The Future of Jacobs: Our Extraordinary Young Talent

At Jacobs, we strive to provide a safe, accessible and inclusive workplace for people with disabilities or those who care for someone with a disability. Jacobs understands and embraces the diverse needs of its staff, leverages their talent and works together to deliver truly inclusive solutions to create a connected, sustainable world.

Our employee network, ACE – which stands for Access, Connect, Empower! – has become a welcoming place in which people can share their lived experience of disability, physical or cognitive differences and providing care for others. For more about the ACE employee network, stay tuned on jacobs.com to see how they're celebrating this week's International Day of Persons with Disabilities. 

Continuing our successful intern program, our team got creative to find ways to grow our ACE network with more young talent.

Having a partnership with the National Business and Disability Council (NBDC), we worked with their employment placement team to find roles for college students with disabilities to create a meaningful experience. Working alongside our wonderful NBDC representative, Jacobs hired five interns across the U.S. from their network of students with disabilities.

We had the pleasure of chatting with one of these interns, Emmanuel, who joined our corporate accounting team virtually during the summer of 2021. A wonderful addition to our hardworking team in Dallas, he quickly adapted to each challenge handed to him.

When asked what the most impactful part of his internship was, Emmanuel shared how valuable it was to network and get real world experience to understand how his schoolwork applies outside the classroom.

“My favorite aspect of the program was getting to meet people like my manager, Brian, and everyone else that I consistently worked with,” he added. “The learning experience and the connections that I made were what made my Jacobs experience one to remember.”

We thank Emmanuel for his hard work during his internship and for making such an impact on our corporate accounting team. We’re  thrilled to see what’s to come with all of Emmanuel’s endeavors as he continues to work towards his CPA (Certified Public Accountant) and beyond.

This partnership with the NBDC and our similar efforts in Australia where nine of our senior leaders mentor jobseekers with disabilities through our partnership with Australian Network on Disability – are just some of many examples of Jacobs stepping up and building on an inclusive and diverse culture from all angles.

“The major takeaway was to ensure my interviews are inclusive, it could be easy to take some of the things my mentee did in his interview as making him not suitable,” shared Giuliana Marshall, one of Jacobs’ Australian Network on Disability mentors, about what she’s learned from the experience. “But I’d spent hours with him and knew it wasn’t right. When I have an interview where something is not quite as expected, I’m going to put on a different lens before I pass on the candidate.”

If you would like to learn more about our commitment to inclusive hiring and supporting young, diverse talent, please visit our early careers page.