Jonah Richardson

By Zoë Eitel
In his internship with Sauls International—a professional language services provider—Jonah Richardson has been able to apply what he’s learned in his classes to his work in the company’s Human Resources Department. The internship, in turn, has taught him skills he expects will be invaluable to his education and career moving forward.
“This internship taught me a lot about the interview process and different personnel selection methods,” Jonah says. “I learned a lot about what it means to be an HR manager and the different components that go into it.”
In his position, Jonah has interviewed over 80 people for positions, helped to revamp the onboarding process, and was able to lead demonstrations of Sauls’ web application to clients. It was Sauls’ mission that drew Jonah to the internship when he found it on Handshake and led him to accept it over a few others he was offered.
“Language is very interesting and I think it is an important part of business,” he says. “Allowing businesses around the globe to communicate with each other even through language barriers is something that I really appreciated.”

Human Resources Manager at Sauls International

BA Industrial / Organizational Psychology 2021

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jonah’s internship with Sauls International has been remote, and while he would have preferred for it to be in person, Jonah says that the company was able to effectively transfer the internship remotely.

“This internship taught me a lot about the interview process and different personnel selection methods. I learned a lot about what it means to be an HR manager and the different components that go into it.”

Jonah appreciated the company’s collaborative nature and knows he will be looking for a similar collaborative culture in future opportunities as well.
“This internship did a great job at being collaborative—as much as you can being in a pandemic—and this collaboration led to a lot of great idea sharing that took place within the internship,” Jonah says. “The company focused on allowing business to share ideas and perspectives, and I felt these values were mirrored in the internship as well.”
Because this internship was unpaid, Jonah was able to apply for and receive the Career Center’s Internship Plus Award to provide financial support. 
“During COVID, times have been tough, so getting the chance to receive some funding for my work was something that was able to help me out a lot,” he says.
For his next steps, Jonah is applying for a summer internship with NASA in their behavioral health and performance lab and will be starting graduate school in fall 2021 where he will be focused on earning his PhD in industrial organizational psychology.