AmCham Macedonia Summer 2015 (Issue 46) | Page 13

ANALYSIS At OKTA, Internships are a Win-Win OKTA runs an internship program because it benefits both students and the company. As part of its corporate strategy, the company collaborates with higher education institutions in this way. For the second year in a row, OKTA shares its knowledge and experience with students, making a significant contribution to their personal and professional development. Students are recruited from 10 relevant university faculties, then OKTA staff assess their enthusiasm, ambition, as well as their desire to learn and build their career. Selected students accept a full-time professional engagement that lasts 3 months, where the company provides transportation and meals, as well as some additional financial compensation. Most importantly, students are then assigned a mentor, one of OKTA’s department managers. Besides overseeing and tutoring, the mentors continuously monitor their engagement and development of their performance and skills. “Speaking from experience, our mentors are quite satisfied with students’ knowledge and potential in the fields in which they are interning. We strive to create an atmosphere which will enable interns to easily adjust to our organizational culture and be productive. We want to transfer our experience and expertise to the interns via participation in concrete projects and tasks that are relevant to the company as well as to their professional development. During the internship, mentors continuously monitor the professional progress of the interns and educate, advise and support them in their work. We believe that this program helps students develop their skills and gives them self-confidence for their future professional challenges,” says Katerina Solevska, OKTA’s Human Resources Manager. In accordance with its corporate social responsibility strategy, the company continues to develop the program both to increase its learning value to students, but also to identify suitable candidates who could join the OKTA team, when the need arises. Through the program, company management has met a significant number of great students with the potential to suit company needs; four of whom are already part of the OKTA team! Monika Uler Zefikj is one of the interns who, after completing the program, accepted a job offer at OKTA. Monica’s