Fall term as a junior majoring in Computer Science is BUSY. This is more so than the average Caltech term because of one very very important reason. As you can guess from the title, this term coincides with the end of the peak internship application season for software engineering internships. Especially as a junior, it is really important what internships you apply for if you want to go into industry. This is because junior year is your last opportunity to get a summer internship, so whatever position you get, if you do well enough, can hopefully result in a full-time return offer once you graduate. Consider a new-grad returning offer to go along with a computer science degree just from the simple intern interview instead of the more rigorous full-time interview…need I say more?

Therefore last year, after applying and interviewing at countless companies throughout the term, I thought it might be helpful to share some of my experiences with future SWEs. Now that I’m a Senior, I hope that underclassmen and prospective students can learn from my past experiences.

To not bury the lead, as of January 2024, I had received offers from Amazon and eBay and accepted an offer from Audible in NJ. I continued the interview process for Meta. I can’t document all of the places I applied to, as there were so many, but I remember interviewing in some capacity for eBay, Snap, Palantir, WhatNot, Pinterest, Patreon, Rippling, Uncountable, Notion, Confluent, Roblox, IBM, Asana, Google, Cisco, Audible, and currently Meta. Here’s a list of reasons I didn’t move forward with some applications:

• The OA had a hard question I had never seen before and wasn’t prepared for
• The technical had a medium/easy problem but I overcomplicated the problem due to nervousness
• The technical had a medium question but I was having a bad day
• The technical had a medium/easy question that I hadn’t practiced
• The fire alarm went off during my OA, and they wouldn’t let me retake it
• I finished 1 and 1/2 questions during the technical but second-guessed myself out loud a lot
• The take-home assessment wanted me to use their platform, and I thought I did well but I didn’t
• I finished all the problems they gave in the technical but the position was filled
• I did not want to move forward in the application for some reason such as …
  • I didn’t like the company
  • The interview process was looking like it would be long
  • I already had an offer that I would take over it
  • I was just using it for practice
  • They didn’t offer an internship in my desired location
  • They didn’t pay enough
  • They were strictly virtual

I am probably missing some, but I honestly can’t keep up after interviewing for months.

All you have to remember is no matter how many places you apply to and interview for, only one place has to say yes. Only 1 and then you’re set.

P.S. I also made a YouTube video for the admissions page documenting a full week of interviews I had if you’re savvy enough to find it 🙂