From Intern to New Grad: Building Connection, Culture, and Brand

Cohesity’s intern program gives early talent real projects, mentorship, and exposure to teams across the business. Ashley Beall (People Experience Specialist) and Vaishnavi Nambiar (Product Marketing Manager) both started as interns and have joined Cohesity Full-Time as New Graduates. Here, they share what they learned along the way in their journeys as part of the People and Marketing teams. Their experiences show how early-career employees can grow into their roles by staying curious, asking questions, building relationships, and understanding how their day-to-day work connects to the bigger picture.

Building Foundation as Interns

Ashley: I spent two summers as an intern at Cohesity, so my learning came in stages. In the first summer, I focused on understanding the company, the People team, and how different parts of the business worked together. In the second, I took on more hands-on culture and brand projects, including producing a culture-focused video featuring Belonging Community Co-Leads. Both summers, I was able to explore distinct aspects of the People Team and contribute to a diverse range of projects. That variety gave me room to try different types of work and work out where my strengths were. Now, as a full-time employee, I can use those strengths more fully and take greater ownership of my projects.

Vaishnavi: Talking to people across the Marketing team was what helped me most. Early in my internship, I set up 30-minute virtual coffee chats with people on different teams to understand what they did and how they usually worked with Product Marketing. That really helped me connect to a lot of dots. I started to see how the Growth team’s campaigns helped the content we created reach customers, or how Sales used those same materials in conversations that supported the business. Getting to know the people behind each piece made it easier to understand where my own work would fit into the business. I’ve now been full-time for almost two years, and I work on product messaging, launches, and content across our data protection and AI portfolio. A big part of my role is working with Product Management, Sales, and the wider Marketing team to help customers understand what our products can do for them and give our sellers the tools to have those conversations.

Learning Through Real Contributions

Ashley: Starting a new role as a recent college graduate comes with a learning curve, and small moments of support, clarity, and connection make a real difference. I feel lucky to have played a part in that employee experience as an intern, and to keep shaping it now. One of my favorite ways to do that is working with interns and early talent across the company to create content for our brand, such as a video initiative featuring the SPARC team, which was posted on external social channels for targeted sales hiring. That work has taught me how storytelling, community, and culture come together to help people feel welcomed, supported, and excited to be part of Cohesity.

Vaishnavi: One project that stood out was working on messaging and objection-handling materials for Cohesity’s integration with Cisco XDR. It was early in my internship and I was still learning the industry, so I had to think through what it is that the customers were trying to solve, what questions they might have, and what could make them hesitant to try the integration. Working through those questions with my manager and the rest of  my team helped me understand how much sits behind something as simple as a sales email or an answer to a customer’s concern. They shared their experience and gave me feedback that helped me keep improving the material. Being included in that process and getting to contribute while I was still figuring things out, made me feel like part of the team.

Connecting the Work to Real Impact

Ashley: One of my biggest learnings so far is that growth often comes from staying curious, being creative, and taking the time to understand how my work connects to the larger organization.  One of my biggest learning moments was in my first few weeks full time, when I supported Sales Kickoff as part of the event staff. Onsite, I found that asking questions, building relationships, and looking for ways to make the experience better for others can make for the best growth opportunities. Roles that support employees behind the scenes are not always the most visible, but have real impact. What makes this stage of my career so exciting is knowing that there is still so much more to learn, explore, and contribute.

Vaishnavi: It took me a little while to connect the work I was doing to its impact on customers. With a physical product, like a phone, it’s easy to see how someone uses it and why it matters. Cybersecurity was a completely new industry for me. Things started to click when I thought about hospitals and banks, where even an hour of downtime can disrupt services people depend on. That’s when I understood that what we do isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have. I started to see our role as a last line of defense, helping organizations protect their data, recover, and get back to the work people rely on them for. Once I understood that human impact, I could tell the story of resilience much better. For me, telling Cohesity’s story starts with understanding why it matters to the person on the other side.

Key Takeaways

• Internships create pathways. Real projects, mentorship, and room to explore can help early talent build the confidence and skills to grow into full-time roles.

• Growth comes through connection. Asking questions, building relationships, and contributing hands-on helps new grads understand where their strengths can make the greatest impact.

• Purpose powers impact. When early talent understands the people and outcomes behind the work, they can contribute with greater intention and ownership.

Ashley and Vaishnavi may be in different teams, but their paths began the same way: with real work, colleagues willing to share what they knew, and room to ask questions. Two summers in the People Team gave Ashley the confidence to understand her strengths and take ownership of her own projects, and early coffee chats gave Vaishnavi the context to see where her work fits. Now that they have joined Cohesity full time, they continue to seek out new ideas and connections, and bring the knowledge they built as interns to bring to their new roles.

Interested in starting your career at Cohesity? Explore our internship and early talent opportunities.