MacPaw Summer Internship: Six Years of Growth and Impact

The brief sounded simple: launch a summer internship. Already in the first weeks it became clear this project would be about much more than recruiting and interns. It touched culture, people, opportunity – and the question of how a company can genuinely change lives.

‍“Back in 2016, this was one of the first tasks in my work with the company – launch a summer internship. Over six years, the project grew into a meaningful part of MacPaw.”‍

— Kateryna Drobot, Employer Brand Manager at MacPaw (2016–2021), founder of Lineup Bureau.

This is how the story of MacPaw Summer Internship began – a programme that became a small ecosystem inside the company.

An entry point for young professionals.

A professional community.

And a first job for dozens of people who now build MacPaw products.

What the company asked for

Back in 2016, MacPaw wanted to:

• create an internship programme built on a 30/70 model – 30% theory, 70% practice
• pass on the MacPaw culture – open, warm, and human-centred
• find future specialists “of the same spirit” and invest in their development
• systematically engage mentors and build an internal learning culture
• make the internship a highlight of the year, not a one-off project.

What we did

1. Built the learning programme from scratch

We designed a structure that left room both for serious technical challenges and for the development of soft skills in young talent.

Interns worked on real product tasks, received mentor support, and went through their own small journey inside MacPaw.

2. Created the internship brand and communications

Visual identity. Tone of voice. Content. Landing page.

Everything supported one simple idea: “We want you to grow here.”

3. Introduced a mentoring culture

Ninety employees became mentors.

Many of them – twice, and some – three times.

An informal status of “distinguished mentor” even appeared inside the company.

4. Automated processes and scaled the programme

Each year the internship became more structured, more efficient, and more influential.

Processes were simplified and documented, communication became clearer, and the programme could grow without losing quality.

What we achieved

The results of a six-year project include many important numbers, but for us they always stand for real people and real stories:

• 2,612 applications with completed test tasks
• 80+ interns who went through the programme
• 35 former interns who, as of 2021, worked at MacPaw
• 12 people who completed the full journey: intern → company specialist → internship mentor
• 90 mentors over all years.

And, most importantly, a whole internal culture that formed around this project.

“An internship programme was a completely new direction for us – our team was mostly senior engineers. Katia and the team managed to create a learning programme with activities, deep company immersion, and a hackathon – a real bootcamp. Every year we took almost all interns into the team. Many of them still work at MacPaw and have grown into leading engineers and managers. It was a breakthrough for us and for the industry.”

— Vira Tkachenko, CTIO & Co-Founder at MacPaw.

Co-creation team

At Lineup Bureau, we believe in long-term partnership and co-creation.

MacPaw Summer Internship is the result of work by many people, and we’re glad to highlight them:

• Employer Brand Manager & Project Manager – Kateryna Drobot
• Tech Brand Manager – Kseniia Rastvorova
• Internal Communications Specialist – Tetiana Soloviova
• CTIO & Co-Founder – Vira Tkachenko
• HR Manager – Olha Ostapovych
• Design – Olia Vtorenko, Danylo Tkachenko, Liza Zemliak
• Mentors – all 90 incredible people who invested their time, knowledge, and warmth into this project.

A few words before we wrap up

Projects like the MacPaw Summer Internship remind us of something essential: a strong employer brand grows from real experiences, not from one-off campaigns. When there’s a clear strategy, a committed team, and attention to the details that shape people’s journey, a culture appears that supports the business for years.

If you want to build your own educational programme, strengthen your employer brand, or create a more structured approach to working with talent, we’d be glad to explore what would work best for your company.

Reach out, and we’ll shape a solution that helps you grow.