Meet Team UPS

Q&A with Zane

What attracted you to UPS?

The opportunities. On the corporate side there are a lot of opportunities to work in a variety of departments. I was really interested in working in marketing or HR and there were a lot of summer internships open that were really intriguing. There are roles for engineering, communication, and sales students as well.

At a high level, can you tell us about your internship role?

I’m currently a Diversity and Inclusion intern and part of my role is to facilitate a meeting with panelists to discuss diversity, equity, and inclusion within the company and in the Business Resource Groups. Another responsibility is to revamp our internal legacy of diversity catalog, which describes UPS’s diversity and inclusion initiatives, history, and plans for the future. I’m modernizing it to showcase the Business Resource Groups and working on making it digital.

What has your internship/co-op given you the opportunity to learn so far?

I’ve learned about public speaking, which is a bit different coming from someone in DEI. Leading a 125-person meeting, I had to conduct myself virtually and in-person in front of a large crowd. Something else I’ve learned is all the opportunities that we have as a company, including the Business Resource Groups (BRGs), which I didn’t really know much about during my first internship. I went to the African American BRG meeting in the corporate headquarters and it was a lot of fun.

Share some tips for making the most of your UPS internship, such as networking with other interns and learning about the company’s culture.

For networking with other interns, the easiest thing to do that speaks volumes is putting an invitation on another intern’s calendar. When networking among the interns we’re all in the same boat. We’re all a little nervous and not sure what to expect but we’re all in this together. Creating a meeting—or even walking up to someone’s cube in person and sitting down—and having a conversation is a big opportunity. Networking in general has helped move my own project forward because I can get other people’s advice and expertise. A lot of it is asking around putting yourself out there.

What do you enjoy the most about UPS’s company culture?

We don’t approach things from a hierarchy standpoint. Managers and directors are more than willing to talk to the interns, specialists, and supervisors. Everyone can approach each other. The people who are willing to put themselves out there can really benefit from the connections you can make. The company and the employees are looking to help in any way possible and the only way they can help is by you asking.

In what ways has your work felt meaningful thus far in your internship?

My work has felt meaningful because the project that I’m working on right now isn’t going to be thrown to the side or something short term. The legacy of diversity catalog is going to distributed across the company for thousands of people to see. The trust that my team has in me gives me the chance to show my abilities and come up with something great. It not only looks good on my resume but gives me so much experience in learning about the company culture and reaching hundreds of thousands of people once it’s published on our website.

What are your career goals? How do you feel your internship will positively impact your career goals?

Short term my goal is to get as much internship experience as possible and seeing what I like. I want to do hands on work and figure out what to do as a specialty. Long term, I’d like to be a professional with UPS, whether that’s in HR, marketing, or communications. Anywhere that I can get an opportunity to get my foot in the door and work my way up. I’ve worked a few internships here and have different takeaways from each. This internship showed me the importance of making connections in person that aren’t just the surface level— building connection and trust with others.

What separates UPS’s internship program from the other internship opportunities you looked into?

The number of opportunities! We hire about 500 interns every summer and that’s way more than most companies. UPS is recognized as one of the top 50 companies in the world and we put a lot of resources into the internship program. That’s what got me to UPS in the first place—being interested and seeing the variety of internship positions. I was able to come back because UPS has a great promote-from-within culture. They like to keep interns and help get them up that corporate ladder.