The Internship Hunting Process

Hunting for a tech internship is a very stressful process for many college students in the United States. It is a process that is very competitive, albeit time-consuming. When we are not studying for our classes, we spend so much of our time applying to internships. From my personal experience, I applied to around 300 internships during my sophomore year and 100 internships during my Junior year. In my particular situation, finding an internship was not very stressful during my Sophomore year because I had a fallback option back to ec2 Software Solutions. I spent the previous summer there already, and I knew that if I was unable to find anything else then spending another summer there was not a major issue.

However, the real stress came once Summer 2024 internships opened. This was my year; I am now a Junior in college, and I knew that to move forward in my career, I needed to find another internship. Yes, I could have just stayed at Mirion Technologies where I work part-time during the school year anyway, but I wanted to experience something new. I really wanted to see how other company's development processes worked, how other companies provide for their interns, and get a full experience of what it is like to work at a different company. What is their culture like? What is their work-life balance like? What is their development process like? What is their technology stack? I wanted to know all of these things, and I knew that the only way to find out was to apply for internships. I wanted to learn.

The Behavioral Interview

Then, in late January of this year, luck struck. I open my email on a Monday during my lunch break at my current job, and I see an email from a recruiter asking to schedule a behavioral phone interview. I was so excited; this was the first time that someone had seen the potential that I could bring to the table. I had the entire week to schedule for an interview, so I went for the upcoming Friday. That gave me 4 days to prepare for the interview. Since it was just behavioral, I created a list of questions that usually get asked during behavioral interviews. I then drafted a couple of words to describe the corresponding situation that I felt best answered the question. Then, I practiced it out loud a few times to make sure that I was able to speak about it in a way that was clear and concise, while also adhering to the well-known STAR method. Ultimately, the interview went well, and I was asked to schedule a technical interview for the following week!

The Technical Interview

It was official, the company was quite interested in me. They sent over my meeting details for the technical interview. This was my time to shine and show off my skills; I needed to show them that I was the right person for the job. I spent the entire week preparing for the technical interview. I reviewed my data structures and algorithms, and I practiced a few problems on LeetCode. I also reviewed some of the technologies that I had listed on my resume, and I made sure that I was able to speak about them in a way that was clear and concise. I also made sure that I was able to speak about my projects in a way that was clear and concise.

Turns out I was actually over-prepared for the interview-which, isn't a bad thing. In my situation, the interview was for a front-end role, so I was asked some basic questions about the Box Model and Event Bubbling. The Event Bubbling question in particular was a bit challenging because I had never heard that term used. Instead, I told them how I would handle events in my workflow, which was a great alternative strategy when you don't know the direct answer to the question. Give the interviewers the best answer that you can, and if you don't know the answer, tell them how you would go about finding the answer. They also had me program a vending machine, where I made sure to talk through the process as I wrote the code. This is especially important; they really want to hear your thought process, and they encourage you to ask questions. From the moment I was given the task until the conclusion of the interview, I never stopped talking. I wanted to make sure that they knew that I was thinking about the problem and that I was able to communicate my thoughts effectively, showing my ability to work in a team. Keep talking your way through the problem, never shut up.

SELL YOURSELF!!!

The Offer

It took approximately one month to get a decision. This is atypical, though, as internship decisions are typically released within a few weeks. Giving them the benefit of the doubt was imperative, though, since they did tell me it could take until the end of February to get a decision. Once the first short week of March had concluded, I was quite sure that I would be "ghosted", aka, never to be heard back from.

However, I was wrong. Ironically, I was attending my current company's monthly development meeting when I got an email from my recruiter stating that I would be given an offer, and I was sent the official offer letter shortly after. I was absolutely thrilled, my internship-hunting process was finally over. I have a position where I can show off my skills and do the best that I can! Life-changing.

What I learned

I learned that the internship hunting process is very stressful, but it is also very rewarding in the end. It may seem like your cold applications are not going anywhere, but trust me, they are. All it takes is one recruiter to believe in you, then just remember. SELL YOURSELF!!!

End Notes, FAQs

  • My internship will be at ServiceNow, in Santa Clara, CA (Silicon Valley - Bay Area). I will be working on the Access Controls team as an Associate Software Engineer Intern
  • I will be staying in a shared Airbnb, most likely with other interns, but I am not sure. The house is shared, has individual rooms, and is relatively close to the office
  • I will be shipping my car because Uber is expensive and time-consuming! Hertz wanted $6000 for the summer with AAA young driver discounts, insane! Don't even get me started with Turo.
  • I will be flying into SFO (San Francisco International Airport)
  • The internship is from late May to mid-August.
  • I will be writing another blog post about my experience at ServiceNow, so stay tuned for that!