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The Pillars of an Award-Winning Program
Splunk was selected as a 2023 Campus Forward Award Winner for their unwavering commitment to seeking out and hiring early career talent, their emphasis on diversity & inclusion, and investments in nurturing and retaining the next generation of talent. Please see below for the highlights of their approach to early career recruitment.
Demonstrated Investment in Early Career Hiring
Splunk’s mission is to remove the barriers between data and action so that everyone can thrive in the Data Age. This mission extends into its early talent programs, where Splunk is committed to recruiting, developing, and growing its diverse early talent workforce across the business. The company is continually prioritizing and investing in its early career talent programs to not only provide a world-class internship experience to Splunkterns around the world, but to also provide opportunities to build their career at Splunk. Through curated training and professional development, engaging programming and volunteering activities, and hybrid social and networking events, Splunk is passionate about investing in early talent because they bring to the table new, innovative ideas, make resounding impacts to their teams, and continue to contribute to the company’s mission of making data more accessible to its customers.
Innovative and Multi-Faceted Approach to University Recruitment
Splunk partners with colleges, universities, and organizations across the world to recruit top talent for all of its regions. This past year, the team hosted and attended over 100 university recruiting events, offering both virtual and in-person options, to showcase Splunk’s innovative technology, welcoming culture, and expansive internship, and full-time opportunities. On campus, the team hosted a variety of workshops including resume reviews, interview prep courses, hands-on Splunk product demos, hack-a-thons, and (a fan favorite) the “Boss of the SOC” event — a competition where participants leverage Splunk’s security suite to tackle a real-world security threat. Splunk also proudly partners with Year Up and the Department of Defense’s Skillbridge program to offer internship opportunities for candidates through these non-profit organizations.
Overarching Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion plays a significant role in Splunk’s culture and directly influences how it recruits and retains early talent. Splunk's campus recruitment strategy prioritizes building strong partnerships with numerous HBCUs, HSIs, and on-campus, student-run organizations like SWE. Splunk also partners with national non-profit workforce development organizations, like Year Up and HireMilitary, to better recruit underrepresented early talent from non-traditional backgrounds. Splunk’s Early Talent team works closely with its ERGs to participate in year-round events geared toward recruiting talent from underrepresented groups such as SWE, Out4Undergrad, and NSBE Conferences. In addition, in 2020, Splunk introduced the annual Splunk HBCU Scholarship Program which, to date, has awarded 20 exceptional students from HBCUs who demonstrate leadership in their field of study each with $10,000 scholarships.
Impactful Internship Program
Splunk’s year-round internship program (referred to as the “Splunktern Program'') provides interns the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in Splunk’s culture and get hands-on, real world experience. Splunk prioritizes flexible work and, for the first time ever in Summer 2022, Splunkterns were able to choose their program delivery method: either fully remote or a blended remote/in-person program experience, based on their personal needs. All Splunkterns also have the opportunity to participate in events and activities designed to augment their program experience, including Executive Lunch & Learns, Splunktern mentorship program, volunteering, social and networking events, social impact project competition, as well as numerous professional development workshops — a Splunktern favorite! Splunk’s award-winning program experience has received incredibly positive feedback from Splunkterns, including 95% ‘engagement’ and ‘likely to recommend to others’ scores.
Growth and Development of the Next Generation of Talent
Splunk understands the value and fresh perspective that entry-level hires bring to the company; therefore, it is incredibly important that their early career journey and experience is memorable, engaging, and highly impactful. In addition to working for a fast-growing, innovative company, Splunkers can expect to also receive opportunities to continuously develop and grow as professionals. The Career Mentorship Program (CaMP) matches entry-level Splunkers with mentors from across the organization to support in their career development, provide a fresh perspective, and to assist Splunkers with building relationships across the organization at all levels. A major focus for Splunk in 2023 is the continued engagement and retention of its entry-level talent, which includes the launch of Splunk’s first early-talent training program, designed to provide participants in the cohort with structured modules focused on professional development and soft-skills training, strategy, business, and technical training, and networking opportunities and social events.