Summer Internship Program

The Avanade team honored their commitment to their 55 summer 2020 interns by converting to a virtual program and delivering an exceptional hands-on, real-world consulting experience. Leveraging their expertise in modern workplace design, Avanade quickly adapted their onboarding, training and project work to an online experience. By week 2 of the program, interns were already diving into a client project based on their expressed interests and background. Outside of designated projects, interns were integrated into Avanade’s community through Avanade’s Buddy Program, Tech Talk Tuesdays, and the Weekly Leadership Townhall.

Virtual Recruitment

In previous years, in-person careers fairs and info sessions made up a large share of Avanade’s early talent recruiting strategy. With the shift to online recruiting, the Avanade early career team worked hard to create a virtual recruitment and onboarding process that resembled the pre-COVID-19 experience. The team embraced virtual events and information sessions to help candidates learn more about Avanade before and during the application process, including offering a robust set of events in partnership with their diverse Employee Networks. 

Candidate Experience

From application to offer, each candidate had one contact who supported them throughout the entire process, helping them feel more confident and comfortable during this unprecedented time. Avanade also provided robust resources for candidates to prepare for interviews, including a group session led by a recruiter where candidates were provided with interview prep information. After the offer was made, Avanade continued their personalized candidate experience by scheduling 1:1 coffee chats with buddies, virtual get-togethers with future employees, plenty of swag, and personalized onboarding plans for each new team member.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Avanade team approached university recruitment with an intentionality around inclusion and belonging, leveraging the new virtual world to remove geographic and academic barriers to connect with a broad diverse student population. One of their most impressive accomplishments this past fall was hosting five virtual campus info sessions and panels amplifying the voices of their consultants from underrepresented communities to engage with talented candidates from similar underrepresented communities and backgrounds. The Avanade team was able to source and invite over 5,000 students from 300 schools, specifically targeting HBCUs, HSIs, and organizations representing Women in STEM and the LGBTQ+ community.