April 2022

My Journey to a Tech Industry Internship

This is the story about how I began my search for a tech industry internship as a social science PhD student in my second year. If you are looking for my guide for getting an internship, that’s over here.

Where to Begin? Build Your Network

I began this process with a fair amount working for and against me. As a first-generation college student, I didn’t inherit valuable personal and professional networks in academia or industry. Simply put, I didn’t know anyone and no one knew me. On the other hand, I attend an Ivy-League school with strong connections with industry and a litany of students who have interned. Given this, I knew if I could focus on networking and impressing the hiring committees in interviews that I would have a strong shot at landing a position.

It took me multiple tries to get into the PhD program I am in currently. Over the years that I was applying I spent an immeasurable amount of time learning skills others took for granted or had support people to do for them. I conducted over a hundred informational interviews to build out my network and many hours refining my writing abilities for statements of purpose, personal statements, and fellowship/grant applications. All of these skills are what I repurposed for this search.

I knew to start with those closest to me and let the connections thereafter snowball.

I began talking to other students. In and outside my department. I read their cover letters and resumes. I heard the questions they were asked in interviews and their responses. They told me their salaries. Most importantly, they told me their professional context. How they heard about the internship and what strings were pulled that helped them get there. It is the unfortunate reality that few social science PhD students get internships without a network connection. Unless you are very technical, it is likely you will need to work the social side of this process.

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A note on selecting on the dependent variable (DV): Perhaps the most dangerous side-effect of informational interviews is selecting on the dependent variable. Here is an example of that: there is a well-known book called “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” Many people read this book and attempt to enact the strategies to become more effective in their own lives. However, a crucial piece of the puzzle is missing: who these people are. We know nothing about the habits of less effective people. How many other people try these strategies and fail? How many of the “highly effective” people were simply lucky? Born into high power positions? We don’t know. The same can be said of your interviews with people who have interned, you don’t know what people who fail to get internships are doing. They could be the same strategies and there is something else that led them to succeed where others fail!
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Then I cold-emailed alumni. I used website directories that usually document where alumni end up and LinkedIn for people who had the same or similar degrees. I went through a similar process of inquiry where I learned about internal recommendations that employees can provide you that get you on the shortlist for positions. I also learned the most surefire way to get an internship is to reach out to a lab/researcher and collaborate with them on an academic paper. I got feedback on my resume and insight to some questions they may ask in interviews. I also learned that most huge tech companies screen and administer general tests to applicants before placing them into highly-specific teams or labs.

Gaining information on process and strategy while building your network is important, but it is all for nothing if you miss an application deadline. It is important to note that many tech internships have rolling admissions. These companies review and interview applicants as they receive them. So, the sooner you submit, the greater your chance of success is. If you apply late, they may have already hired before even seeing your application.

Setting my LinkedIn profile to “looking for work” was the most valuable not missing job postings. Each day I would get an email with postings that were for graduate interns. I supplemented this with a bookmark folder on my browser full of the major tech companies hiring pages. Lastly, I am a part of a Slack group for social scientists who study or work in tech. There is a channel about internships where calls are crowd sourced.

Sometimes these processes would result in a positive feedback loop. When an opportunity is posted on a forum, listserv, or online community there is the likelihood someone has already interned at the company or lab. I would reach out to these folks and chat over DM or have a video call to discuss the particulars.

As you can see, these are feedback loops. You build out an alert network, find someone with relevant experience or insights, talk to them, ask them for recommendations, and repeat. Even if nothing comes from these conversations now, they only grow more valuable as time goes on. You never know when they will come in handy and vice-versa.

Apply, Apply, Apply

Most tech internship applications I encountered were very simple. Typically, the most intensive piece of prep work was the resume. The only application that allowed for a CV was Microsoft. All of the others were a two-page resume.

Through my informational interview work, I came into contact with a researcher at Google who was willing to coach me through writing a resume for industry (to which I am gracious and indebted). I spent an hour or two cutting and refining language and went through two revision cycles with him.

If at all possible, rely on people with experience. In an ideal world, you shouldn’t be doing anything for the first time without expert support. That goes double for internship apps and grants that are typically on a one-year cycle. If you don’t have these people accessible right now, that’s okay. This is all doable by yourself and you will learn a ton just by participating. Not to mention, once you’ve written something once, it’s that much easier to do it again. If you are able, make the effort to reach out begin building your support network. You will expend more energy and produce lower quality materials if you don’t have support built into this process.

The only other noteworthy materials were publications (which you either have or you don’t) and cover letters. I had prior experience writing cover letters, so I was able to whip them up with little fanfare. If you haven’t, then lean on your university (professional development office, grants office, etc.), advisers, and fellow graduate students. When all else fails, there are many people who have posted publicly on this topic.

Note: If you are not a citizen of the country you applying to work in make sure you are up-to-date on the status and conditions of your visa. Large tech companies are practiced with working international employees, so this knowledge is helpful to have on hand. Also, there will be internships that don’t allow non-citizens to apply for as they work with US military (archaic, but unfortunately something to watch out for).

Here is a list of my applications and results:

• • Microsoft Research: Office of Applied Research [INTERVIEW]
  • Microsoft Research: Computational Social Science [NO RESPONSE]
  • Facebook: UX Research Intern [NO RESPONSE]
  • Facebook Reality Labs: Health & Safety Research Scientist Intern [NO RESPONSE]
  • Google: Student Intern [NO RESPONSE]
  • Spotify: Research Scientist in Tech Research [REJECTED]
  • Spotify: Research Scientist in Algorithmic Impact & Responsibility [NO RESPONSE]

Applied to in the Spring:

• • Tiktok: User Experience Research Intern [NO RESPONSE]
  • Intel Sociotechnical Intern [INTERVIEW]
  • Intel Graduate Intern User Experience Research [WITHDREW]

Some of you will see this list and feel like it is a lot, others will see this as few. Meet yourself where you are at. These are what fit my strange research background and the capacity for applying that I had at the time.

Interviews

A word of caution: some companies take an exceedingly long time to respond. A good friend of mine applied to numerous internships in the fall, interviewed at a number of them, and had offers before the semester was over. She accepted one offer and moved on. Fast forward two months into February and she receives an email asking if she would be willing to interview for an internship. The problem was that she accepted an internship that wasn’t the best fit for her, but it was on the table, so she accepted. Months go by and an internship with perfect fit contacts her for an interview. Heartbreak. She ended up keeping the original internship and instead of an interview, had an informational interview and will apply next year.

To deal with this potential situation, there is really only one thing you can do. Contact your recruiters immediately after receiving an offer. This does two things: first, it will accelerate your application review at other companies. Second, if you get other offers, then you have negotiation power. When a company sees another company wants you, that’s a quality indicator and can positively affect their perception of you. On the other hand, when rushed they may choose to reject you outright.

Okay, back to my experience. Of my ten applications, I received two interview requests (Intel and Microsoft). Microsoft took 98 days (over three months) to respond. Intel took 34 days to respond. For Intel, I was shortlisted and they were on a shorter hiring deadline. I would take Microsoft as a more representative process.

For both Microsoft and Intel, I received an email directly from the hiring researcher. This contrasts with Facebook who typically have a recruiter reach out. From my informational interviews, Facebook tends to get back quicker and has a more standard and predictable process (screening, general interview, placement, and final interview with research team). Whereas Microsoft and Intel are more ad-hoc and less predictable.

For both interview requests, the hiring research asked if I could interview within a few days (usually during the same week I received the email). I was intentional to respond as immediately as I could. Let’s look at the background research I did, format of the interviews, and questions I was asked.

Background

I interviewed with Microsoft in late January and Intel in late March, so I will start with Microsoft.

To be honest, I over-prepared for my first interview. Here are some of the steps I took:

• • Read about the history of the lab
  • Read bios of all researchers at the lab
  • Read all press releases and public writing from the lab
  • Read the most recent four publications from the hiring researcher
  • Summarized and organized all of these findings into note documents that I kept on the sides of the video call
  • Reviewed common qualitative and computational methods questions
  • Practiced hypothetical research design questions

For context, it was a 30-minute informal interview which I had two days to prepare for. Not to mention in the background I had my life, coursework, and research. Not to be understated was the amount of pressure I felt to get this right. At the time, it was the only non-rejection I had received which is hard on the psyche. Use your best judgement based on others experiences plus the communication you receive from the company to inform your background prep strategies.

Format & Questions

Alright, let’s go over each interview and the questions I was asked:

MSR#1 Hiring Researcher (30 min)
The first interview was a very informal one-on-one. Typically, I expect the structure to be provided by the interviewer(s). However, this was not the case. I received an introduction and was asked to give a short overview of who I am and what I study.

I cannot understate how important it is to have a rehearsed and charismatic elevator pitch covering you and your work. You will be asked to do this many, many times. So, get good at it and enjoy talking about it!

From there, I was given background on the project and was asked these questions:

• • How would you start a research project?
  • How do you interact with people? Other researchers as collaborators, engineers, product managers, etc.
  • How do you manage conflict among teams? With participants? With engineers?
  • Tell me about a time where you had to redirect your work?

You will notice that all of these questions are about researching in the “real world.” Not to say academia isn’t real, but you it is not representative of most workplaces. This researcher was looking for someone who could start and complete a research project with little oversight. Someone who was good with ambiguity and wouldn’t need to be asked to find answers. Lastly, someone who understands the limitations of working in industry. Can you make compromises? Can you manage ethics and reality?

MSR#2 Hiring Researcher + Product Manager (30 min)

The second interview was with the original hiring researcher, but they brought in the Product Manager* as I would be working with both of them closely. This was a more standard interview.

I was asked:

• • We have a lot of ideas and real problems, how do you decide what problems matter and if you/your team should do them?
  • Tell me about a project you are really proud of.
  • Describe your ideal workplace.
  • How would you deal with cultural differences in the workplace?

*Product Managers are a class of employee that are in charge of making a piece of technology or technology feature (in this case software) come to reality. Their teams are typically comprised of engineers and user experience researchers.

MSR Reflection

I was stunned by the informality of the whole process. It took me a moment in the interview to get my bearings and lean into the ad-hoc responses and questions (especially with all the prep I did). I was told that it was between myself and one other person.They went with the other person because of better research fit.

Still hurts!

Intel#1 Hiring Researcher (30 min)

This was a pretty standard interview. The goal of the interview was to provide background on the project and probe if I was a good fit.

Questions:

• • Tell me about your background and do you have an idea of what your dissertation will look like?
  • Now that you’ve heard about the project, how do you feel about this subject as it relates to your career goals and interests?
  • Can you tell me more about your background with ethnographic methods?
  • Can you tell me more about your background with AI/ML/computer vision?

Intel#2 Lab Researcher (30 min)

This was the most unstructured of the three. It ended up being a conversation about methods, the practice of industry research, and a bit about the history of the Labs. Specifically about how social scientists were hired at Intel originally and how they factor into the work culture. It was a very pleasant interview that felt like chatting with a colleague.

Intel#3 Lab Researcher (35 min – went over time)

In this interview, I asked my questions before theirs. So, here are some questions I asked:

• • When conducting research, how does Intel’s role as a primarily hardware manufacturer affect your work as a researcher?
  • What role do sensors and telemetry have on qualitative work?
  • What have been your most fruitful collaborations (internal or external)?

I provided my background, but most of the conversation was informal chatting about what he is currently working on. I assume (like interview 4) that this interview was for my benefit. To learn about the lab more broadly by hearing about someone’s experience and the breadth of research that happens in the lab.

Intel#4 Business Liaison/Researcher (45min – went over time)

This was an incredible interview. I was only asked two questions, but they led to incredible conversation.

• • Based on the background you have heard about this project; how would you go about studying it?
  • Okay, if I gave you this starting lead list, how would you narrow it down and select your sample for interviews and outreach?
  • What are you hoping to get out of this internship? What does success look like to you?

I gained a lot of context about the nature and stage of this research project. I also asked numerous questions for which there were thoughtful and thorough responses. I learned so much from this conversation about how research functions in industry. Specifically how the traditional academic process shifts based on the affordances and drawbacks of industry.

Note: This person explicitly said he wasn’t on the hiring team, so he will summarize and send notes to the hiring researcher but didn’t have the sway to make the hiring decision.

Intel Reflection

Note: I had an informational interview with a former lab member before interviewing (which helped me prep for the people I would talk to).

I was wowed by the care and respect I received as an interviewee for this position. Each interview was very different, but equally valuable. The humanity and intelligence of each interviewer really showed and helped me envision a work life in the Labs. I was asked in every interview what I was hoping to accomplish as an intern and what my definition of success was. Each of them seemed genuinely invested in making sure that if I was hired that those dreams would be a part of the work.

Offer

Typically, this section would describe some level of contemplation or negotiation that would happen if I had multiple offers.

This is not the case.

I only had the one offer and was ecstatic to accept it!