Check Out Forage’s Free Virtual Internships with Fortune 500 Companies
Last week, I tried out Forage’s J.P. Morgan Software Engineering Internship Experience. Forage is a platform that offers students free virtual work experiences developed by Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Goldman Sachs & Citi.
Virtual Work Experience Programs are online programs built and endorsed by leading companies. They contain a series of resources and tasks designed to simulate the real-world experience of starting a career. Learn more about them on my recent LinkedIn post!
As an aspiring woman in tech, I was most interested in the J.P. Morgan Software Engineering Internship Experience. It’s also listed as one of Forage’s top programs. In this program, there are 4 main tasks: interfacing with a stock price data feed, using J.P. Morgan Chase tools, displaying data visually, and contributing to an open-source project. This experience is estimated to take 5 hours to complete.
I was immediately impressed by the level of detail in the instructions. Each task comes with a step-by-step guide and plenty of visuals so that you never get lost, even as a beginner. In fact, no experience is required to participate!
However, first-time coders may have difficulty following along with the pre-written code, and understanding important terms that aren’t defined like main method, git, etc. Understanding isn’t required, but it makes the experience more educational.
Fortunately for me, I have experience in Python — which the first task focuses on — so I didn’t experience many challenges. Even when I did have a problem, the instructions had preemptively provided a solution, and there’s also a place on Github where you can ask questions.
The biggest thing I learned is what the work of a software engineer might look like. Though I’ve coded projects before, I wasn’t sure how that would apply to a real company. This program gave me exactly the preview I was looking for. It even included a sample ticket that a developer might get on the job. However, since the instructions guide you through every step, this may not be helpful in learning how to be a software engineer.
Other features I liked:
- Forage encourages you to set a deadline for completing the program to keep yourself accountable. As someone who struggles with procrastination, this is very useful.
- Partner companies actually create the programs themselves, so you can trust that the experience is authentic. Moreover, Forage students are 2 times more likely to get hired by partner companies after completing a program. For those who complete the JPMC program specifically, their job applications are prioritized for review by the JPMC team!
- Companies also host Forage-exclusive events for those who have completed their programs. For example, I was notified that JPMC’s recruiting team is hosting an exclusive virtual chat this week, where participants can speak with JPMC employees and learn how to stand out in the application process.
The only problem I had was receiving excessive emails related to the work experience, but that’s a minor issue.
Overall, I would absolutely recommend Forage for anyone interested in developing their technical experience, networking with Fortune 500 companies, or simply exploring different fields. They have programs ranging from tech to law to finance, and partnerships with companies like EA, BCG, Citi, and more. Best of all, everything is free! If you’re unsatisfied with a program, you can easily try another. There’s truly nothing to lose. After you’re done, you can add a new extracurricular or certificate to your LinkedIn!*
I’ve known about Forage for over a year and I’m genuinely surprised by how underrated they are. Their mission of empowering job-seekers aligns perfectly with my goal of helping students land internships through my LinkedIn content. I’m so glad to be working with Forage, and hope everyone tries it out!
Visit Forage’s website here and find the J.P. Morgan Chase SWE program here. #ForagePartner
*Note: Forage Virtual Experiences are not to be listed as formal work experience or employment.
