between video calls. I started spending this time reviewing what exact questions I needed answered from the upcoming meeting, in order to minimize the need for more scheduled calendar time later. I found it beneficial to resist the urge to try to pack work into every gap in my day; on the contrary a quick mediation or push-up break was much more conducive to my overall productivity. In my mind, we shouldn’t be trying to replicate the office experience, we should be optimizing for remote working!

Another virtue of being part of the first all-virtual Futureforce internship class during a summer surrounded by heightened energy and uncertainty was the opportunity this unique moment provided for learning and reflection. From my first day, I was completely immersed in almost-daily events ranging from wellbeing breaks, weekly all-hands calls with Salesforce leadership, and fireside chats with global thought leaders (three of my favorite speakers were Mellody Hobson, Ibram Kendi, and Matt Mullenweg). These company-wide events disseminated into my everyday interactions with the Salesforce community, and I was constantly impressed by my colleagues’ willingness to have open discussions about substantive topics. To top it off, the Futureforce team made sure we had plenty of fun as well, organizing virtual scavenger hunts, a wine tasting, a pizza making class, and countless other opportunities to bond with my fellow interns. 

Anyone who has visited Salesforce’s website or watched a Dreamforce video will see how deeply the company values the concept of ‘Ohana, a Hawaiian term meaning extended family. At the beginning of my internship, I could tell how much the ‘Ohana meant to my colleagues, but felt a bit removed from the community while working alone from my apartment. After four months as an intern, I felt completely welcomed, and I’m already planning how I can embrace the culture of giving back by taking a leadership role in Earthforce (one of Salesforce’s employee-run Equality Groups committed to sustainability) and organizing volunteer time off events with my colleagues if I had the chance to join the ‘Ohana after finishing school.

The first year of my MBA studies reinforced my desire to maximize the long-term impact I can make in my career, and my internship revealed how at a company as innovative and forward-thinking as Salesforce, the ways to make a positive difference in and outside of your core roles are endless. Executive leaders like Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor constantly stress how business needs to be the greatest force for global change, and during my summer as a member of the ‘Ohana, I felt that is the north star that guides Salesforce’s strategy. With all the urgent challenges facing our planet, we need good corporate citizens like Salesforce to lead the way.