Building more than a career: How Seaspan’s interns are making an impact

August 13, 2025

In May, Nathan Park — a finance intern for Seaspan Marine — faced an unexpected challenge midway through his eight-month internship. After running a marathon, Nathan fainted right before the finish line, sustaining injuries that put him in the hospital for a week.

This was a team Nathan had met only five months prior. Yet, even in such a short time, he had become an integral part of it. Embodying one of Seaspan’s core values of Care, his team, when he needed it most, was there for him.

While Nathan’s story is unique, his experience as an intern at Seaspan isn’t. Every four months, a new crop of interns join the company for either four or eight months, integrating into their respective teams across a wide variety of disciplines.

When your time at a company is measured in months — not years — it can fly by. The question, then, has to be asked: How much can really be gained from such a short term? Despite being at Seaspan for a short stint of time, interns leave a lasting mark on the team around them, while also gaining countless invaluable experiences themselves.

According to HR generalist Issac Sunny, who helps facilitate Seaspan’s internship program, the program’s value is clear through its rapid growth. Demand for internships at Seaspan is rising quickly, both from employees looking to add an intern to their team, and from students looking to apply.

“We have doubled our intern group because of the meaningful tasks that have been assigned to all our interns. When interns leave Seaspan, there is positive word-of-mouth that is given to the new interns and goes across campus,” he said. “Previously, we typically had about 35 to 40 interns per term. But next term, along with the extensions that we have and with the new intake, it’s going to be way above 70 interns.”

The new intake that Issac mentions will start their roles here in September, staying with the company until either December, or April of 2026, depending on their pre-determined term length. That group is one of three intakes every year, a cycle that continually brings in new students, giving them opportunities to gain experience in their field while working towards their degree.

At Seaspan, no two internships are alike. That’s partially due to Seaspan’s role providing a variety of marine related services ranging from ship building, to repair, to marine transportation and even LNG bunkering.

According to Issac, that’s a key part of Seaspan’s appeal.

“I don’t think there are many companies out there that can provide that many diverse discipline opportunities to interns. So whatever interests the intern, Seaspan is able to offer that.”

Yet, no matter the field, a Seaspan internship represents something unique — an opportunity to extend upon foundational knowledge gained through a post-secondary education, as Seaspan’s cybersecurity intern, Lucy Walters, explains.

“My internship has been a really good glimpse into what cybersecurity could actually be like in the field, because it’s not the same as what you learn in lectures,” she said. “It’s really good to actually have that hands-on experience.”

The act of learning, especially for post-secondary students, is often thought to be confined to the context of a classroom. That isn’t the case for Seaspan’s interns, who learn actively through their work every day.

For Lucy, while her computer science degree at UBC Okanagan has allowed her to briefly touch on concepts related to cybersecurity, through her internship, she has been able to fully and actively explore the interdisciplinary web that the field offers.

“What’s unique about cybersecurity is that it touches on a lot of different fields within computer science,” said Lucy. “It’s not just focused on software development, but it does have its place in there. It’s not just focused on databases, but there could be potential vulnerabilities in those. We go all over to different departments and have to communicate with a lot of different system analysts or engineers, anyone that could have a problem with their system.”

This experience isn’t exclusive to cybersecurity. While situated in a department that demands wildly different technical skills, Jasmin Bhandal, Seaspan’s HR consulting intern, also spoke to the importance of putting understanding into practice.

“The theoretical is not always realistic. Sometimes you’re told that, for example, compensation follows this process,” she said. “It might follow the general guidelines of that process. However, a lot of times in companies, it’s very, very different.”

For Jasmin, getting a view of the realistic is crucial, because in her role, her responsibilities often transcend the theoretical, working with employees to craft individualized solutions to unique problems by connecting them to the resources and people they need.

“In HR consulting, if any group needs something, the first person that they approach is a human resource business partner,” said Jasmin. “We handle everything from benefit information, to payroll, acting like a bridge in that way.”

“It gives you a little bit more confidence when you’re going into a full-time job. You know that you have real experiences and that you’ve helped solve real problems,” she said. “That can give you a boost, especially when you go into junior roles where it can sometimes be really intimidating to sit at the table and give your opinion because you feel like you don’t have the same expertise as someone who’s in a senior level position.”

This is no accident. Underpinning all Seaspan internships are those who help mentor, support and encourage these students — their managers.

Over the course of an intern’s term, their managers are working to cultivate chances for their intern to learn and grow, passing on as much of their experience as they can in the few months their intern is there.

For Craig Tonini, Manager, HR Business Partners, — who Jasmin directly reports to — promoting an intern’s development is always front of mind.

“For me, it’s more about: Has that intern really got the experience of what this is all about? Because, yes, they’re contributing to our work, which is fantastic, but for me, the bigger piece that I see out of this is that the intern has really been able to get that learning, get that mentorship, and understand a little bit more about the profession that they perhaps are going to pursue in the future,” he said.

Through this emphasis Craig places on Jasmin’s development as a professional, he has been able to watch her grow through the work that she does.

“I’ve seen her take on the confidence over time to really run with projects or ideas that we need to expand upon or seek to find information. She’s willing to take on a task and see it through,” he said. “I think that that has been an evolution of her four months here, seeing more of a comfort level as she’s progressed.”

The time and attention that managers like Craig devote to mentoring their interns does not go unnoticed.

As Nathan explained, because of the efforts of his team, he has been able to better acclimatize to increased independence.

“They really took the time to explain things,” he said. “Then, like a month in, two months in, they would start asking me questions about what I thought. Then, three, four months in, they would tell me to do my own research to give my input in the meeting, which really helped. It was a gradual process of me learning and then using that knowledge.”

Interns becoming comfortable enough to speak out isn’t just important for their learning — it’s also genuinely sought after and appreciated by those they work with.

For Spencer Gulliver, the manager of Mariner Development and Recruitment at Seaspan Marine, he placed an emphasis on being receptive to an intern’s feedback and ideas.

“One of the big things that I always talk about in my weekly meetings is: If you know  anything that we can do to improve this business, I want to hear it. There’s no bad ideas. We’re here to improve,” he said.

While the focus of an internship is often on professional development and learning, someone’s status as an intern doesn’t make them any less a part of the team. As Spencer discovered in mentoring his first intern, Karl Bacugan, the energy, enthusiasm and work ethic that an intern can bring to the table is crucial.

“One of the things I love most about Karl is that he is a self-starter. He gets up every day and he’s looking for how to improve this business. There’s never a moment where we’re sitting idle,” said Spencer.

Interns making a difference through the work they do isn’t the only way in which interns are a part of their team at Seaspan. Harkening back to Nathan’s experience after his hospitalization in May, for these interns, the idea of team culture isn’t just a buzzword haphazardly thrown around. It is something they have felt.

“All three of the members in my team have been so helpful,” said Nathan. “They’ve been really patient and understanding. They were willing to take the time to really take me step by step when I was struggling or when I had questions, which I’m really grateful for.”

While the experience of starting what is often someone’s first significant job in their desired industry, can be frightening, for someone like Lucy, those fears were alleviated by the support she felt from her team.

“During my first week I was still just a little bit more shy and did not want to bother people or ask questions — even though I had a million. Now, I have no shame in asking questions. I just tell myself that my team is great  — they’re there for you.”

As we move into August, these three interns are long removed from their first week at Seaspan. While Lucy will be continuing in her role until December, continuing her 8-month term, both Nathan and Jasmin will be leaving at the end of the month to return to school.

It’s the bittersweet reality of an internship. While the ability to hit pause on university studies to come work at Seaspan is an incredibly advantageous opportunity to combine classroom learning with work experience, in what often feels like the blink of an eye, university beckons again.

“You had that community and commonality between one another,” said Jasmin. “It’s almost like losing friends, you could say. You’ve been a part of this team. You’ve integrated into it. Now, all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Okay, back to school.’”

However, while these interns will all eventually leave Seaspan, that doesn’t mean they will be leaving Seaspan behind. An internship at Seaspan provides a reference point to continually look back upon, a wealth of experience to draw from as these students graduate into the full-time workforce. It provides an immense network of meaningful professional connections, people who are there to help, support, and cheer their former interns on as they start their careers. And perhaps most immediately relevant, it provides often much-needed clarity.

“I was excited, half afraid of what to expect, but I really enjoyed my time here,” said Nathan. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pursue a career in the finance industry after graduation, but I feel like this experience has allowed me to solidify my choice.”

To be able to live a future career before the finality of a degree is an incredibly unique and special opportunity. To be able to do that in a place like Seaspan, that’s something that can’t be passed up.

“This can be a great starting spot for somebody in this business, because you’re going to see the day-to-day here, and every day here is a different day,” said Spencer. “Just being a part of that is the big selling point for me. You want to know what Seaspan is all about? Well, I can show you that. You can see that, you can come live that with me — there’s a lot there to learn.”