Two weeks ago we had a huge job fair at UCSD. Long story short, I gave my resume to about fifteen recruiters and was selected for interviews from six. The companies are as follows: Cisco, Amazon, Intuit, HP, Salesforce, and Teradata.

Last weekend, Cisco accepted me into their summer internship program as a software engineer and I've passed on to the second round interviews with most of the other companies I've listed. However, I'm still reviewing my options. What are your guys' opinions?

Poll: You should work at
(Vote): Cisco
(Vote): Amazon
(Vote): Intuit
(Vote): HP
(Vote): Salesforce
(Vote): Teradata

iMarshall

Norway190 Posts

March 01 2010 21:09 GMT

Sounds like Cisco would be best. Sure, you'll earn more money at Amazon, but if they pay for a Master's degree, that's a lot of money. Plus, you get the choose the program that interests you the most, and get a free laptop.

mmp

United States2130 Posts

March 01 2010 21:10 GMT

If money isn't an issue for you (and it shouldn't be a factor in your decision making), I'd suggest going for the one you think will offer you the most challenging and interesting work. This may not be the one with the biggest name or the best perks, but opportunity only knocks once.

GreEny K

Germany7312 Posts

March 01 2010 21:14 GMT

Cisco will definitely be the best choice to go with, I've worked with them and we deal with their products all the time, it is an excellent choice.

citi.zen

2509 Posts

March 01 2010 21:31 GMT

HP seems the weakest and not a company I would invest a lot of time in. Cloud computing should be huge in 1-2 years, but Salesforce seems weak compared to other players (google), and as you say, right now it's QA work.

Cisco and Amazon seem solid. Intuit offers you an opening towards finance at some point in the future, should you be interested. Choose from those 3 based on your interests, as others said.

Eiserne

United States340 Posts

March 01 2010 21:40 GMT

Cisco seems like the best move if you're most concerned about money. But Amazon offers you a new place to live, Seattle, which I am sure you'd be absolutely thrilled with, the pay is better, and you'd have an 80% chance of a career when you're done.

I place a lot of emphasis (in my own life) on happiness outside of work, so I'd go with Amazon. Being in Seattle, having all those things around you, getting paid just enough more to make more things happen, these are all awesome.

meeple

Canada10211 Posts

March 01 2010 21:41 GMT

Cisco is solid for sure... I'd go with that

Mikilatov

United States3897 Posts

March 01 2010 22:48 GMT

Cisco or Amazon, I'd say. And the only reason I'd not definitively say Cisco is because you said you disliked the location. These would both provide some serious industry cred though. =)

Jibba

United States22883 Posts

March 01 2010 22:54 GMT

You need an option for 'YOUR INTERNSHIPS ARE PAID?!!'

T.O.P.

Hong Kong4685 Posts

March 01 2010 23:31 GMT

#10

Damn Sheng, you're smart. What's your major?

Shengster

United States167 Posts

March 01 2010 23:43 GMT

#11

On March 02 2010 08:31 T.O.P. wrote:
Damn Sheng, you're smart. What's your major?

Haha, not really. I got lucky and took the advice of the recruiter. The trick to getting an interview is to get there as early as possible to the job fair. Some companies do "standing-room only" which means as soon as they get 10 or so applicants they think are good, they wont accept anyone else.

I'm studying Computer Science.

Shengster

United States167 Posts

March 01 2010 23:47 GMT

#12

On March 02 2010 06:31 citi.zen wrote:
HP seems the weakest and not a company I would invest a lot of time in. Cloud computing should be huge in 1-2 years, but Salesforce seems weak compared to other players (google), and as you say, right now it's QA work.

Cisco and Amazon seem solid. Intuit offers you an opening towards finance at some point in the future, should you be interested. Choose from those 3 based on your interests, as others said.

I had a phone screen with HP and the engineer interviewing me gave me a good review. HP sent me an email a couple days later asking me to come in for a full-day interview. Turns out, they wanted to hire me full-time and forgot I wanted an summer internship =.=

Shengster

United States167 Posts

March 01 2010 23:52 GMT

#13

On March 02 2010 06:40 Eiserne wrote:
Cisco seems like the best move if you're most concerned about money. But Amazon offers you a new place to live, Seattle, which I am sure you'd be absolutely thrilled with, the pay is better, and you'd have an 80% chance of a career when you're done.

I place a lot of emphasis (in my own life) on happiness outside of work, so I'd go with Amazon. Being in Seattle, having all those things around you, getting paid just enough more to make more things happen, these are all awesome.

I've been to Seattle just once, and it was a pretty cool experience, and it's closer to Portland, probably my favorite city. I went up to the Olympus mountain range and the view was spectacular. Cisco also gave me a choice of a few other locations: North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, or Massachusetts. Going to the east coast might be kind of interesting as well.

StRyKeR

United States1739 Posts

March 02 2010 00:29 GMT

#14

I heard Amazon was a great place to work. The Cisco package looks really good though. The pay, the laptop, the 90% hire rate, the Masters... I'd narrow it down to Amazon / Cisco. Leaning towards Cisco.

JeeJee

Canada5652 Posts

March 02 2010 00:39 GMT

#15

On March 02 2010 06:10 mmp wrote:
If money isn't an issue for you (and it shouldn't be a factor in your decision making), I'd suggest going for the one you think will offer you the most challenging and interesting work. This may not be the one with the biggest name or the best perks, but opportunity only knocks once.

lol what? out in the real world things cost money and it is and should always be a factor in your decision making.

@OP personally I would go with Intuit but that's just because of my interests -- if tax does not interest you, then you can cross that off your list. Salesforce sounds interesting but it's QA.. if it were fulltime though I would consider it because you can easily jump into something else after a year, and cloud computing is a very interesting area I think. But just for an internship I would pass. Since you already wrote off HP due to their mistake, we're down to Cisco and Amazon. I would weigh the benefits of living in a new place vs the possibility of learning more, and decide. TBH I'd go to Amazon if I were you, because Seattle=win (a friend of mine is working there now for RIM)

Either way you have some solid choices, so good luck! =)

LosingID8

CA10828 Posts

March 02 2010 00:53 GMT

#16

seattle is a nice city but if you go there be ready for a lot of rain, and when it's not raining you can expect it to be overcast. i lived in washington for 12 years but i only noticed how gloomy the weather was after i came to california for college.

CaucasianAsian

Korea (South)11586 Posts

March 02 2010 01:26 GMT

#17

work at cisco and teach me how to bypass their cleanaccess agent!

citi.zen

2509 Posts

March 02 2010 02:19 GMT

#18

On March 02 2010 08:47 Shengster wrote:

Show nested quote +

That tells you how disorganized they are :-) They were getting their butts kicked then decided to bring in that crazy woman who wrecked what was left of the company. Thank god she's gone at least.

leetchaos

United States395 Posts

March 02 2010 02:29 GMT

#19

Insane salary is insane. Maybe I should have gone into programming instead....

Daveed

United States236 Posts

March 02 2010 03:50 GMT

#20

My friends who have gone to Amazon have generally had a good time. They have a lot of fun with their other interns; I think the Amazon intern program is pretty well put-together. I don't know too much about their projects, though. On the other hand, I haven't heard too much out of Cisco interns (but the ones who went there weren't as good friends with me).

I do have a question though. How clear were they about your options at the companies? How much do you know about them? How much say will you have in your project choice?

At this point, I don't think a poll is helpful at all; you could be put with a very cool project at Intuit, and shitty ones at the other ones. At the same time, I'm sure all those companies have legitimate engineering problems. Wait until you get your offers - only then will you know what to expect.

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