Future Leaders | About Audible

The Next Generation

Our Future Leaders program

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and tools to overcome systemic barriers to education and employment.

Through our paid internships for Newark high school students and our college technology internships for undergraduate and graduate students, we’re cultivating the next generation of leaders. Our high school internship also extends into our Audible Scholars program once interns leave for college, equating to a six-year work-based learning program that supports students from age 16 through their first job. These programs enrich our workplace and the employees who work with these stellar students, and they deepen our ties to the places we call home.

Internships Go Global

1%

100% of Audible high school interns are accepted to two- or four-year colleges

1X

In 2020, Audible’s high school intern program grew by 100%. Most workplaces cut internship hiring in half.

We created our immersive, paid high school internship program in 2007, the year we moved our headquarters to Newark. Student interns work shoulder-to-shoulder with Audible leaders across a range of departments and professions—from engineering and law to marketing and recruiting—gaining valuable skills for successful careers and enriching our internal culture.

During their internships, juniors and seniors from Newark’s North Star Academy and Science Park High School explore a wide range of professional business interests in a supportive workplace environment. Interns attend seminars and “lunch and learn” sessions on topics relating to Audible, technology and their future careers. They also have access to company-wide events like our speaker series with guests such as Joe Biden, Marcus Samuelsson and Mikki Taylor. There are also opportunities to work stints in Audible’s US locations outside of Newark.

In 2020, when many workplaces struggled to maintain internship programs due to the pandemic, we doubled ours and opened opportunities to more students in more locations around the world, including Cambridge, MA, and London.

Our High School Interns

Audible's high school interns stand behind a table in our cafeteria at our offices in Newark. Two laptops sit open in front of them and they are looking at one of them as if conferring about something open on it.

An Audible high school intern stands in the office.

Two interns sit side-by-side at a table paying intense concentration to a speaker off screen. They both have cropped hair and are wearing glasses.

A teen stands sideways against a neutral background facing toward the camera with a big smile on his face. He has a blue button down shirt on, Audible headphones sitting around his next, and a grey backpack over his left shoulder.

One of Audible's high school interns sits in a recording studio in front of a large hanging microphone. He is wearing glasses and a red sweatshirt and reading aloud from a text in front of him to test out what it's like to be an audiobook narrator.

End-to-End Support

Our Future Leaders program provides unparalleled support to students from before they join us through to matriculation. A two-week pre-internship training program, launching this summer, kicks off the experience and provides students with the soft and technical skills for a successful start at Audible and beyond. During their internships, students have access to employee-led career-building workshops and classes that deepen their knowledge in fields from SQL and sales training to video editing, podcast production and audio narration.

A thumbnail photo from the Future Leaders video, featuring individual photos of six Future Leaders interns. — Learn about the flagship program and meet the next generation of leaders themselves.

Achunike Okafor poses for a photo in his high school graduation gown.

Meet Achunike Okafor, an Audible Scholar in our Future Leaders program, whose record-breaking GPA gained him scholarships to over 40 universities.

Audible Scholars

Once interns go to college, they become Audible Scholars, returning to work for us during summer breaks and receiving a monthly stipend throughout their undergraduate education. According to research from The Newark City of Learning Collaborative, 51% of Newark Public School students enroll in college yet only 23% graduate. Even though 100% of Audible high school interns are accepted to a two- or four-year college or university, we recognize the importance of our support beyond graduation. Our goal is to help Scholars achieve their post-graduate aspirations, return to rewarding jobs in Newark, and even join us as full-time Audible employees.

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At the end of my second internship, I could confidently say I was a full-stack developer because if given the opportunity, I have the skills to create an entire feature, end to end.

”Katie WilcoxFormer Tech Summer Intern

She Graduated from our Future Leaders Intern Program. Now She Manages It.

Micaela Generali started at Audible in 2016 as a high school intern, then joined us full time to manage our Future Leaders program, leading and developing more than 100 interns.

Learn More

Technology Internship Program

Four college interns stand in a group posing for a photo against a neutral background. They are all smiling and happy. One of them is wearing a t-shirt with the orange Audible chevron on it.

A group of tech interns gathers in a group of the lobby of our Innovation Cathedral in downtown Newark where a lot of our tech teams work. Information about the history of Audible are on the wall behind them. They are all smiling and laughing.

A woman sits at a conference table smiling at two colleagues who sit on the other side of the table. We see only the two men's backs. They are all working on laptops.

An Audible employee and a tech intern sit at a table working on a project together in our Innovation Cathedral in downtown Newark where a lot of our tech teams work. There are two whiteboards set up behind them. Large colorful pedant lights hang from the ceiling above them.

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85% of our college tech interns received full-time offers from Audible upon graduation.

Audible’s dedication to inclusion and building a talent pipeline continues with our college technology internship program. Offered to undergraduate and graduate students, this immersive summer internship provides professional experiences in fields from engineering and quality assurance to data science and project management. Eighty-five percent of our college tech interns receive a full-time offer after they graduate.

Interns are embedded into our tech teams, where they work on challenging real-world engineering projects. Each intern is assigned a manager who provides technical guidance and support throughout the program. College tech interns also partner with our Audible Scholars on various projects, participate in executive lunches, and attend networking and social events throughout the summer. In years past, college tech interns were offered summer housing and primarily worked in our Newark, NJ and Cambridge, MA locations.

The next generation of tech engineers

Summer interns discuss their experience and the impact it had on their professional skills and pathways to employment.

Aligning professional growth and company culture

Audible employee Akanksha Gupta sits in Audible's Newark headquarters lobby wearing a blue shirt and grey blazer. She is looking straight at the camera and is smiling. Behind her is a multi-colored mural that is blurred to keep her the main central focus.

Meet Akanksha Gupta, who went from tech intern to manager and mentor.

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