What it does: Dell is an American technology corporation that provides computer-related products and services for businesses and individuals.
Mission: We create technologies that drive human progress
Best known for: Dell laptops and computers.
Size & presence: 158,000 employees working worldwide.
The good bits: Dell offers great work-life balance alongside clear career pathways — and if you value those two, you’ll be right at home in the company, even as a recent university graduate.
The not-so-good bits: Compensation may not be as competitive as other tech giants.
Dell was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, a student at the University of Texas at Austin. The company started with the idea of being able to create a custom IBM-based personal computing device that can be customized according to the customers’ needs. Since then, Dell has continued operating from that very ethos—being able to create a personal computer that could meet the needs of its buyers.
Although the company has suffered from some setbacks in the past—facing stiff international competition from Asian PC manufacturers such as Asus, Acer, and Lenovo, as well as Apple’s iPad changing consumer computing behavior—it is going through a revival following its recent acquisition of EMS Corporation in 2015, signaling the company’s intention of expanding its product offering to data storage solutions, both on-site and cloud-based.
One of the most interesting things that Dell highlights about working in their company is work-life balance. Dell seems to prioritize this for their employees, and reviews in Glassdoor from past and current employees seem to reflect this.
To achieve that, Dell offers some of the most flexible working arrangements available in the industry — and started doing so way ahead of most companies; with the U.S. offering a remote-working model since 2009. And in the future, they expect this: “Moving forward, we expect more than 60% of team members will work remotely on any given day on a more permanent basis even after the pandemic, leveraging the great benefits we have realized through a technology-enabled remote workforce.”
Dell, through its parent company Dell Technologies, offers several graduate development programs for recent college or university graduates in North America, including the U.S. These programs are specific to certain job roles, and when you are accepted for any of them, you are expected to be rotated through various functions. Departments in Dell that accept graduate trainees are the following: human resources, IT, marketing, accounting, finance, supply chain, and global services.
Aside from opportunities for recent college or university graduates, Dell also has openings available year-round for internship positions, intended for current university or college students. Some of these internship roles have dedicated programs, such as Client Solutions Group Engineering Intern Program, Finance Intern Program, Dell Financial Services Internship
Program, Business Operations Internship Program, Global Operations Internship, Dell EMC Inside Sales Internship Program, and Dell Technologies Services Internship.
The process for applying to a position at Dell starts with submitting an application to their career page. Then, you’ll have to go through several rounds of interviews with Dell. Here’s what to expect in a Dell interview: “Through a conversation with you, we’re striving to learn if you’re a good match for the company. And that’s a little bit of everything: how you’ll fit in with your team, whether you identify with our values, and where you see yourself professionally now and in the future.”
As an intern at Dell, you can expect to earn around $50,000 to $80,000, depending on your degree level. MBA graduates tend to earn at the higher end compared to undergraduates or other Master’s degree holders.
As for those working as an employee in one of their development programs, base pay usually ranges between $70,000 to $90,000, depending on the role that you’re hired for.
Aside from base pay, Dell also offers the following benefits for its employees: health insurance, discounts for Dell products, paid time off, and many more.
Dell’s major charitable initiatives are related to sustainability practices, which makes sense considering the company manufactures a lot of computer hardware. Many of their most recent products are created with the aim of reducing carbon footprint and creating better waste management for Dell products.
Aside from that, in the U.S., Dell is working together with State Education Technology Directors Association (SETDA) to fund “next-generation broadband infrastructure” to meet the educational needs of public educational institutions in the U.S.