Name: Minhaz Mahmud

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: LinkedIn | Title of Your Position: Site Reliability Engineering Intern

Major(s)/Minor(s): Computer Science

Expected Graduation Year: May 2015

Briefly describe your internship, co-op, research, or service-learning opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.

I worked on LinkedIn's Mobile Site Reliability Engineering Team. The team supports all of LinkedIn's mobile apps including the main LinkedIn app, LinkedIn Jobs, LinkedIn Connected, and more. I worked on building a framework that would assist in monitoring the mobile apps to detect failures in production as soon as they happen so user impact is minimized. Each day I looked at my goals for the week and figured out what I needed to do that day and began working. The project was prototyped and presented at the LinkedIn Intern Fair and to the VP of Engineering.

Describe the process of obtaining your internship, research, or co-op opportunity.

I applied for the position through LinkedIn's careers page. I prepared for the interview by going through Cracking The Coding Interview and doing practice problems. The process consisted of several rounds of technical phone interviews. Since the position was for LinkedIn, I made sure my LinkedIn profile had as much information as it could and was a good representation of me.

Which of the following resources did you use to find your current experience?

LinkedIn Careers Website

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization/company?

LinkedIn had a great culture. Help was always available when I needed it. There were a ton of intern events to make the experience as enjoyable as possible. I got to work on an interesting project and I was given any software or hardware I asked for if it would help me with my work. For example, I requested an iPhone 5S with a data plan to test some functionality and I received it just a few hours later. Then of course there is the free food and snacks!

What have you gained from your experience that you could not have gained from another opportunity?

I met a lot of smart people and built some great relationships. I met some of the smartest people in the computer science industry and got to experience first hand what it was like to work in Silicon Valley. I think the experience was definitely unique. I was also able to attend various speaker sessions and company all hands where the CEO and famous authors and influencers spoke.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

Apply to a lot of positions and polish your resume, have some personal projects on there! Really understand data structures and algorithms for the technical interviews.

Please provide a short reflection or quote about what you liked most about your position / earning internship credit / the internship placement process.

LinkedIn had a great culture where I felt I could do my best work but still have fun at the same time.

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