Not all internships are created equal. The best ones are those that not only give the participants real-world experience, but also set up the interns for success in the workforce. For Alex Rylee, an Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) specialist at ASML, his program did that and more—it positioned him for a full-time role at ASML. “I was incredibly fortunate with my timing when it came to transitioning from an intern to a full-time employee,” Alex says.
Along with giving it his all during his internship, Alex was in the midst of finishing up a Master’s program to further advance his career. “After finishing my internship, I still needed additional time to complete my coursework and defend my master’s thesis,” he says. “Once I was ready to defend my thesis, I began applying for positions and saw an opening on the very same team that I’d interned with.”
Naturally, he applied. Upon interviewing, everyone remembered him and was thoroughly impressed with the amount of growth and expertise that he’d shown in the short time since his internship had ended. “After a great series of interviews, I received a full-time offer from the team in 2025, and I am happy to say that they are all now my current coworkers,” Alex says.
Now, Alex is enjoying full-time life at ASML. Here, he talks about career changes, what makes a great internship, and offers his best advice to early-career professionals.
Where did you start your career journey, and what initially led you to ASML?
Before joining ASML, I was in the process of making a career transition. I had spent seven years working as a legal assistant, but decided to pursue a new career path aligned with my interests in protecting the environment and keeping people safe. This led me to enroll in a Master’s program in Environmental Health. After my first year in the program, I discovered an internship opportunity with ASML’s EHS team and was thrilled to be selected as an intern for the summer of 2023.
Can you tell us about your internship at ASML? What team were you part of and what kind of work were you involved in?
I interned with the ASML San Diego EHS team during the summer of 2023. My experience included shadowing team members on daily safety operations such as inspections, ergonomic assessments, and evaluating chemical hazards. In addition to these activities, I was also part of a team tasked with updating lab signage across the campus. I was also given the responsibility to lead a major project to plan and execute ASML’s first campus safety day at the San Diego site.
What were some of the most valuable skills or experiences you gained during your internship?
I would say the most valuable experience I gained was managing a project that was the first of its kind for the EHS team. I was tasked with organizing a campus safety day. I was given the responsibility to organize and execute the day with a fixed budget and total creative control on how it would look.
This experience developed my project management and leadership skills as I needed to coordinate with key stakeholders across the multiple safety teams to set up booths with relevant safety topics for the site, designed and procured event merchandise, reached out to local community members such as the fire department to offer fire extinguisher training, as well as planned the overall event layout and logistics. I also enlisted the help of my fellow EHS team members and members of the ASML Safety Committee to ensure every booth had a topic expert assigned to it. The safety day was an overwhelming success with over 500 attendees, and I am happy to say that ASML San Diego has had a Safety Day every year since that follows the model that I set up during my internship in 2023.
How did ASML support you during the transition into your full-time role?
I really appreciated ASML’s onboarding “buddy” system which supported my transition into the full-time role. I was paired with two team members who were new to the EHS team since my internship. They helped me understand recent changes and improvements to the Teams workflows which helped make my transition seamless. I am also grateful to my other team members, the ASML recruiters, and HR business partners who all helped welcome me with a smooth onboarding experience.
Tell us about your current role at ASML. How did it differ from your internship experience?
I am currently an EHS Specialist, and it comes with a lot more responsibility compared to my internship. As an intern, I primarily shadowed the team on inspections or ergonomic assessments, but now as a full time employee, I am the one spearheading these investigations and giving recommendations to employees. I’ve also grown my knowledge base beyond what I had as an intern and now help the team with OSHA program reviews, workers compensation claims and providing in-person instruction on various safety topics. One thing that hasn’t changed much is my involvement with Campus Safety Day planning! The team had done Safety Day on their own in 2024, and when I joined the team again in 2025, I was once again given full ownership to run the event, which was a great project for me to step back into my roots with ASML.
What aspects of your internship helped prepare you most for your full-time position?
The opportunity to work for ASML for three months with meaningful projects assigned to me fully immersed me in the ASML way of working. I got to see firsthand what a typical day looked like for the Safety team, and I also met several key stakeholders and contacts who remembered who I was after I was brought back as a full-time employee, which greatly sped up my integration into the team and ASML as a whole. Being here on site, working directly with the ASML teams, and building work relationships were all crucial aspects of my internship that set me up for long term success here at ASML.
What do you find most rewarding about your current role, and what challenges you the most?
What’s great about working in the Safety team is that I get to collaborate with nearly every group at ASML. Whether it’s the facilities team, the technology research team, the executive assistants or contractors visiting for a short time, I get to work alongside tremendously talented individuals from all facets of life. It is incredibly humbling and inspiring to work with such different people on various projects and see the different types of expertise it takes to bring a project to fruition.
The main challenge with working at ASML is that the technology we work with is constantly evolving. With that comes continuous opportunities to learn more about new innovative technologies, and while that keeps me on my toes, it is amazing to see the work that happens firsthand that turns these groundbreaking ideas into reality.
What’s your favorite thing about working at ASML as a full-time employee?
There are so many things I could pick out, but if I can only pick one, I would say that my favorite thing about ASML is how much the company cares about my growth. ASML has gone above and beyond in providing me resources and opportunities to grow my knowledge base and expertise beyond my current skill set. If I find classes or conferences that I feel would help me grow as a professional and improve my work at ASML, my manager is more than happy to provide me the time and resources to take those opportunities and actively encourages me to look for those opportunities as well. ASML understands that employees are dynamic individuals and fosters growth to help us grow into our full potential, which makes me feel truly valued.
Looking back on your internship and early career experience, what’s the most important lesson you’ve learned so far?
I think the most important lesson I’ve learned was to not underestimate the value of my previous work and life experiences. The biggest project I ever took on as an intern, creating Safety Day from scratch, was not something a single college course would have helped prepare me for. Instead, it was experiences like event planning for my college improv club and cold calling vendors from a prior internship that ended up being instrumental. These skills unrelated to health and safety, along with all the support and collaboration done with my Safety team and the Safety Committee, were what ultimately helped me execute Safety Day.
What advice would you give to interns or early-career professionals hoping to transition into a full-time role at ASML?
No one comes to ASML as a genuine blank slate. We are tapestries of experience, and those experiences help to bring a unique flair in how we can help bring projects to fruition. My advice to any interns or early-career professionals at ASML is to be bold and trust in your experience that brought you here. To be selected as an intern means that ASML already recognizes your potential, and values what you bring to the table. Take initiative, go above and beyond, and show that you are capable of more than just meeting expectations. Show that you can take on big projects, and when you can demonstrate that you can take on any challenge, your team will be clamoring to bring you back as a full-time employee in no time.
