Meet Our Interns
Abbott provides an exciting opportunity to explore the health care industry. As a PharmD intern in Regulatory Affairs, I was given an opportunity to develop meaningful projects that used my background and made a lasting impact in the department. In addition, I spoke with pharmacists at Abbott to learn from their life experiences and view of various roles for pharmacists in the industry.
As an intern at Abbott, you are surrounded by intelligent employees who will help you succeed by offering their advice, encouragement and support. Clearly, Abbott invests heavily in the next generation of employees by providing an internship that encourages you to reach your potential through a range of networking, social and philanthropic events.
In my current assignment at Abbott Vascular in Temecula, California, I’ve been managing an initiative to decrease the cycle time of shipments between our U.S. and non-U.S. Distribution Centers by three days. My project has provided the opportunity to work with our international sites in Clonmel, Ireland, and in Maastricht, Netherlands, as well as with our U.S. sites in Northern and Southern California. Before coming to Abbott, I never thought I would get such wonderful and enriching opportunities, as well as exposure to multiple facilities.
Abbott’s internship program is much more than just a summer job; it is an excellent opportunity to develop your professional, interpersonal and leadership skills. Few internship programs provide hands-on technical experience, as well as great exposure and networking opportunities with senior leaders (including Abbott’s CEO, Miles White).
Abbott’s culture is definitely its best asset, specifically for its diversity and endless growth opportunities. Abbott has a wide range of diverse businesses (nutrition, pharmaceutical, diagnostics and medical devices) and the diversity of its people is incredible. This is not only represented by the interns Abbott hires, but also by the full-time employees across the company. An opportunity to grow is one of the most important qualities a company can have and programs such as the Professional and Management Development Programs are a great example of Abbott’s commitment to growth.
I would like to encourage young students seeking an accelerated learning and growth experience to apply to Abbott’s internship program. It will exceed every expectation.
My intern experience so far has been amazing. My assignment manager has been a huge factor in my positive experience because of his involvement in my work and in my success at the company. What makes the internship even better are all the events that are planned to help us network with a variety of people. It helps us get to know our fellow interns and the Professional Development Programs (PDP) in our areas, and allows us to just have fun.
I had a great Assignment Manager, Director of my area and PDP buddy (mentor). The combination of having a strong support system during my internship made me feel like I was able to participate and help make decisions that impacted the projects in which I was working. My opinion and input were valued and taken into account. There were several occasions when my assignment manager would call me into his office to get my input on a decision he was making or ask for my help with research or a presentation. I felt like a real employee instead of the stereotypical "summer intern," which spoke volumes about my manager and his dedication to the intern program. It was interactions like this with my manager, as well as other people in my area, that helped make my internship meaningful and fulfilling.
My biggest piece of advice for current students seeking an internship at Abbott is to come to the internship with an open mind, ready to meet people and have fun. Being able to get to know the people with whom I work makes coming to work even better because it feels more like a family instead of just working with acquaintances. I also feel like I have had such a fun summer because I started the internship wanting to meet and make friends with as many people as I could and with whom I could stay in touch after the internship was done.
I chose to intern with Abbott because Abbott is a well-respected, differentiated company doing great things for the health care industry. It’s important to me to work for a company that is truly helping people and changing lives. I was also especially drawn to how organized and well-respected Abbott’s internship program is.
The Abbott internship program provides various opportunities to the interns. It gives us the opportunity to experience different parts of the country and different areas of the business. As a returning intern, I have worked in two different divisions and two different states. I spent one summer in Columbus, Ohio, with Abbott Nutrition (AN) and another in North Chicago, Illinois, working with Global Pharmaceutical Operations (GPO). During my most recent internship, I worked on a project that will help build the knowledge-base for one of Abbott’s tablet manufacturing processes. My project involved a lot of method development and hands-on experience working in the lab. I’ve learned a lot about how drugs are manufactured, as well as all the steps in-between the Research and Development stages and the final stages of manufacturing. I enjoy working hands-on with Abbott product and equipment. As a mechanical engineering student working in a very chemical engineering role, I was challenged every day to learn how to use new instruments and techniques. I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn and work with new concepts that I would not have had the opportunity to experience otherwise.
My experiences in Abbott’s internship program differentiate me from other students because it has given me exposure to multiple aspects of the health care business so that I have a well-rounded feel for the daily operations of a large company. Abbott also does a great job of challenging their interns to work on projects in which they may have no experience. This challenging environment has helped me expand my knowledge as an engineer and has given me experience in managing difficult tasks.
My advice to current students seeking an internship at Abbott is to stay open-minded about what Abbott may have in store for you. There are so many opportunities within Abbott that you may end up working on a project that really stretches your skills. Let Abbott’s internship program take you out of your comfort zone and challenge you to grow as both an intern and as a leader.
Since I started my career, I have been very clear of what I wanted. Abbott has given me the opportunity to start my career in a large company within the department for which I have specialized, which is Marketing and Sales. I also have been provided with an overview of other departments, some of which were totally unknown to me. I discovered that, despite being both professionally and personally directed to the area of Marketing, I would also like to work in these other areas as well.
My time this year at Abbott has allowed me to apply everything I have learned, and has confirmed my passion for the world of Marketing. Moreover, the position I hold continuously demands daily contact with suppliers and staff from virtually all internal departments. So, apart from giving me a broader view of business development, this internship has also taught me the importance of teamwork and has greatly enriched me both professionally and personally.
The most appreciated aspect of being an intern at Abbott is, without a doubt, the trust placed upon me by my manager. From the beginning, I was actively involved in all projects working closely with suppliers, participating in the design of materials and attending conferences both locally and nationally. These are experiences that have made me a more complete professional, more effective and confident.
I also greatly appreciate the good working atmosphere that permeates the division in which I am based. Additionally, I appreciate the understanding of all my colleagues, both divisional and team, whom I have learned from continuously since the first day.
After starting my undergraduate internship experience in the health care industry with another company, I was confident that this was the industry in which I wanted to work. While my previous experience was valuable, I knew that diversifying my professional practice would be of value to my development.
I discovered Abbott through a chance conversation with a recent alumnus of my undergraduate program who related her experiences from the previous summer as an Abbott intern. She also mentioned being hired on to Abbott’s Professional and Management Development Program (PDP/MDP). In her description, she spoke of the ability of PDP/MDPs to be able to rotate to different divisions within the company in her function every six months for two years. This provided her the ability to gather a breadth of work experiences while also expanding her professional network of contacts in a way that might take an average individual several more jobs and subsequently several more years to do.
After this conversation and with research on my own, it became abundantly clear to me that Abbott was committed to the development of its talent in a way that very few companies in the world may be able to match. Due to this, coupled with Abbott’s diverse product lines that seek to improve the health of individuals on a global scale, it struck me that Abbott isn’t a place to just get a job; it is a place to grow a career.
An Abbott internship provides you with something that not every other internship can guarantee: 12 weeks of valuable work. It isn’t work meant to “keep you busy,” but work that would otherwise be done by a professional if an intern was unavailable.
My manager with Abbott provided me with a list of projects that were at a professional level. These projects challenged me to balance my time, prioritize tasks and establish connections within my division in a way that school and other professional practices with a different company were unable to match. Through this experience, I not only became a valuable contributor to my team, I also gained a life-long mentor in the process. My manager provided me with the projects that gave me the right background and confidence to walk into any entry-level position within my field and be successful.
