The topic of this blog will be internships. For anyone who reads this blog who still has time left in the program, I would highly recommend you find an internship sometime before you graduate. Whether that be in the summer of in the winter. But I think most of the companies usually do summer internships. When I first started this program in March of 2020, I had no intention of doing an internship. My original goal was to just complete this program as fast as I can so that I can get the CS degree and jump into the job market. So I had plans to take classes in summer of 2021.
But after doing some research, I saw how valuable internships were during an undergrad program. Thus, I decided to try and find one for the summer of 2021. Thankfully I did, after much stress and anxiety from studying for those technical interviews (check out my other blog for more info about this). Although I may be completing this program 3 months later than originally expected, I think that an internship provides real world experiences in software development that classes cannot. In school you learn more about the theoretical aspects of certain software development processes but in an internship you actually do those practices! Like agile, or scrum, and various other practices. You learn how to work with a team, learn how to work on production code, and ultimately gives you a taste of what you might do as a software engineer upon landing a full time job.
I also think that having at least one internship experience is great for your resume! It really helps you get noticed by companies. I am definitely not trying to brag (because getting an interview is much different than getting an offer 😂) but I have gotten interviews with several well known companies including Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Adobe. I believe I was noticed by these companies mainly because of my summer internship experience. I am sure there are many many other factors that contribute to getting noticed by recruiters but I know for a fact that someone with internship experience vs someone without, will get noticed probably most of the time.
With all that being said, I hope it influences you to do at least one internship during your time in this program! The skills you learn are extremely valuable and will be great for interviews. Plus, you can earn a little money as well 🙂
