Reflecting on iManage U 2025: Insights from our interns

As we open this year’s internship opportunities and look ahead to iManage U 2026, we want to take a moment to reflect on the success of our iManage U 2025 program. This past summer, we welcomed 34 interns to our Chicago office for a 10-week experience across Engineering, Sales, Customer Support, and Security. Our iManage U Class of 2025 made a remarkable impact on our teams and contributed meaningfully to projects across the organization. 

(Some of our) iManage U Class of 2025 

• Shannon Campione: Marketing Intern, Carthage College – Marketing & Management, Graphic Design
• Stephen Dumore: Site Reliability Engineer Intern, California State University – Chico – Computer Science
• Emma McGuirk: People Operations Intern, University of Dayton – Business Management, Human Resources
• Miracle Idowu: Customer Success Intern, Northwestern University – Theatre & Psychology, Data Science
• Barakah Mulla: Backend Software Engineer Intern, University of Illinois at Chicago – Computer Science
• Luke Christie: Product Owner Intern, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – Finance & Accounting, Computer Science
• Ariah Pittman: Information Technology Intern, Illinois Institute of Technology – Computer Information Systems
• Florianne Che: Frontend Software Engineer Intern, University of Illinois at Chicago – Computer Science, Finance, Chinese
• Grady Rimland: Finance Intern, University of San Diego – Finance & Real Estate
• Justin Lizardi: Application Security Engineer Intern, Loyola University – Cybersecurity, Computer Crimes & Forensics

What sort of support/mentorship did you experience over the course of your internship? 

• Shannon Campione: A better question is what type of support/mentorship I didn’t experience. Everyone I worked on a project with or for; learned – made sure she was doing the project correctly; very kind; shoutout to Hannah, graphic designer, made me feel more comfortable on Zoom calls.
• Emma McGuirk: Everyone was always there for me, whenever I needed. My mentor Max was always there to offer advice, both for work and for general. My managers were great and approachable. The People Ops team in general is great.
• Luke Christie: At the beginning, my mentor sat me down and gave so much information about the position, the team, what I’d be doing. There were a lot of team catch-ups – the full-time employees would meet with the interns. We would catch up in an informal way but also share about the updates on projects. We had impromptu meetings with our mentors over coffee as well. We sat right next to our mentors, where we could ask questions about projects. The mentors made themselves available for us all the time, no matter how busy they were.
• Ariah Pittman: A lot of reassurance when I thought I wasn’t doing enough. I was given positive feedback in meetings. I was given a lot of opportunity to navigate on my own.
• Grady Rimland: Daily support and mentorship. I was constantly reaching out to my manager to ask clarifying questions. The extended team would also bring me in when there was downtime to work on different projects. 

What was your favorite part of interning at iManage? 

• Stephen Dumore: My favorite part was the project that I was working on; it was very technical, but it was very rewarding to have such an impact and to see the impact with my team.
• Miracle Idowu: Talking to people from different teams. I was able to talk to Customer Success Engineering and the Data Enterprise team, and talking to them helped me understand what iManage does.
• Barakah Mulla: My favorite part was being a part of something new and always having the opportunity to take on new challenges. This goes back to the Hunger for Learning core value at iManage.
• Ariah Pittman: My favorite part was that I was able to be hands-on and have a team that took into consideration what I wanted.
• Florianne Che: Being surrounded by mentors and managers who have been in the same position as I have been and share the same eagerness to learn and challenge me.
• Justin Lizardi: I really enjoyed the work I was given. I had a lot of freedom to decide on what I wanted to work on and see what I liked. 

Describe your iManage internship in 3 words: 

• Stephen Dumore: Valuable. Informative. Enriching. 
• Shannon Campione: Pivotal. Inspiring. Well-rounded. 
• Emma McGuirk: Challenging. Insightful. Rewarding. 
• Ariah Pittman: Meaningful. Supportive. Empowering. 
• Florianne Che: Collaboration. Impact. Learning. 
• Justin Lizardi: Stimulating. Encouraging. Optimistic.  

What have you enjoyed most about the culture at iManage? 

• Luke Christie: I really enjoyed the friendliness of everyone who works here, and the openness to learn. All the presentations we went into, each person shared that we could reach out directly. During the leadership presentation, feel free to privately message me to talk more. Even the C-Suite level people are close to the interns. The CEO gave us some books, and everyone is very friendly. It feels more like a start-up, a very close-knit community.
• Emma McGuirk: Everyone genuinely wants to see you succeed. 

What project(s) have you been working on? 

• Shannon Campione: I worked on so many research projects; heat mapping and session recording application on iManage site; went through emails. Learned how to use testimonial hero and iManage customer voice; redesigning iManage graphics – fitting in the brand guidelines and use own creativity. Deadlines but with designing, I had enough freedom to do the job.
• Luke Christie: We called ours port SQL to MariaDB. Working within the tracking database within P-to-P migration. We were switching for cost-savings to iManage. Use iManage and iHelp integration. I did some demos for collaboration links. I was writing user stories, acceptance criteria, and sprint goals and descriptions – I would lead sprint planning meetings, review meetings, and retrospective. We worked in agile and scrum environments.
• Florianne Che: I did automation testing and developed an extension for the work web using React, JavaScript, and Python. 

What does a typical day look like? 

• Justin Lizardi: I’d log on, check slack and see if I had any outstanding tickets to review, CVEs to evaluate. We had daily standups and I would have exploitation training. We were encouraged to constantly learn and evolve our skills with red teaming. 
• Florianne Che: It looks like coming into the office on time with an attitude to connect with people; going through meetings in the morning, catching up on work from yesterday, reaching out to co-intern or mentor on problems that I still need to solve. Trying to network and connect during the social times – checking in on the interns that aren’t on my team. Lots of solo work time.
• Barakah Mulla: Starts off with bagels or coffee and having a daily standup at 9:30am. I would find a nook or cranny in the library or one of the small rooms and work independently, and then collaboratively with the other interns. We would work together and bounce ideas off. I’d learn more about other people’s roles with coffee chats or meeting around the office.
• Miracle Idowu: Thursdays are my busiest days, that’s when our CS huddles are. This is a 45-minute presentation where someone outside of CS comes in, and after, I have my weekly check-ins with my manager and mentor, but also with to present and after, I have my weekly check-ins with my manager and mentor, but other members of the CS team. I would have individual check-ins with the other members of the team. I worked a lot in Totango; it pulls from different databases, so I would update inaccurate data. I reached out to partners. I would have lunches with fellow interns – having a break would be great. We would work in the library together.
• Stephen Dumore: We had an agile/scrum methodology but every day we had a daily standup to talk about what we were doing today, the day before, and the next day. We also had bi-weekly and weekly meetings, as well as an open team Zoom room if you needed help, it was available to us. 

What advice do you have for next year’s interns? 

• Shannon Campione: Don’t buy a bunch of business professional clothes – I bought more professional clothes than I wore to the office. Say yes to things – found myself struggling with this as I had other plans occasionally; bond with fellow interns. Being open to new experiences, especially when your manager and mentor have brought a new project to you, even if you don’t have the experience prior.
• Emma McGuirk: It’s okay to feel behind and confused. Document and take notes on everything that you do and meetings that you sit in.
• Miracle Idowu: Try to interact with many other people, don’t just talk with your team. Talk with other interns. Don’t be afraid to ask questions – ask the dumb questions. Be honest and communicative with your manager – they are there to help you and can be really great resources.
• Ariah Pittman: Continuously learn and put yourself out there even if you are scared. At the end of the day, you are the only bump in your road – Joe Tamburello.
• Florianne Che: It’s important to be professional but you will feel more fulfilled when you are true to your personality and passion. Come into the office with a respectful attitude but don’t be afraid to show your coworkers your authentic self. Pursue your avenues.
• Grady Rimland: Say yes to everything and be proactive whenever possible. Being proactive means taking ownership when you can.
• Justin Lizardi: Ask every single question you have. See what you can take ownership of. Speak to everyone on your team and see how you can help them. 

If you have had an internship before, what is different about interning at iManage? What sets this experience apart? 

• Stephen Dumore: I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised at how important my project felt. It was great to be an important part of the team. I was also surprised at the work culture.
• Emma McGuirk: Expectations versus reality: I expected to be forced to do everyone’s grunt work. The reality was that I was able to have a meaningful impact with my work.
• Miracle Idowu: My expectations going in was that everyone would be in suits and not happy to be at work. After 10 weeks here, I’ve realized it is a very equal level, not as much hierarchy as I expected. I felt very comfortable asking questions and for support.
• Barakah Mulla: I had two internships – one was AI researched-based and one was frontend UI/UX design internship. I did this with another iManage internship – Florianne Che. This was my first corporate internship. The iManage values are very centered on their employees and the givers and takers idea. It is very centered on work-life balance, learning, and self-improvement.
• Luke Christie: This was my first ‘real’ internship. I worked with Chicago Beach Cleanup last year, doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work. I didn’t have as many responsibilities as I did here. I worked with a lot more people and did meaningful work. I worked on impactful projects – the project I worked on is something that can change the future of iManage. It was a big project, and we were entrusted with being a part of it.
• Florianne Che: I did research last summer for web development for a small project. I did UI/UX design for a three-week project. Everyone in the work hierarchy is generally very approachable; they’re excited to be asked questions, and they’re excited to be able to teach and provide advice.
• Grady Rimland: Expectations versus reality – I was expecting more of a defined plan and wasn’t ready for the ambiguity of my projects. There was a lot more “make out of it what you can and make your own goals” and I really enjoyed that.
• Justin Lizardi: I expected to be siloed and not really have the opportunities I had to collaborate on my team and others. I did not expect to work with so many people outside and within my team. I didn’t expect to be essentially treated as an associate – there wasn’t “intern” work, I was doing the work that my team was doing.

A huge thank you to our incredible iManage U Class of 2025! We miss the energy, curiosity, and impact you brought to our teams each day. We’re so proud of everything you accomplished last summer — and we can’t wait to see where your talent takes you next. Let’s stay connected!

Thinking about joining the iManage U Class of 2026? We’d love to meet you. Our intern positions are now live - Apply here.