Name: Katie Swanson

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: Google

Position Title: Engineering Practicum Intern

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

Expected Graduation Year: May 2017

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

I am a software engineering intern at a huge company whose goal is to make all of the world's information more accessible. I was on the Play Analytics team, creating a visualization of the Play Store data for the business analysts and other higher ups to better see where the Play Store stands in different statistics. Day-to-day tasks included programming in java and javascript, lots of meetings to discuss plans for my project, and there were fun things scheduled in, too! I am expected to be responsible for my project, finish my milestones by their deadlines, attend meetings I am expected to attend, and to enjoy my summer by maintaining a healthy work-life balance. I finished about one change-list per week. Change-lists are chunks of code that improve my project. My hosts and other full-timers have to review it and comment on it to make sure what I added is perfect before it can be submitted to the official Google code-base.

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

I was looking for summer internships Freshmen year, and I heard Google had an amazing internship program. I heard both from word of mouth from trustworthy sources, as well as from the movie The Internship. It seemed like a perfect fit, so I Googled "Google Summer Internship 2014" and it took me right to the application page. I applied directly on the Careers@Google site and it was a pretty easy application. I had to submit basic information, my resume, and an optional cover letter. Later on, I received an email from the University Recruiting Team asking me to respond to five essay questions and send in my transcript. I applied in September, I received that follow-up email about a week later, then in November, I received an email asking if they could interview me for a summer intern position. I replied with my availability, and I scheduled an interview right after finals ended in December. I had two technical interviews over the phone using Google Docs. They included algorithms and data structures which I completed it in Python, including a section I had to code myself. I got a call at the end of January from my recruiter saying I got the job! It was a very exciting, rewarding process, and I am proud of myself for not using any connections and working hard to obtain this position on my own.   

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

I love the emphasis the company puts on work-life balance and treating their employees right. You are not going to get a good product if your workers are upset or treated poorly. There are plenty of opportunities to have fun, and taking breaks from work (not for too long) is proven to increase efficiency. There isn't much pressure to succeed and do well here in the sense that our competitors are more like friendly competitors, like "Wow you did that better than us, that's impressive, can we see how?" It's just a big fun relaxed family that wants to make the user experience better and change the world a little.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

I believe I have made a significant impact on the Google Play Store on all Android devices. I have created an internal tool to visualize the data and usage of the Play Store so business analysts and other important people can use it to make important business decisions about the Play Store. For instance, they could see that including the wallet logo next to the purchase button was actually lowering sales, so they would decide to remove the wallet logo, and the sales numbers would go up. What I did impacts Google's business and monetary intake as well as improving the user experience of the Play Store.

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

Apply for everything. Put yourself out there by contacting recruiters and being very enthusiastic about wanting to work for their company. I applied to maybe over 60 summer internships, and one had to have accepted me. The odds are high at that point. Create a LinkedIn and add all of your classmates and people who have similar career goals so you can support each other. Message recruiters from companies first on the company recruitment email (aka careers@google.com), then through anyone you may know who works there, then find a good recruiter on LinkedIn and send them a personal message expressing your interest. It is absolutely essential that you make connections and use them. You can help others out as well so it is a huge web of interns helping other interns get internships. If you network enough, you will have connections at companies you want to work for, then getting a contact through them (either a project manager or a recruiter) will be very beneficial. It is having an insider connection/referral and companies take those into more consideration than someone who applies out of the blue with no context. If you make a friend at a Women in Computing Conference who works for Facebook, you could ask her to connect you to her recruiter so you could possibly get an internship there as well. It is very beneficial to network and create as many connections as possible, it will open so many doors and opportunities you otherwise wouldn't have known were there.

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