Early career programs are bigger than ever in 2026.
Companies are investing heavily in intern programs, graduate cohorts, and global early talent initiatives. But there’s one challenge almost every Early Talent Program Manager faces:
How do you actually get participants to connect with each other?
Most programs are packed with training sessions, workshops, and presentations. Those are important — but they don’t automatically help interns and graduates build real relationships.
That’s where well-designed early career program activities come in.
The right activity helps participants relax, collaborate, and get to know people outside their immediate group. Done well, these moments often become the most memorable part of the entire program.
Here’s how to plan interactive activities that actually work.
Start by Avoiding the “One-Size-Fits-All” Approach
One of the biggest mistakes organizations make when planning early career program activities is assuming one activity will work for everyone.
Emerging talent cohorts are incredibly diverse. You’re often working with people from:
• Different countries and cultures
• Different personality types
• Different academic backgrounds
• Different comfort levels with networking
In global programs especially, you may even have participants who don’t speak English as their first language.
That means your activity design should include a mix of challenge types, such as:
• Creative tasks
• Problem-solving challenges
• Light physical activities
• Trivia or knowledge rounds
• Chance-based or fun luck challenges
This variety ensures everyone has a chance to shine.
Another detail that makes a big difference? Personalization.
Human beings like to feel special. Even small touches, referencing company culture, including branded challenges, or tailoring activities to program themes can dramatically improve engagement.
Design Activities That Break Up Cliques
Another common challenge in early career programs is participants sticking to people they already know.
Students who went to the same university or interns working in the same department often form quick cliques.
While that’s natural, it can limit the broader networking opportunities that early career programs are meant to create.
One of the simplest ways to solve this is by randomizing teams.
When participants are grouped randomly, they naturally interact with people they wouldn’t normally meet. This often leads to new perspectives, interesting conversations, and friendships across departments.
In our experience, this is where the real magic happens.
Many participants leave the activity saying things like:
“I never would have met that person if we weren’t in the same team.”
Choose Early Career Program Activities That Match the Size of Your Cohort
Early career program sizes can vary dramatically.
Some programs might have 50-200 participants, while larger global companies can easily host 600-1,200 interns across multiple locations.
The activity you choose needs to scale accordingly.
For example:
Outdoor activities like GPS treasure hunts can work brilliantly for large groups. They give participants a break from the classroom environment and encourage exploration and collaboration.
On the other hand, indoor team activities work perfectly as breakout sessions during workshop days. These shorter challenges can fit neatly into a program schedule without requiring participants to travel offsite.
Indoor activities are also easier to customize to match workshop themes or program learning objectives.
Use Technology to Engage Gen-Z Talent
Today’s early career participants have grown up with technology in every part of their lives.
That’s why tech-enabled activities tend to resonate particularly well with Gen-Z talent. Research consistently shows that Gen Z employees value collaboration, meaningful interaction, and hands-on learning experiences over passive presentations, according to Deloitte’s Gen Z and Millennial Survey.
App-based challenges, for example, allow teams to complete:
• Photo challenges
• Video tasks
• Trivia rounds
• Problem-solving missions
This type of format feels modern and interactive, while also allowing organizers to track progress through live scoreboards and real-time updates.
It also opens the door to something that wasn’t possible in traditional team-building formats: multi-location participation.
Connect Global Cohorts With Multi-Location Activities
Many early career programs now operate across multiple offices or regions.
In the past, this meant running separate activities in each location.
But modern platforms allow participants to compete in the same activity from different offices — or even different countries — while sharing a unified scoreboard and live event briefing.
This creates a much stronger sense of being part of one global cohort, rather than a collection of separate groups.
Participants in New York, London, and Singapore can all take part in the same challenge while collaborating with teammates locally.
It’s a powerful way to reinforce the global nature of many early career programs. If your cohort is spread across locations, it’s worth exploring dedicated activities to welcome global interns that are designed specifically for distributed teams.
When to Run Early Career Program Activities
Another question organizers often ask is:
When should we run early career program activities?
The answer is that they can work at multiple points during the program.
Common moments include:
First-Week Icebreakers
These activities help participants relax and start building connections immediately.
Mid-Program Energy Boost
After several weeks of training sessions, a fun activity can help re-energize the cohort.
Final Celebration Event
Many companies end their programs with a team challenge that brings everyone together before participants return to their universities or move into full-time roles.
Each of these moments serves a different purpose, but all of them can benefit from well-designed interactive activities.
A Quick Lesson From a Real Event
Even great ideas can fall apart without clear planning.
We once worked with a company hosting a large global intern program. They wanted to run a virtual experience so participants across different regions could join — a fantastic idea!
However, they couldn’t decide on a single activity.
Instead, they offered four different experiences and allowed participants to choose whichever one they wanted to join.
The result?
Some activities ended up with very few participants, making it difficult to build energy. Others had participants joining late, interrupting briefings or arriving just before the activity ended.
The lesson here is simple:
A clear plan and strong facilitation matter just as much as the activity itself.
Sometimes simplicity works best.
The Golden Rule for Planning Early Career Program Activities
If there’s one piece of advice for organizers, it’s this:
Don’t just repeat last year’s activity without thinking about it.
Take a moment to visualize what the experience will actually look like.
Ask yourself:
• Will this encourage participants to interact with new people?
• Will the activity scale well for our group size?
• Will participants genuinely enjoy it?
Early career programs are designed to help people grow, connect, and learn from each other.
The right activity can turn those goals into memorable experiences that participants will talk about long after the program ends.
