25/03/2026
The "First Step into the Business World Program," organized annually by the Career Development and Internship Office during the mid-term break, brought together young talents and the business world for the 13th term this year. The program, which was held with the participation of 150 students and 22 different institutions, was completed with strong interest and interaction.
During the program, students had the opportunity to get to know different sectors closely, experience corporate cultures, and observe business processes on-site. Companies, on the other hand, had the opportunity to get to know the professionals of the future more closely by making one-on-one contact with potential young talents.
The program, which builds a strong bridge between the university and the business world, is more than just a short-term experience area; it is a strategic step that contributes to young people determining their direction in their career journeys. The increasing participation and interest each year shows that the program is a sustainable and strong university-sector collaboration model. The program, which offers a significant opportunity for students who want to make a strong start to their careers, has been successfully completed. You can access the experiences and evaluations of our students who have successfully completed the program on the official website of the Career Development and Internship Office.
To better understand the program's multi-stakeholder structure and what it means for the business world, the experiences and evaluations of the institutions contributing to the program also provide an important perspective. Below, you can also read the experiences and evaluations of the companies participating in the program.
ÇİMSA
The "First Step into the Business World" Program, conducted in collaboration with Sabancı University students, has been successfully completed. Throughout the program, students had the opportunity to get to know Çimsa's work culture, business approach, and how different functions integrate with each other. They also reinforced their theoretical knowledge with real-world experiences by engaging with different dynamics of the business world.
During the program, students were also hosted at the factory as part of the "A Day at Çimsa" event. Through field trips and presentations on production processes, they had the opportunity to observe the operational perspective firsthand and gain closer contact with the sector.
ENTROPHI
Our experience at Entrophi this year has been very productive. Our 10 students started the first week at a very good pace. In the second week, they experienced working as a team and gave presentations to industry representatives. It was a very enjoyable process!
EUREKO SİGORTA
Sabancı University's short-term internship program for first and second-year students stands out as a strong example of university-industry collaboration. At Eureko Insurance, we are pleased to have been a part of this program for the last two years.
The main aim of the program is for students to get to know corporate life closely at an early stage of their education, to see the business world's equivalent of their chosen field, and to experience the dynamics of professional life. From our perspective, this encounter represents a valuable learning environment fueled by the energy, curiosity, and questioning perspectives of young people.
At Eureko Insurance, we position students not just as observers, but as active participants in the process. Despite being a short-term program, we strive to offer rich and interactive content:
- Opportunities to meet different departments
- Assessments based on real business cases
- Mentor matching
- Executive conversations
This allows students to closely observe and experience corporate business practices. The insurance sector is often perceived from the outside as being limited to only policy and claims processes. However, behind it lies a strong data analytics infrastructure, risk modeling processes, customer experience design, and digital transformation efforts. During the program, students get the opportunity to see this multi-layered structure and discover that the sector is a much more dynamic and strategic field than they thought.
The most important element that makes this collaboration valuable is that it is not a one-way experience. The different perspectives, current approaches, and bold questions of young people are also inspiring for our teams. They contribute to our re-examination of the usual processes within the pace of corporate life.
In the feedback we receive, students especially share that experiencing the real business environment increased their self-confidence, observing professional communication styles was eye-opening, and their perspectives on the insurance sector changed. This shows that the program has achieved its goal.
Connecting with early-stage talent means not only creating a potential career bridge, but also contributing to young people starting their career journeys more consciously and with better preparation. At Eureko Insurance, we believe it's important for young people to enter corporate life better prepared, confident, and while maintaining their sense of curiosity.
We aim to further develop and continue this collaboration with Sabancı University in the coming years. Because we believe that the future of the business world will be shaped by young minds that are open to learning, inquisitive, and eager to create value.
GEMFORCE
This program allows me to meet extremely high-quality, ambitious, and energetic teammates. Initially, a short adjustment period is necessary due to the class they are in and the nature of their first professional experience. However, the fact that we can continue collaborating for many years afterward makes this model highly effective in today's fast-paced business world. To establish an effective method in this process, it's crucial for the employer to respect the student's schedule and individual needs, providing the necessary flexibility. Indeed, students who become employees through this program reciprocate this with a great love of learning.
OYAK RENAULT
We are delighted to host 16 students from Sabancı University at Oyak Renault for two weeks as part of the "First Step into the Business World" program. During this period, our students experienced our business processes closely through the "shadow worker" model, while our volunteer employees shared their experiences as mentors. We enriched this program, where each student had the opportunity to connect with one or two mentors individually, in collaboration with Student Academy. Young talents completed an intensive training marathon of 24 hours in total, 12 hours per week, covering 11 different topics focused on personal and professional development.
It was a very valuable experience for us to make young people feel the Oyak Renault culture, to introduce our employer brand, and most importantly, to help them discover what they like and dislike in their post-graduation career journeys.
ŞİŞECAM
Şişecam participated in the Sabancı University First Step into the Business World Internship Program for the 8th time this year. From among the strong applications we received, we prioritized 16 students studying in different departments. We included them in the program. The program is very important for them to spend the semester productively, to get to know the business world early on, to see what different departments do, and what is on the agenda of the business world. We organized sessions for our 16 colleagues to get to know different functions at Şişecam, we provided them with a technical trip to our R&D center so they could see our glass technologies and innovation approach firsthand, they met with our leaders in inspiring talks, and they contributed to us by giving excellent presentations on the case study we gave them.
Thanks to this program, many of our colleagues have gone on to participate in our First Step Summer Internship Program and our Young Talent Program Together, so it is also a great collaboration for us to meet good talent early on. We would like to thank Sabancı University Career Development & Internship Office for making this program a reality.
TOASTMASTERS INTERNATIONAL
During the mid-term break, more than 30 of our students successfully completed the "First Steps into the Business World" program, which included training and practical work in sales and marketing.
We have been supporting the "First Steps into the Business World" program for the past four years. Our university students possess a developed sense of responsibility, act with a creative perspective while fulfilling their assigned tasks and responsibilities, can perform root cause analysis, develop systematic solutions, are adept at teamwork, are both process and results-oriented, and have an innovative perspective. They also have effective communication skills.
During the Türkiye Toastmasters Corporate Summit meeting held between February 11 and 15, meetings were held with many different companies from the business world; projects aimed at developing collaborations were created, and the follow-up of these projects was undertaken as a team.
During the program, our students learned about Toastmasters marketing information as well as current sales and marketing practices of institutions such as Reckitt and Akbank. During the internship program, leadership training was provided by Lilian Shaftacola, Toastmasters International Region 10 Advisor.
This internship program, conducted based on university-industry collaboration, also graciously invites other international companies to participate.
TRIO MOBIL
As part of the First Step into the Business World Program, we conducted a highly productive and inspiring two-week internship program with brilliant students. Each student undertook projects that addressed a real need within our company and created a tangible impact. Throughout the process, they successfully completed their projects and presented their findings, demonstrating both analytical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Thanks to this program, students had the opportunity to work on a real business case, and we greatly enjoyed their energy, perspectives, and motivation to learn.
We sincerely thank Sabancı University for its valuable contributions and strong collaboration; we hope to work together again in many more successful programs.
