As members of Gen Z, we don’t remember a life without the internet. We grew up watching technology shape the way we learned, connected, and experienced the world. As our lives became more digital, cybersecurity became part of everyday life, and as we begin our careers, we’re experiencing another technological revolution firsthand. This time, it’s artificial intelligence.
This summer, I had the opportunity to see that transformation up close as a Talent Brand Intern at SentinelOne. Through conversations with fellow interns Nathan in Colorado, Camila in Chicago, Ruhan in India, and Annita in Amsterdam, I realized that although we came from different backgrounds, fields of study, and even continents, we were all entering the workforce at the same pivotal moment. Each of us was trying to understand where we fit, how we could contribute, and what role we would play in a workplace increasingly shaped by AI.
For some of us, cybersecurity became personal long before we joined SentinelOne. Nathan Stucke, Partner Tooling Solutions Engineering Intern, experienced this firsthand when a cyberattack disrupted his university’s online systems during finals week. What had once been something he only read about in the news suddenly affected his education.
“Getting to go from that real-life experience to working for a cybersecurity company is really interesting,” he said. “It’s cool to be part of a platform that’s helping defend against those kinds of attacks.”
Nathan’s experience was a reminder that, for our generation, cybersecurity isn’t an abstract concept—it’s part of the digital world we’ve grown up in and now have the opportunity to help protect.
AI Didn’t Replace Us, It Changed How We Work
Like many students, I entered college hearing conflicting messages about AI. During my freshman year studying Public Relations & Communications at Hofstra University, professors warned that AI could one day replace careers like the one I hoped to pursue. I couldn’t help but wonder what my future would look like.
That uncertainty stayed with me until I joined SentinelOne.
I expected to see AI everywhere, and I did. What surprised me wasn’t the technology itself, but the way it was being used at SentinelOne. Across every team, AI wasn’t replacing human expertise. It was enabling people to spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time thinking strategically, solving complex problems, and doing the work only humans can do.
For Annita Alvaro Gomes, Employee Experience Intern, AI reinforced the importance of something technology can’t replace: human connection.
“Humans have to come up with strategies on how we want to implement AI,” she said. “Work will always need human connection, that will never go away.”
Camila Cuesta Arcentales, Wayfinder Threat Hunting Intern, views AI as something we actively shape rather than something that simply happens to us. Rather than fearing change, she believes our generation has the opportunity to help define how AI will shape the future of cybersecurity.
“We have agency in it,” said Camila. “Our generation has a unique opportunity because we’re growing alongside this technology, not after it.”
Ruhan Wani, Marketing Intern, discovered that AI created more space for creativity. By automating repetitive work, it allowed him to focus on strategy, storytelling, and building trust with customers.
“Eventually AI needs someone to guide it,” Ruhan explained. “It cannot do it on its own.”
Nathan experienced a similar shift in engineering. Before joining SentinelOne, he worried AI might replace technical careers. Instead, he watched engineers use AI to solve problems more efficiently while continuing to rely on their own expertise and judgment.
“AI’s not replacing engineers,” he said. “It’s just helping them out.”
Across every team, one idea continued to surface. AI wasn’t the center of the conversation, people were. Technology accelerated our work, but curiosity, creativity, judgment, and human connection remained the qualities that drove it.
Many Perspectives. One Purpose.
Before my internship started, I assumed I’d spend the summer learning from the sidelines. Internships often carry the stereotype of coffee runs, tackling administrative tasks, and gradually earning the opportunity to contribute to meaningful work. What stood out across every intern was how quickly we were treated as contributors rather than observers.
For Ruhan, that trust was evident from his very first day.
“My team really believed in me from the first hour I joined,” he shared.
Ruhan spent the summer improving his team’s workflows by identifying opportunities for automation and building tools that reduced repetitive work. That trust gave him the confidence to identify a problem, build a solution, and create something that will continue benefiting the marketing team beyond his internship.
Annita supported onboarding for new hires, coordinated wellness initiatives, and helped organize programs that strengthened the employee experience. She observed a culture at SentinelOne built on autonomy, where people are encouraged to take ownership of their work and contribute in meaningful ways.
“The more your manager or the company trusts you, the more you actually want to do things correctly,” said Annita.
Nathan helped develop a Paladin recertification dashboard and created ThreatOps games designed to help partners strengthen their technical knowledge of the SentinelOne platform. He was encouraged to solve engineering challenges independently. In his case, connecting a SentinelOne agent to a virtual machine with no prior experience doing so.
“My team was just like, ‘You’ll be able to figure it out,’” he said. “And I have figured it out, so that was really cool that they didn’t need to hold my hand and walk me through it.”
Camila spent her summer reviewing indicators of compromise, analyzing telemetry, and investigating potential threats alongside experienced analysts before taking ownership of her own threat hunting cadences.
She progressed from learning threat hunting workflows to conducting investigations on her own. After a week of shadowing teammates through SentinelOne’s process for reviewing flagged indicators of compromise, she was cleared to run her own hunting cadences.
“Now I’m able to do them on my own,” she said.
As a Talent Brand Intern, I had the privilege of telling the stories behind SentinelOne’s people while supporting initiatives that strengthened our culture and community—from employee storytelling and employer branding to volunteer programs and internal communications. What I didn’t expect was how much those experiences would reshape my own perspective. Every conversation showed me that protecting the digital world isn’t defined by one role or one career path. It takes engineers, threat hunters, marketers, employee experience teams, and countless others working together toward the same purpose. Sharing those stories became my own way of contributing.
Looking back, I expected my biggest takeaway to be learning how AI works in the workplace. Instead, I learned something more meaningful. Technology will continue to evolve, but the future of cybersecurity won’t be shaped by technology alone. It will be shaped by the people who build it, guide it, and use it to solve real problems. This summer reminded me that every role has a part to play in that future.
We grew up online. Now we have the opportunity to help shape what comes next.