From Intern to Hired: Turning a Summer Job into a Career Roadmap

Matt Simonson’s journey with Pratt Industries began with a simple, honest conversation at a college career fair. Looking for a remote internship for the summer, Matt didn’t expect a major manufacturing company to have a place for him, but the immediate warmth and inclusivity of the team proved otherwise. Any perceived distance of his remote role vanished the moment he began collaborating with the Retail Specialties team as a structural designer. It was during this time that Matt experienced a profound perspective shift, realizing that Pratt wasn’t just a company that made boxes, but a network of driven experts.

“Being an intern at Pratt gave me the opportunity to not just see the larger scale of the company and all it has to offer, but to work and collaborate with the smartest, friendliest, and most driven people I have ever met,” Matt recalls. This exposure to the full scale of the business turned a summer job into a career roadmap, culminating in an intern summit where he saw firsthand how his individual design projects fit into the broader company strategy.

The transition from student to professional can often be a period of high anxiety, but for Matt, the supportive culture at Pratt turned the job hunt into a homecoming. When he returned to the career fair during his senior year, the relationship he had built with leadership and his mentors made the next step feel like a foregone conclusion. There was no stress, only a shared excitement about where he could plug in his talents next.

“I remember never being worried or stressed,” he says. “The whole process felt too easy. I could not be more happy in the position I am in right now.” That ease was a direct result of the bridge built by his mentors, who saw a designer’s eye for detail and realized it would be invaluable in a technical, customer-facing role.

Now serving as a Technical Sales Representative in Swedesboro, NJ, Matt has taken his design background out of the digital space and onto the production floor. His unique fit for this role is defined by his ability to investigate opportunities to improve processes. Because he spent his internship understanding the structural integrity of packaging, he can walk into a customer’s facility and see inefficiencies that others might miss. He isn't just selling a product; he is re-engineering the customer’s workflow.

“Even as a remote intern, working as a team was still very easy and felt comfortable,” Matt notes, a sentiment that now applies to his daily collaboration with local Sales Reps and Customer Service Teams. Today, he moves between machines and conference rooms with the same confidence he felt during his internship, proving that at Pratt, the right start makes all the difference. “I am excited to learn and work hard and I am just so grateful that I was given the opportunity to work for such a great company.”