Founded as Space Exploration Technologies Corporation in 2002, SpaceX is the highly innovative American spacecraft manufacturer/launcher and satellite communications company that is headquartered in Hawthorne, California.

“There aren’t a lot of business operations interns at SpaceX," said Flynn, a double major in analytics and finance at the School of Business. "There are a lot more engineering interns."

Flynn feels her ability to land this out-of-this-world SpaceX internship was fueled by the ambition and preparation instilled in her as a Quinnipiac student.

“I knew it was going to be a reach going in, but I felt that it was something I could do if I put my mind to it,” said Flynn.

She said she followed a recommendation that many hear but not always undertake, which is to, “…carefully review and revise your resume so that it best reflects the abilities which align with what the company is looking for.”

“I would really recommend that you align your resume with the job qualifications because it helps to set the tone of who you are; and shows how you match with the industry," said Flynn. "I really wanted this job and I think taking the time to do that helped me match up with their qualifications."

Flynn applied for the SpaceX internship opportunity in December after coming across it in the LinkedIn job section. In January, Flynn was notified she was being considered by SpaceX as a prospective summer 2023 intern. In February, while studying in Spain through Quinnipiac’s semester abroad at Universidad de Sevilla, Flynn was contacted by SpaceX to participate in a remote interview.

“Because I was in Spain, there was a nine-hour difference so I had to schedule my remote interviews between 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.," she said. "That actually worked out for me because I was able to practice for the interview. I studied my entire resume and I tried to think about every way all my experiences related to the job, so I was prepared for all questions."

After completing an initial interview, Flynn went on to additional interviews, including those with SpaceX team members working directly with the business operations intern.


“It was stressful! If a person on the team does not feel like you’re a good fit, then you get taken away from the process,” she said.

Instead, by the end of the month, Flynn was offered the internship. She was excited to learn more about joining SpaceX for the summer and to post the news on her LinkedIn page with help from SpaceX interns program recruiting coordinator Isabelle Lee.


“Isabelle Lee was great because she was able to help me understand some of my benefits and what kind of information I could post on my LinkedIn," she said. "She was very responsive and I was appreciative of that.”

Flynn also thanks associate dean for career development Jill Koehler for serving as an important resume review resource at the School of Business.

“Before I applied for any jobs, I’d send Jill Koehler my resume and she would always go over it for me; because I always like to make sure it’s perfect,” said Flynn.

In her internship role at SpaceX, Flynn is working with the sourcing team, gathering internal data to help inform team projects.

“I’m using the skills that I’ve learned as a business analytics student and in Tableau programming to organize the data, and then I’m going to use the data to build a model for the company to refer to when contacting different clients,” said Flynn.

She’s currently furthering her Tableau experience of building future data and analytics by working with SpaceX’s program of choice, Business Intelligence (BI), which has been introduced to Flynn on the job.

A native of Maine, Flynn said she is enjoying life on the country’s opposite coast this summer. She’s staying in the Los Angeles area while undertaking the 12-week program with SpaceX, which is her dream internship.

“I still have to pinch myself every day to remind myself that I’m working for them, it's a dream.”

After earning her bachelor’s degree in finance and analysis from the School of Business in May of 2024, Flynn said she would love to be hired by SpaceX to start her career. Her senior year at Quinnipiac will include making sure she is as prepared as possible to be the best candidate, should a SpaceX career opportunity in her field arise.

“I have to meet the qualifications of any position I’m trying to fill but I am in the process of figuring out which areas I’m interested in and what I would want to work in,” she said.


Flynn’s previous internship experience was a 7-month role with HMG Strategy of Westport Connecticut, working with their A/B analytics team. She said career search preparation skills gained through the School of Business helped her immensely when preparing to land her internship jobs.

“Without it, I don’t think I would have been as successful,” Flynn said. “The mock interviews were really a big help in learning how to interview with different people. That helped me to see what things I was not prepared for so that I could be prepared when it came to an actual interview. The career fairs were a great way for me to learn how to actually apply for jobs.”