LM Keeps its Virtual Doors Open for College Graduates

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is huge, especially for the jobs market. Where other companies are slowing or even halting their recruiting, we continue to hire new college grads for our mission critical positions.

Lockheed Martin’s partnership with the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando has been going strong for decades. One of the biggest benefits of that partnership is the College Work Experience Program (CWEP). The program offers a real-world, paid internship opportunity for full-time undergraduate and graduate students to gain work experience relevant to their academic and career goals. 

UCF College Work Experience Program participant and future Lockheed Martin software engineer Lauren Miller shares her virtual workstation.
 

Lauren Miller, a graduating senior at UCF with a degree in computer engineering, has been a CWEP participant for two years. During her time in the program, Lauren worked on two influential teams exploring different engineering disciplines, which afforded her the opportunity to discover her ideal career path.

“Being a CWEP participant has been an awesome experience,” said Lauren. “Not only getting real, hands-on practice with different projects and systems, but also getting to connect with people with similar interests to grow my professional network.” 

Lauren Miller and her manager, Chad Holden, participate in a virtual meeting.

When we asked Lauren’s manager, Chad Holden, about her work in the program, he had nothing but praise. “Lauren has been a great member of our team. She has repeatedly shown the initiative to learn and reach for harder and harder assignments,” he said. After graduation, Lauren will be returning to the Apache Fire Control software engineering team as a full-time employee.

Chad, who manages four CWEP students, has been integral to the smooth transition from office to virtual work during COVID-19. Humbly, he credits the students for their openness to take on the challenge. “When the direction came to work from home, we were worried that some of our CWEP team would choose to leave early, but that wasn’t the case,” he commented. “They have all taken quickly to working from home as a team.”

“I feel very blessed to have a job and join my team after graduation, especially in these difficult times,” Lauren shared. 

Lockheed Martin’s Orlando campuses aren’t the only ones welcoming new employees. In its Colorado locations including the Denver area, the company has hired more than 140 new employees this spring, and more than 200 employees starting soon, and expects to welcome over 800 college hires and summer interns. Additionally, more than 160 new employees have already been hired in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, area recently, with plans to bring in over 700 more by the end of the year.

Throughout 2020, Lockheed Martin will hire hundreds of college students. In addition to the UCF CWEP participants that have been hired following spring semester 2020, Lockheed Martin will be hosting thousands of summer interns nationwide with many of them working virtual assignments across the corporation.

In addition to early career professionals, Lockheed Martin has continued its hiring pace at all levels throughout the pandemic. Throughout first quarter of 2020 and early into the second, the company hired 1,700 people and is advertising about 5,000 more open positions, as shared by CEO Marillyn Hewson on Fox Business.

As we move forward during this global pandemic, we are proud of the efforts the men and women of Lockheed Martin to support the missions of their local communities. Learn more about what we are doing to support this global crisis effort, click here.