6-minute read - by Brittney Wolff Zatezalo, September 29, 2020
It’s been anything but normal this summer – from canceled vacations to lost jobs. With everyone’s plans constantly changing or uncertain, ASML felt compelled more than ever to honor its commitment to college students selected for its US summer internship program. The team quickly transitioned to a fully online format within four weeks, welcoming 90 interns from 54 different schools who would work remotely for ASML from 20 different states.
A virtual engineering internship presents many unique challenges and opportunities. But ASML’s US Lead for University Relations Melissa Mena made it her mission this summer to make it work for everyone. She quickly convened an intern advisory board of leaders and hiring managers from each site to secure engagement and develop new projects that would work online, without an intern ever having to step foot in an ASML office.
“At first it was hard for me to imagine a meaningful project to give interns who I expected to physically work within our group in the factory,” shares Mike Perry, senior engineering manager in Wilton, Connecticut. and one of the strongest skeptics on the intern advisory board. “But then I had this aha moment. This is nonnegotiable. We can’t cancel the intern program and the students need to have a good experience.”
What resulted was a 12-week remote internship program with a heightened focus on professional development, as well as sharing broader insights about everything ASML does beyond each intern’s competency area or location assignment.
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During his first term, Jason found it fulfilling to work on a project that would have a major impact on the machine itself. “But I was surprised to find how much communication and human interactions were involved in engineering. I spent half my time talking with other people to get insights into the machine and certain concepts to complete my job,” shares Jason.
And that made it all the more difficult when his journey with ASML unexpectedly shifted to a fully virtual internship. Summer was much more challenging. It became harder to reach people, but he quickly realized the people involved were the same – COVID just changed the way he could reach and interact with them.
“Prior to the pandemic, I met lots of people early in their careers at ASML and enjoyed various social activities outside of work. I also remember one day a very busy senior architect even cut his lunch short to take me down to the lab to discuss ideas and tackle a challenging problem together.”
“When we pivoted to remote work, I missed these types of interactions the most. Yet I quickly discovered all the people involved were still as friendly, approachable and collaborative as before. The human element is still there no matter what, and nothing can take away that spirit,” summarizes Jason.
“The human element is still there no matter what, and nothing can take away that spirit.”
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“It was very rewarding to work on one part of the machine that you recognize will have a big impact on the world.”
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But while her project and program’s format changed this summer, Noelle appreciated the fact that the diversity of experiences and perspectives remained intact. She discovered colleagues with common interests, such as robotics, and was able to learn new concepts to apply for her future work in the lab back at school.
