Growing Confidence and Corporate Skills: My Exabeam Internship Experience

When looking for an internship, I knew I wanted to intern at a company where I felt my presence was valued. With this in mind, I was offered the incredible opportunity to intern at Exabeam this summer. These past six weeks have been filled with real-life experiences, warm conversations, and enthusiastic mentors. Today I want to share how Exabeam grows the confidence, interpersonal skills, and corporate skills of their interns. Additionally, I would like to offer what I have personally learned and what I will bring to my future jobs. 

In this article:

• First day as an ExaTern!
• Intern projects
• Takeaways
• Conclusion

First day as an ExaTern! 

Meet and greet 

I entered my first Exabeam Zoom call with an overwhelming feeling of excitement, yet apprehension, too. I found that through my worry I was met with kind and understanding people whose overarching goal was to help us learn. Our wonderful intern event manager, Meghan McCray, met us interns with a warm smile and kind words as she ran us through our internship overview. We scratched the surface of our future and heard the names of the people who would become our mentors for the next six weeks. 

Mentors 

Our newfound mentors expressed their immense amount of support and kind words. I was overwhelmed with the amount of support I received on my first day. I became extremely excited about the outlets that I had been given to learn about specific technology and become further immersed in the cybersecurity world. Here at Exabeam, everyone is assigned an ExaBuddy. I was assigned Gabby Gorys and Drew Levalley, who both work on the Account Development team. From our first introduction, they have excited me by taking the time to teach me the new technology and foreign terms. Gabby and Drew are both extremely enthusiastic about their jobs and even allowed me to sit in on sales calls and watch demos of the Exabeam Security Operations Platform. 

Overview

The six weeks that followed were filled with projects including product marketing, social media, event planning, and account development. Everyone enthusiastically offered their help and wisdom and was willing to meet with me one-on-one to offer guidance. Each intern was given a variety of projects to explore and select the ones that most sparked our interest. Because I am majoring in cybersecurity, I wanted to stick close to the projects that would help me learn more about the Exabeam products. This desire led me to the Account Development and Product Marketing teams.

Intern projects 

Account Development 

I was most interested in the Account Development project because I wanted to learn how different personas affect a company’s willingness to purchase Exabeam solutions. This project greatly helped me understand companies’ different personas and their responsibilities. Especially because of my cybersecurity major, seeing and learning about these different titles gave me a good idea of the types of jobs I could possibly apply for in the future. This project was by far the most useful and helpful for my own personal development. I learned about the sales tech stack and got an understanding of how the sales process works in the cybersecurity world. Through this project I learned to use Salesforce, Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, LeadIQ, and Outreach. These are transferable skills that will greatly help my future career. 

Product Marketing 

I was fortunate to be able to work with Exabeam Senior Manager of Product Marketing Jenelle Davis. I helped Jenelle with an airline campaign by researching different breaches among airlines. I enjoyed this project because I was empowered to do my own research. Not only did this help me develop my researching skills, but it allowed me to learn about real life breaches.

Project positives 

All of my projects here at Exabeam exposed me to new technologies that will be useful in my future jobs. I gained valuable firsthand corporate experience by conducting research, compiling information, and presenting my findings to a superior. These projects also helped me improve my presentation skills and exposed me to collaborative group work within a corporate environment. Before this experience, I had never had the opportunity to practice effectively conveying my ideas and expressing my needs within a corporate setting. 

Takeaways

Importance of mentors and networking 

As interns, we had the opportunity to engage with a handful of people over our six-week internship. We found mentors and gained real-life networking experience. We learned the importance of networking and the influential role it plays in finding our next job. Every Wednesday in the office, we interns sat down with two different Exabeam executives. We asked questions, learned about their previous jobs, and sought advice for our future careers. I appreciated being able to have a conversation with Exabeam CISO Tyler Farrar and Exabeam Director of Product Marketing Jeannie Warner. They provided insights into the tech world that had never crossed my mind before. Jeannie shared valuable advice on how to advance in the cybersecurity field and provided recommendations for entry-level positions that I should actively pursue at this stage. 

Working with my strengths 

Exabeam taught me to work with my strengths. I selected projects that aligned with my strengths and interests because I am majoring in Cybersecurity at the University of Tampa. Cybersecurity concepts and terms were not completely new to me because of my desire to have a career in cybersecurity. I was extremely interested in the products that Exabeam sells, so that led me to Account Development, where I had the opportunity to explore product demos, learn how Exabeam sells its product, and how the account development team plays a critical role in warming up a prospect in hopes of turning their interest into qualified leads. Additionally, through Product Marketing, I gained an understanding of the various markets and how Exabeam solutions work to solve their business problems and pain. 

My top takeaway 

My top takeaway from my Exabeam internship is the importance of not being afraid to learn. Almost all aspects of this internship required me to work with new technology, unfamiliar concepts, and a constant influx of new information. I had to be comfortable not knowing certain information and be willing to seek guidance from the right people or proactively learn on my own. I have always been comfortable working both independently and as part of a team, and Exabeam enabled me to practice both of these skills within a corporate environment. 

Conclusion

I will forever remember my first internship as a dynamic environment characterized by teamwork, continuous learning, and abundant opportunities. The skills I gained and the exposure to cutting-edge technology will undoubtedly guide me throughout my career. I am so grateful for the experience of being part of Exabeam and having the privilege of meeting the wonderful people who contribute to its success day to day.

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