Internship Spotlight – Lauryn Mattson, Nike

Lauryn Mattson is an Accounting Major who will graduate in May of 2019.  She interned for Nike as the HR Talent Acquisition Intern in Beaveton, Oregon.

How did you get this internship? I applied to the internship through the sports marketing program with athletics. Since the University of Arizona and Nike have a partnership, a few student-athletes get the opportunity to apply to the internship program each year. I was fortunate enough to also meet, Manny Espinoza, a UofA alum and Nike employee. He came to speak during one of my management classes and I had the chance to introduce myself and stay in touch with him. He works in Diversity and Inclusion at Nike, so he helped me get connected with HR.

What was a typical day like? A typical day for me at Nike consisted of spending time meeting with individuals in many different departments of the company, working on my intern projects, and working on the job requisitions that I got to own for my team. A job requisition is basically a job position that is open somewhere in the company and I got to create job postings and job offers for retail positions.

What was your favorite part of the experience? Nike has an unbelievable internship program, filled with many opportunities for us to mingle and get to know other interns. We got to go white water rafting and to a Timber’s (professional soccer team in Portland) game all together as interns.

If you worked on a big project, please describe it below: I got to work on two big projects this summer. My individual project was working on and Onboarding plan for all of Talent Acquisition (TA). I got to meet with many different teams in TA and listen to what they had to say about onboarding. I then created a plan and ideas for how onboarding should look in the future. It was very rewarding work to help out TA as a whole.

My second project I worked on was my intern project. We were put in teams a seven interns and assigned a project to work on. My team got a project focusing on Football Brand Marketing, so we designed a plan on how to connect non student-athletes at college with Nike and football.

What did you find most challenging about your internship? I knew coming into Nike that there is a lot of ambiguity with the work that you do, and you have to manage your own space well to stay on track. At the beginning I was very lost in my projects, but quickly learned to ask a lot of questions and trust my ideas.

What advice do you have for other students looking for a similar internship? My best advice to give to other students looking for an internship at Nike or other large corporate companies is to truly be yourself when interviewing for the position. Not only is the company interviewing you, but you should be interviewing them as well. Ask them questions and make sure you don’t get caught up in all of the fancy intern perks. I would say to really make sure that your passions and ambitions align with the company you are going after.

How did Eller prepare you for your internship? During my internship with Nike I had to make slide decks and give presentations. It was beneficial to have taken classes, like BCOM, to prepare me for presentations and how to speak in front of leaders.

Did your internship employer provide housing or transportation assistance? My employer provided the resources I needed for securing housing and transportation.