Oh hai, Summer of Tech!

Hi everyone, my name is Trent Mankelow and I am very pleased to be taking over from Ruth as CEO of Summer of Tech for the year, while she is on maternity leave.My association with Summer of Tech goes back a decade. I helped found a company called Optimal Workshop, and in 2009 we decided to hire a computer science student through a programme called Summer of Code (as it was known then). Ten years later, and Ross is still working for Optimal Workshop in what has to be the longest summer ever!My association with Summer of Tech hasn't stopped there. My most recent experience was working for Trade Me, who in 2018 programme hired 18 Summer of Tech interns (one of which I sat next to - hi Matt!)One thing I've particularly loved about Summer of Tech is the focus on the students, partly because my own grad recruitment experience was a bit one-sided. I accepted a role in the graduate programme at Unisys in late 1999, because they were the first ones to come to campus and I thought, 'this will be a good chance to practice CV writing.' When they made me an offer, I wasn't sure what to do, given that they were the one and only company that I had talked to. (I ended up saying yes).Compare my grad recruitment experience to Summer of Tech, where not only do we ensure that students get a chance to compare and contrast lots and lots of different employers (83 in our 2018 cohort), we also do our best to support them through the process with 50 'bootcamps' that teach softer, non-technical skills like how to prepare for an interview or write a CV. We had nearly 1,000 students attend our bootcamps across the country.I'm looking forward to the year ahead, and am particularly excited about growing the number of Auckland internships and Wellington-based marketing and HR internships. (I'm excited about all of our work, just those two things in particular are stand-outs!).I'm looking forward to meeting many of you soon,Trent