Greg Justice has racked up more than 100,000 hits for his mic-busting skills on YouTube, in which he drops some heavy yet office-appropriate rhymes about his internship at Cisco Systems. And yes, he did see the president of Russia on his first day at work. Today, we caught up with him to see whether he really, umm, actually learned something last summer.
Ostensibly, you could have been the World’s Most Interesting Intern almost anywhere. Why Cisco?
I wanted to work in communications (specifically social media) for a large technology company. Having worked in a kitchen the summer before, I was keen on new experience. Cisco was an attractive option, for they encourage their interns to explore different departments throughout the summer. Plus, I’ve always found routers, TelePresence, and Ellen Page to be the illest.
Walk us through a typical day in your shoes.
8:30 a.m. – Check that inbox
8:57 a.m. – Tweet out something golden (e.g. “Most shark attacks occur in water #sharkweek’)
9:00 a.m. – participate in a team meeting via WebEx
9:30 a.m. – help the public relations team prepare for the Russian president’s visit
11:00 a.m. – write script for weekly video blog
11:45 a.m. – crush delectable Indian food and hang with fellow interns in the elegant cafeteria
12:45 p.m. – update the Cisco Facebook fan page
1:00 p.m. – attend a Cisco speakers series to learn about different opportunities throughout the company
2:00 p.m. – meet with SVP Inder Sidhu’s team to discuss the social media campaign for his NY Times’ bestseller, Doing Both
4:00 p.m. – sit in on a website redesign planning session
5:45 p.m. – work on my hip flexors at the company gym
What was the most humbling moment of your internship?
Having an intern in Australia own me in a rap battle.
What were some of the takeaways?
- For me, summer internships are all about new experience (and food). You never know what will come out of a summer job, so you may as well go in with an open mind, meet as many people as possible, and expose yourself to a wide array of opportunities.
- The team you’re on can make or break a summer job. At Cisco, I formed many a friendship with the great folks (both employees and interns) working in Communications and beyond.
- In life, it’s important to network.
- Don’t spill Powerade on your comp.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s also easy to get a job at Cisco if your father is an executive there like Greg’s is! Funny video though
amen. with a 4.0 from stanford, i couldn’t possibly have landed the job on merit. glad you liked the vid, though.
Greg, you got dissed bad, son. Looks like we got an East Coaster here.
What matters is what you actually DO while interning. Not how you got there. And that has nothing to do with how great his rap skills are! Nice job, Justice.