The Nike World Headquarters (WHQ) in Beaverton, Oregon are no doubt among the most famous corporate campuses in the world. Surrounded by stunning Pacific Northwest scenery, it spans 400 acres with more than 150,000 square feet of athletic spaces, an entire Japanese garden and 75+ buildings — with names like “LeBron James Innovation Center” and “Serena Williams Building” (the latter of which measures more than 1 million square feet).

It’s impressive to say the least. I genuinely feel lucky to have spent one day there touring just a fraction of the facilities; but even luckier, perhaps, are the 200 students who get to spend a whole summer there immersed in Nike’s highly coveted internship program.

In July, over lunch at the Serena Williams Building’s mall-food-court-esque cafeteria (one of many eateries on campus), two graduate interns shared in my amazement of their summer workplace — both emphasizing how “inspiring” it’s been to spend time there.

“There’s professional athletes walking on campus or people are doing group runs together and things like that. So it is a very inspiring environment,” says Liz Hogan, a Product Graphics Design intern who’s wrapping up her master’s degree in design at Savannah College of Art & Design. “I couldn’t say anything bad about this campus. It’s really amazing.”

Among the amenities all employees and interns can access are full-size basketball courts, soccer fields, tennis courts, pickleball courts, beach volleyball courts, indoor and outdoor tracks and trails, spin studios, yoga spaces, a putting green, a 46-foot climbing wall and an 11-lane lap pool. This is a major draw, especially given that many interns are student athletes as well.

“I have never had that many gyms, even being a track field athlete,” says Lauryn Noel, an Innovation intern and graduate student studying sports product management at University of Oregon. “I really feel taken care of as an intern. It does feel like coming to Disneyland every day. It’s so nice.”

The Program

Summer internships at Nike’s WHQ — which include compensation, housing and transportation to and from Oregon — are available in a variety of functions, from design to marketing to finance. The program is notably hands-on (no coffee runs here) and structured around individual projects, which interns present to a group of executives and hiring managers at the end of the summer.

“They are fully ingrained in the team and given a really specific project that’s been served by their managers with clear deliverables. And oftentimes it’s something they can see come to life,” explains Jillian Radke, who oversees internship hiring as global director of university recruiting for Nike, Jordan and Converse. “So it’s not even hypothetical work. They’re plugged in to real work straight away.”

At the time of my visit, undergraduate interns were in the midst of what’s called the Nike Intern Combine (a take on the NFL combines), where they’re given an assignment and put into teams, which compete to deliver the best presentation to Nike executives after only two days of preparation. This cohort was tasked with coming up with Nike’s “next big thing.”

As I went through various conference rooms, chatting with/spying on participants as they sat around tables working in their groups, I saw ideas, pitch decks and sizzle reels that were as good as, if not better than, what the average experienced professional could come up with. There was a community playground concept, in-store “shoe labs” for customization and a Nike loyalty program with a branded credit card, to name a few. They’re an impressive bunch, no doubt the result of an extensive and competitive application process (more on that later).

It’s not uncommon for interns to end up with permanent job offers from the company, which, of course, is what most of them are after.

“The intent of the internship program is to convert into full time, that is why we have the internship program. We really like building the future of Nike leaders,” adds Radke. “That’s why they’re given real project work, and so that they can also make the decision that this is the place that they want to grow their career.” One noteworthy example: Elliott Hill, a longtime Nike employee who returned to the company last year to become its newest CEO, started his career there as an intern.

Getting Accepted

From what I surmised on my visit, and based on the 0.28% acceptance rate, getting an internship at Nike WHQ is not for the faint of heart. Strong applicants are likely quite certain that Nike is where they want to intern, including the specific brand or department, before they even apply.

“We love to see authentic passion for the brand and for sport by brand, for Nike, for Jordan, for Converse, beyond just having some Nike shoes in your closet,” notes Radke. She also like to see examples of leadership and being active on-campus. Another priority: clean, well-formatted resumes. “No typos!” she emphasizes.

Noel and Hogan, like most interns, I’d imagine, were already intimately familiar with Nike’s job board even before they applied for Summer 2025. Both sought out Nike internships on their own.

“Honestly, I’ve probably been scouring the Nike Careers website for the last seven years of my life, just trying to figure out how to get in,” Hogan admits. “The internship opportunities popped up before January and I probably applied to six of them within design, anything that I remotely qualified for. I got one interview back.”

“Nike has always been a company I wanted to work at, so I also applied to several different ones,” adds Noel.

What follows is a two-step interview process. First, prospective interns video record themselves answering a set of questions. Those who make it to the next round have a more in-depth portfolio review with Nike employees. “Two designers from two different teams were asking questions about my projects as I was presenting them and going through what I had done in the past year,” recalls Hogan. “I did a lot of prep for it. I met with a communications coach every week trying to get it because I really wanted it. And so it obviously paid off, but a lot of it was just figuring out how you can speak about your work effectively and show your process and also produce a nice living product. So it was scary, but everyone that I’ve spoken to was so nice and definitely eased my nerves once I got into it.”

What the Interns Have to Say

Liz Hogan, Product Graphics Design intern focusing on men’s footwear graphics:

“The first part of the day is a couple of meetings and one-on-ones with mentors or people that are helping me move my project forward. The other really amazing thing about this campus as a designer is there’s a studio that we can go in and produce our own products, however we want and whenever we want. They provide you with all the print processes you could ever dream of.  If I want to make a piece of apparel, I can go and put my print on it and go and produce it. So I’ve never had those resources [where] you think it up and you can execute it.

“Typically I’ll go into the studio for half of the day and do some explorations and testing some colors or testing some swatches and see how they’re going to look on a piece of fabric and things like that. So a lot of design exploration. It feels like I’m back in elementary school and just making things at school. So it’s really fun.

“I wasn’t sure when I was in school what I really wanted to do, but now that I’m actually producing graphics on product, I’m really liking that. So I [want to work in] product graphics, hopefully here [at Nike] or in the outdoor industry and sport industry in general. That’s definitely the direction that I’m in.”

Lauryn Noel, Innovation intern focusing on innovating spikes on track footwear:

“My day starts with me doing design exploration. Usually I get feedback at the end of the day and I go to my manager and I’m like, ‘Hey, how does this look?’ And then most of it is building out the prototype. So I’m in the lab trying to make the thing and then also test it out, wear test it, and hopefully it stays and it performs. But if it doesn’t, then it’s also redoing it and doing that for the other half of the day.

“I am meeting with a lot of science researchers or biomechanics, a lot of different people in all sorts of fields just to proof it out, get the science of it and for them to see my design and get feedback just to make sure it’s wearable, I’m not hurting the athlete. That was definitely pivotal part was talking to a lot of the people upstairs and then going back and getting feedback from the designers themselves. So a lot of communication. 

“I really want to work here as well and hopefully become a footwear designer. Working for a heavily athlete-focused company will be optimal, and going on to design and become a creative director someday.”

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