How can I find internship opportunities as a freshman?
How can I find internship opportunities as a freshman?
The technology industry encompasses businesses that are committed to the research, development, and distribution of technologically-based goods and services. These can include those specializing in software and hardware engineering, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, and cloud computing. It is considered perhaps the most rapidly evolving and innovative industry, offering various products and services for consumers and businesses.
Consumer goods like personal computers, mobile devices, wearable technology, appliances, and more are always improving and being sold to consumers with new features. And on the business side, companies utilize innovations from the technology sector to create their software, manage their logistics systems, and generally provide services that allow them to make strategic decisions.
More recently, breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have transformed the tech industry and lives of billions globally. AI technologies are being incorporated into existing applications to enhance the user experience, and millions of jobs are projected to be both created and destroyed by its dissemination.
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Freshmen Year
Get involved in relevant extracurriculars such as tech or coding clubs. Begin learning coding languages (Python, Java, C++, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, R, SQL) through courses or online resources. Participating in hackathons or robotics competitions can help build foundational skills.
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Sophomore Year
Apply to pre-internship or exploratory programs early in the year. Build a portfolio of personal projects to demonstrate technical ability. Continue learning coding languages and attend info sessions and networking events.
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Junior Year
Fully commit to recruiting in the summer and fall. Most major tech companies (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, etc.) target juniors for internships that may lead to return offers. Larger firms offer strong exit opportunities, while smaller or niche companies provide chances to pursue specific interests.
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Senior Year
Finalize your career path and apply for full-time positions if not already returning to a previous employer. Continue networking and attending information sessions to broaden options and solidify opportunities.
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TECHNOLOGY
INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT
"EVERYTHING IS AI RIGHT NOW. THERE WILL BE OPPORTUNITIES OF HOW TO USE AI TOOLS PRODUCTIVELY BUT THERE WILL BE CHALLENGES IN FIGURING OUT HOW TO DO IT WELL."
TECHNOLOGY
BRIAN XU
What drew you to the tech industry, and how did you discover your specific area of interest (e.g., software, data, product, AI)?
Working in tech was super glamorized since I went to Stanford, which feeds many grads into tech in the Bay Area. And I just ended up being a sheep who went along with it. I first joined tech by working a summer internship at LinkedIn after my junior year in a sales enablement team that worked to make salespeople more effective. That parlayed into a full-time offer in a sales rotation program where I did rotations in recruiting and customer service. At that time I became more interested in data science and did side projects. One of those side projects fed into a larger project that gained more visibility with the CEO at the time. The CEO didn't know I existed but I got lucky and that data science & economic research team used that to hire me full-time. I'm still on the same team 8 years later.
How did your college/educational experience—courses, projects, or extracurriculars—prepare you for a career in tech?
I did my undergrad in Economics and got a master's in Public Policy which somehow is actually related to my current team, which uses LinkedIn data to create economic metrics to say stuff about the economy. I learned some coding in CS intro classes that helped
me transition into being a data scientist better. But I wouldn't say I had the vision during college to prepare myself in that way. It just worked out and I'm grateful.
Were there mentors, peers, or early professional experiences that helped you break into the industry, and what did you learn from them?
Yes, I had an existential crisis my sophomore year when I was taking dumb Econ classes where I was maximizing the utility functions of fictional people trading apples and oranges on deserted islands. I told the staff leader at my Christian fellowship that I didn't think any of this applied to an actual job and she connected me to alumni that graduated with my same major. One of the alumni somehow became my intern manager a year and a half later. Definitely a coincidence but with a shade of nepotism. That intern manager taught me so much about basic skills like how to write emails, take notes, speak in a meeting, organize files and data, and function in a corporate environment. Feeling a lot of appreciation for that as I'm writing out these answers.
Technology changes so quickly—where do you see the biggest opportunities and challenges in the next five years, and how can new graduates prepare to meet them?
Everything is AI right now. There will be opportunities of how to use AI tools productively but there will be challenges in figuring out how to do it well. New graduates should be adaptable and willing to learn, not super revolutionary I know.
Where do you see your industry going in the next 5 years, and where do you think newcomers or entry-level professionals fit into that?
At entry level you need to first be good at whatever job you're hired for. If you're good at your job and good to work with, then you will put yourself in a better position to thrive. You can also be unlucky and be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Lots of tech folks have gotten laid off in the past couple of years and sometimes there's nothing you can do. But be good at the job and good to work with.