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Lessons and stories from three Cognizant interns

a collage of a group of people

Cognizant interns all over the world walk into our offices, dive deep into their projects and head back to campus a few months later to continue their learning journey. Our interns bring so much more than youthful energy—they bring insightful ideas that help us deliver better to our clients. 

For this National Intern Day, we sat down with two of our interns and one former intern-turned-new grad to hear what they've learned from their Cognizant experiences.

Manya Kaushal: feeling like a true colleague

Manya Kaushal
Manya (on the right) during intern orientation

  • Role: Technical Solutions Intern 

  • Location: Arizona, USA 

Walk us through your summer project. I built two tools that clean up messy documentation and help my team analyze data more easily. I'm proud of how much I’ve done these past nine weeks! 

What does a day-to-day look like in your role? My workday starts bright and early with a standup call with my mentor to discuss my summer project. From there, I lock into work until it’s time to grab lunch with other interns. In the afternoon, I dive back into work, taking meetings and occasional breaks (shoutout to our coffee machine and the views from the office!) before wrapping up for the day. 

What was the highlight of your internship? Presenting in front of our leaders was nerve-wracking, but exciting! Coming from a college environment, it was encouraging to see decision-makers take an intern's ideas so seriously. 

Marc Zhang: experimenting with AI

two men holding plates of food
Marc (on the left) during a consulting hackathon

  • Role: Business Analyst Consulting Intern 

  • Location: Toronto, Canada 

Walk us through your summer project. I built an agentic AI tool that analyzes business requirement documents and tells our consulting team which people and systems need change management. Getting to build with AI this summer was an incredible learning experience! 
 
What's one thing you couldn't have gotten through the summer without? Claude, hands down. It was my thinking partner, helping me brainstorm, build slide decks and so much more. 

Share one tip for incoming interns. Network with everyone you can. People here are genuinely open to a coffee chat, and those conversations taught me lessons I’ll take with me throughout my career.

Bhendon Carvalho: from intern to Cognizant associate

Bhendon
Bhendon (farthest right) and his team in São Paulo

  • Role: Junior Developer Analyst 

  • Location: São Paulo, Brazil 

What was the highlight of your internship? Seeing my team get a shoutout in the Cognizant Brazil newsletter after we successfully delivered a project. It felt good to be recognized by my leaders and it felt even better knowing that my work made a difference for our client and their customers. 

Congrats on securing a full-time role after interning at Cognizant! How were you able to make that jump? As an intern, I built trusting relationships with my team by saying “yes” to every challenge and always sharing my own ideas. Building on Marc’s advice, I also made an effort to connect with people outside my immediate team, which helped me grow my network and get on more people's radar. 

My advice to any intern reading this: stay curious, don't be afraid to lean on the people around you, and remember everyone you look up to started exactly where you are. 

Discover your potential at Cognizant  
Every intern's journey looks a little different, but the throughline remains: real projects, real impact, real growth. If that sounds like the internship you're after, come meet us at your next career fair and explore our students and new grad opportunities.

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