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The Pillars of an Award-Winning Program
Visa Inc. 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
Visa is passionate about investing in its internship program because it believes interns are going to be the next generation of leaders at Visa. The business has committed to leveraging the internship program as a way to pipeline talent for entry-level positions. Each year, Visa develops a robust program for interns across different areas of the business. Visa is passionate about refining the skillsets of interns in hopes they will return as entry-level employees after they graduate. Visa recognizes that investing in talent means providing career development, mentorship, and executive coaching from early careers onward.
Innovative and Multi-Faceted Approach to University Recruitment
Visa uses both digital and in-person attraction techniques to ensure it is reaching as many candidates as possible. While Visa has partner schools and recruiters who are aligned to those schools, Visa also has dedicated digital sourcers who work with platforms such as WayUp, Forage, and RippleMatch to engage with students who attend universities all over the country. Visa is committed to engaging with students through workshops on interview skills such as elevator pitches, the STAR method, and nailing a technical interview, as well as panels on topics such as microaggressions in the workplace, being out and proud in the workplace, and executive speaker series and social events.
Overarching Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
Visa celebrates a culture of inclusion throughout its internship program in a number of ways. Visa offers an external speaker series called Brave and Different, where it invites activists and content creators that young people are familiar with to have frank intersectional conversations about disadvantage, difference, and diversity. Interns also participate in a consulting workshop and are asked to use their new consulting skills to help charities and NGOs with a diversity focus. Visa’s Chief Diversity Officer has a fireside chat with the CEO of Kinly about how both organizations are driving financial inclusion. Finally, interns are invited to collaborate and participate in all ERG activities, such as marching in Visa-sponsored Pride events all across the country.
Impactful Internship Program
Visa’s internship program components fall across four key areas: Career and Personal Development, Skills Training, Visa Knowledge, and Fun. Its “YOUniqueness, Accepted Everywhere” workshop is a one-of-a-kind personal brand workshop run by professional actors who encourage interns to reflect on what is unique about them and bring it to life using storytelling techniques. Plus, Visa’s skill-development workshops in AI Coding, Data Analytics, and Deal Negotiations are open to all. Visa has a unique and diverse business model, offering a range of opportunities to learn more about the business through webinars and exploration. Visa’s Tech Talks give interns insights into its technologies and fintech acquisitions to drive the future of payments, and its Global Social Impact Competition encourages interns to work in interdisciplinary teams to dream up solutions to support communities during humanitarian crises. Visa also has a wide range of opportunities for interns to get to know each other, have fun and network.
Growth and Development of the Next Generation of Talent
Visa invests in its new employees’ development and success in a multitude of ways. At Visa, the philosophy is to grow everyone, everywhere. To start, each new employee goes through a robust training program put on by Visa University. Every new employee is also assigned to a Visa Buddy who serves as an additional resource who can be utilized to grow their network and career at Visa. Visa has always encouraged its employees to apply for new roles within the business and has recently done away with previous tenure requirements. Each year, Visa asks its employees to set goals for themselves. The current categories employees use to set goals for career growth are: sharpen, deepen, and broaden. Additionally, Visa offers an education reimbursement stipend, a course on “Unlocking Your Career”, as well as opportunities to split time on a different internal team known as a “Go Share”.