Letter from our CEO

Rocket has had a summer internship program for several years now, but in the last few years we’ve kicked it up to the next level. This summer (at least, it’s summer here in Waltham) we’re welcoming 50 students around the world to spend several months as Rocketeers. While they’re here, our interns will be integrated with Rocket teams and will do real work. We don’t believe in just having them do "intern projects."

So why do we have an internship program, and why is it so closely aligned with our values? A core mission of Rocket is to extend the value of our customers’ and partners’ technology stacks - including IBM i, Z, and other platforms. That can’t happen unless there’s a next generation of programmers, engineers and architects who know (and love) these systems. And there truly is no better place to get real-world experience on this technology than right here at Rocket. We're all in on these platforms because they do amazing things and are at the heart of everything from banking to air travel to utilities.

One of our real success stories is an intern named Jordan Filteau. Jordan came to us in the summer of 2016 after his sophomore year at Framingham State University. Rocket has a deep relationship with the school (it’s one of the flagship schools of the IBM System z Academic Initiative), and a number of our interns come from there. Jordan worked on our Cloud API product, and it was such a good experience that he came back the following summer for a second internship working on a configuration wizard for AT-TLS.

When the summer ended, Jordan kept a desk in our Waltham headquarters and continued working with his team part time. And next month he’ll be coming on board as a full-time Rocketeer, joining our team of younger mainframers who are fundamentally transforming how these incredible machines deliver value to their users every day.

As Jordan says, "Internships at Rocket don't give busy work, so you are actually contributing to the company. It's a great feeling of accomplishment. You learn a lot while you're working from both other interns and employees. The working environment at Rocket is welcoming for interns and there is always someone able to help. There are so many Rocketeers who have supported me and other interns – there are really too many to name."

This really is a microcosm of the Rocket story: People helping other people, people learning and teaching, people becoming part of a team, and people building great software. And it all comes back to the platforms that we have loved and supported since…well, since before Jordan was born.

Andrew J. Youniss
President and CEO, Rocket Software, Inc.