Rewarding and Resonating: How Tapan’s Career Edge Internship at Bell Canada Became the Benchmark for Everything That Followed

“I got my first interview through Career Edge at Bell Canada. When I got the acceptance, I was jumping with joy, because it was my first professional job out of university. That’s where it all began.”

Tapan had worked retail before this. Plenty of it. He knew how to show up, how to work hard, how to get things done. What he didn’t have yet was a professional foundation the kind that only comes from being inside a real team, working on real problems, with people who would eventually become colleagues, mentors, and friends.

The 2011 internship at Bell Canada as a Retention Marketing Analyst changed that. And fifteen years later, he still measures his career against it.

He reached for two words to describe it: rewarding and resonating.

“What a privilege to be starting off with Career Edge, because it acts as a benchmark. The interval of my career trajectory, the results of reckoning, came from right there. And there are so many things I learned in that internship experience. It shapes you into what you need to become successful in that role, and that success continues on with your career.”

Rewarding isn’t a word people usually reach for when describing something formative. But that’s exactly the point. The internship didn’t just challenge him, it gave back. It returned something for every bit of effort put in, and laid a foundation that has compounded quietly across fourteen years of career growth since.

What that foundation looked like in practice was a collision between theory and reality.

“There’s a concept of what you know and what you’re supposed to practice in the real world versus what you actually practice in the real world – and those are two very separate realities. This internship gave me the experience of: how do I fit into team culture? How do I fit into a business operation? How do I learn technical skills like SQL, data mining, reporting? But also, do I have the right values? Am I learning the right professional skill set? That shapes your whole professional persona.”

The classroom had given him frameworks. The internship gave him the real thing – and revealed the gap between the two in a way that only doing the work can.

The advice he’d give his younger self cuts against the instinct most interns walk in with: “Do not be the jack of all trades. As an intern, there’s this psychological pressure that you’ve got to be good, you’ve got to be on your best feet. But don’t try to piece every aspect of the team together. Have direct conversations with leaders and ask them: what are the problems you’re trying to solve? How can I help? Having those direct expectations set in conversation will help you focus your energy and time – without just bouncing in different directions.”

Less scrambling to cover everything. More precision about where you can actually add value. That focus, he’s learned, is what gets noticed.

The door the internship opened wasn’t just a next job. It was a network that has never stopped paying forward.

“It helped me develop a professional network, meeting with excellent directors and senior leadership at the time. I still have conversations with them to this day. Some of these are my friends now. It opened up professional relationships that helped me in future roles, not only from job prospecting, but making sure I was gathering the right skill sets for brand new areas.”

Fifteen years on, those relationships are still active. That’s not a footnote. That’s the compounding return on one internship done well.

Now, in a leadership role with direct reports of his own, Tapan brings what he received full circle: “Invest time in your early talent. Recognize your talent base, your most junior direct reports. Have conversations with them on having a career development plan. Ask them: what’s your inspiration? Are you looking to develop technical skills, soft skills, or business coaching? Having those direct conversations really helps them build trust and breaks down barriers. That kind of mentorship is phenomenal in shaping their confidence.”

And for Career Edge, from someone who joined at the halfway mark of its now thirty-year run: “I’m glad you picked me among other people. It’s great to see you’ve been here for three decades – when I joined fifteen years ago, that was already the half-growth mark. Career Edge always made me feel like family through the alumni series, the events, the calls. It’s always going to be near and dear to my heart until the day I retire. It was a stepping stone in my career, but it would not have been possible without the team. Major thank you.”