Intern Talk Talking Points

Talk.txt

Intern Talk

1. Searching for an internship
    1. www.intern.supply
    2. Sent your resume & never heard back?
        1. Focus on what you want to do (ex: Data, PM, Front-end, Back-end)
            1. Try to apply to second tier companies that match what you want to do (ex: me at 1010data)
- You will gain “experience”! 
        2. Talk with people who are working at your dream company
            1. Screenshot of Google Tweet: https://twitter.com/AdamSinger/status/765591442500620288
            2. Cold emails on linkedin: http://imgur.com/a/DsbwP
        3. Go where the companies are - IRL!
            1. Crashed Stanford Career Fair: follow ups from Twitter + Palantir + a bunch of startups
            2. Also got to ask Google Q’s
    3. Get your friends to refer you, skip the first step
        1. Show of hands of people who know someone who has had an internship before (maybe!)

2. Preparing for the interview - P R A C T I C E
    1. The basics: CTCI, CTPM, Hackerrank, www.bigocheatsheet.com 
        - KNOW THESE. No getting around it. 
    2. Mock interviews: 
        - www.pramp.com, http://pmint.herokuapp.com/
        - Whiteboard: SFSU library rooms
        - With other HUMANS. There are a lot here, right now. 
    3. “Tell me about yourself”
        - Everything in your life led you to this job
        - 2 mins about you, 2 mins about the company

3. During the interview
    1. Explain your thoughts/bottlenecks
        1. Shopify: don’t know what DB denormalisation is, explained a poor version of it to interviewer.
        2. Google: Learn a language that no human knows, obviously unclear, need to explain tradeoffs
        3. NO SOLUTION IS PERFECT: Be okay with tradeoffs. Notice them, (ideally) solve them

    2. Give the interviewer the chance to chime in
        1. “Does this sound right to you?”
        2. “Would you like more details or moving on?”
        3. If you’ve been speaking >2 mins, stop and sumarise

    3. ASK GOOD QUESTIONS
        1. What is the biggest challenge/opportunity for company in next 18 months?
        2. What’s a typical week like for your team? 
            1. Plug your experience here! 
        3. Do you have feedback for me? 
            1. No? What do people mess up?