One Day Internship Event Inspires Students

Masayoshi Someya

Palo Alto Networks, Japan

JAPAC | Blog | Early Talent

Monday, September 29, 2025

Content originally posted in Japanese on Palo Alto Networks blog: タイトル：サイバーセキュリティの普及に不可欠な学生向けの動機づけ

Motivation, not just education and access, is essential for digital and cybersecurity

As our society and economy become more dependent on digital technology, cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important. According to the International Institute for Management Development's (IMD) "World Digital Competitiveness Rankings ," while Japan ranks 31st out of 67 countries, its cybersecurity ranking is 45th, and its digital technology skills rank 67th, putting it in last place. While the importance of digital investment is emphasized at both corporate and national levels, even greater investment is needed, particularly in the areas of cybersecurity and digital talent in Japan.

Various initiatives are being implemented to build more digitally and cybersecurity-competitive nations and companies, including school-level education and public-private sector human resource development. While these efforts are highly meaningful and should be continuously invested in by the government, they are meaningless if there are no occupational opportunities or career paths related to IT and cybersecurity in the first place. In addition to raising awareness about cybersecurity, it is essential to motivate younger generations to consider jobs, companies, and industries related to IT and cybersecurity.

Hosting the first internship event at Palo Alto Networks Japan

Up until now, Palo Alto Networks recruitment activities have primarily focused on mid-career hires, which is common for foreign companies in Japan. However, we believe that a business model that relies solely on mid-career hires is insufficient for the sustainable growth of our company, the industry as a whole, and the entire country. We began by starting a global-level recruiting program for recent graduates, and we have already hired several people in Japan. As a new step, the Japan office held its first-ever internship event for students, the "Palo Alto Networks One Day Internship," on August 20, 2025.

One of the challenges we see is that despite the increasing social importance of IT and cybersecurity, it is difficult for people to form a clear picture of what it's like to work in the industry, in a specific job, or at a company like Palo Alto Networks. Therefore, our focus for this event was to help students gain interest and a clearer understanding of the industry and jobs, in addition to cybersecurity itself.

On the day of the event, 23 undergraduate and graduate students from 16 universities participated. The morning session was dedicated to deepening their understanding of the industry, our company, and the work we do. In the afternoon, we divided the students into groups and had them discuss what could be done to get more students interested in cybersecurity, and then present the results of their discussions. The students actively exchanged ideas, and all groups shared highly convincing problem definitions and proposed solutions. It was a very insightful group workshop for us as well.

Since we had not previously conducted initiatives targeting students, we were concerned about whether this event would be well-received and whether the students would find it satisfying. As it turned out, all participants responded that it was a great event and that they now understood the importance of cybersecurity. Over 90% of them also said that they now have a clearer idea of what it is like to work in the industry and at our company. We also received a lot of feedback in the free comment section, with some students even saying they wanted to work at Palo Alto Networks.

This project started with a lot of uncertainty, and we are grateful for how positively it was received by the students. However, this event is just the starting point. To get more students interested in the IT and cybersecurity industries and jobs, we need to continue our efforts, including making improvements based on the lessons learned from this event.

At Palo Alto Networks, we will strengthen our activities for future graduate recruitment. We will also continue our student-focused initiatives to help build a society in Japan that is more secure today than yesterday, and more secure tomorrow than today. We will post information about future events on our company's social media channels and look forward to the participation of any interested students!