Harley Knapp — My Internship Experience

Intern Happy Hour - “Christmas In July”
On January 4th, I came to visit the Henderson office. I was beyond excited based on everything I had heard: ping pong tables and Xbox in the lobby, the casual t-shirt and jeans dress code, and all of the inspiring projects. When I pulled into the parking lot I think I was expecting an office playground instead of the actual building that stood before me. The company culture is what drew me to Henderson. It’s why I always went to their info sessions on campus and talked to them at the career fairs in hopes of landing an internship. Little did I know that after my visit, I had already been featured on Yammer, Henderson’s internal social network.
During the first couple of weeks I came in and just soaked everything in, there was so much to learn and so many new people. From day 1, Henderson had me convinced that I was about to have a great summer working here. Plus, Henderson knows the way to a college kid’s heart: free swag and free food — Nike polo, t-shirts, water bottles, and free breakfast twice a month. I’m sold. And I never thought I’d be so excited to have my very own cubicle either. Members on my team joked that I was moving in when I brought Rudy, my office plant, in on my second week.
Every day I would brag about something new to my parents or friends about how awesome it is to work for Henderson. And when I say it’s the best place to work, I’m not even exaggerating. They’d hardly believe me when I’d say I went to yoga class during lunch or employees came through the office pushing a cart of cherry limeades just because it’s Thursday afternoon. Yet everybody always gets their work done. After all my stories they asked — are you sure you’re at an engineering firm? And that’s my favorite part. Henderson breaks that stuffy stereotype so I have the environment of a casual, fun place to work yet I still get to do what I enjoy in engineering.
I grew up in Lenexa; I’ve lived here since I was two. For the past 19 years I’ve been saying how boring Kansas is — there’s nothing here, I can’t wait to leave, I hate it, etc. If you would have told me at the beginning of summer I would actually like Kansas only a couple weeks in, I’d call you crazy. Never in a million years would I end up here for the rest of my life.
Then we had the InternKC presentation. I found myself, for the first time in my life, considering staying in Kansas. Henderson is all about the people, so I went straight to the source talking to other employees to see how everybody else felt about being here in Kansas at Henderson’s headquarters.
I discovered that “the best part is the people, not just the people on your team but also the leadership team and who they are as people. Everybody is so willing to help each other for no other reason than they’re good people. The familiarity of it makes the big office still feel small,” Amanda Giles said.
And the relaxed culture follows through into all the fun activities that go on here like the Beer:30s. “The concept of being able to all hang out in one spot with people you don’t typically work with. There’s over 400 of us here, but it doesn’t seem like it when we have events like that,” Alexandra Thornburg said.
Talking to everyone confirmed even more for me why I want to work for Henderson long term, and that I’m happy to be here in the Lenexa Headquarters. So, it turns out Kansas is pretty cool, and I have Henderson to thank for opening my eyes a bit and giving me a reason to stay.
