CS Summer Internships: Recruitment, Getting Ready

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by Chloe Barreau

Freshman year, I interned as a Software Engineer at a startup. Members of the startup were insanely talented, I enjoyed spending time with family at home, and I was grateful for the time I had before and after my internship (helped run a summer camp, began working as a graphic designer, and made my first podcast!). This year, however, was quite different. I wanted to work at a bigger company and experience a more structured environment, so I went through the recruiting process with tech giants and a bank that was offering a technical internship. I am excited about the outcome (joining Adobe in San Francisco this summer), but certainly learned what did and didn’t work through the roller coaster of last quarter.

Failure aids Success

My freshman year summer internship rejections are lathered on a spreadsheet. More specifically, I have listed the name of the company, job portal URL, date of application, and date of rejection. Freshman year I began applying mid-December and didn’t realize I was late to the game. Thanks to having at least attempted this process once, I had all the important information and dates recorded for sophomore year. Few companies provide an explicit date for when applications open so it is valuable to have your own tracking system. Microsoft rolling applications began end of August, and within the first week of September almost half of the companies on my list were accepting applications. All information, be it rejections, rate of response, format of response, communication of next steps, or lack of response, is a helpful clue for how things work.

Application Timing

Application timing is important, especially sophomore year when students are more aware of how ridiculous recruitment begins in the Valley. For certain companies, applying three days after the internship is listed can make a difference of a week or more for response and interview timing. Applying early is an advantage even for companies that are not time sensitive. Not only is it good signaling, but they do respond faster.

Scheduling & Classes

There are certain classes you should and should not take when you are going to be off campus often. My thought process for autumn quarter was “take a larger unit load so that your winter quarter is not cruel.” I underestimated the the amount of time I would spend on interviews (which often consisted of an online coding challenge, phone interview, and a 2–3 day onsite interview). It was stressful to think about my being behind on school when I was preparing for interviews and vice versa. Reduce this stress by avoiding project-based classes, PWR or small classes that are participation heavy. I personally enjoyed working on math homework on the plane and in the hotel. There are few distractions and, unlike writing a paper, you are less dependent on other resources (research, WiFi). You can survive with just a textbook, pen and paper.

Got a chance to explore downtown Bellevue while in Washington for Microsoft Explore interviews. Immediately afterwards, cozied up in my hotel room and did some math homework :’)

In terms of scheduling travel for on-site interviews, my advice is don’t spread it out too much. Certainly give yourself breathing room to finish school work on time, but having interviews in close proximity gives you practice that builds momentum, doesn’t weigh on your mind and aligns dates for when they give you an offer and state a decision deadline. You can always get a deadline extension, but extensions are not indefinite either. Knowing all your options in the same window of time relieves the possibility of: “I want to hear back from X before accepting, but I don’t know if I will even get an offer from X.”

Interview Preparation

I found Cracking the Coding Interview, Glassdoor, and doing mock interviews with a friend the most time efficient resources. Glassdoor gives you a sense of what topics are prioritized at what companies. For freshmen and sophomores, if you cover Chapters 1–4, 8 and 10 of Cracking the Coding Interview you are set. If you picked up a new language (e.g. Python), have an opinion on why and when you would use it. Interviews can be quite diverse in approach outside of the freshman & sophomore programs. For example, at Bank of America I was asked about networks and questions specific to Python. Adobe was even more diverse — from being asked to whiteboard a recursion problem to discussing the pros and cons of using APIs. Some companies have a system where you interview with the team you will be joining (e.g. Adobe), others will ask you to accept an offer before knowing your team or department. This may not matter to you, but worth considering or asking about!

You got this! 💪💪

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Stanford Women in Computer Science
Stanford Women in Computer Science

Written by Stanford Women in Computer Science

Stanford Women in Computer Science is a student organization that aims to promote and support the growing community of women in CS and technology.

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