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On March 02 2010 12:50 Daveed wrote:
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.
I'm pretty familiar with the projects that would be available at Cisco, Amazon, and Intuit. Each company has some fairly interesting things going on, and I wouldn't mind going to any of them. I've already received an offer from Cisco, and want to see what other peoples' experiences were at those companies.
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I would ask if you would be working on a cubicle, god I dread those.
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I did some research and found that most entry level hires at Amazon work 50 hours a week and they have no reimbursement plan for graduate education. I'm definitely planning to get my Master's or an MBA in the future.
I think it's 90% certain that I'll be going to Cisco now. Ironically, I'll be working 7 minutes away from my dad over the summer (at Intel). I guess we will be carpooling. Haha.
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Osaka27105 Posts
I wuold rather live in San Diego than any of the other places listed.
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this thread makes me depressed. i have yet to find an intern :'(
best of luck though!
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Don't go to HP. You'll be cursed forever.
"STUPID PRINTER, WHOMEVER MADE THIS THING SHOULD BE DRAGGED OUT AND SHOT."
For. Ever.
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On March 05 2010 16:50 Amnesia wrote:
this thread makes me depressed. i have yet to find an intern :'(
best of luck though!
Thanks, I hope you find a great summer job. I just accepted my offer from Cisco over the summer. Thanks for helping me in my decision guys!
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Calgary25954 Posts
Wow! Congrats to you! That's a lot of options to have for a summer internship 
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Being a cs major and without doing any further research on these companies, my immediate decision would be Amazon because it pays high (my friend who is returning for a 2nd internship there told me it pays high too). I was told their training and program is pretty nice and fun, and they make you work hard (extra hrs?) so you learn a lot. As for hardware, well you have to decide if that's your thing. Do you want to become a systems software engineer or just general application? Seems like u have decided already.
At my school Amazon is one of the big three to work for (the other two being Google and MS) and it's a good resume builder, probably better than Cisco, but it may not matter if you plan to become a full-time at Cisco. you never know when you want to change your mind though.
And kind of off topic, my friend was a cisco intern last summer, they only paid her $16/hr and they want her to come back this summer. But she got an offer from Google (not software though) and she was like uhh no thanks cisco 
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Osaka27105 Posts
On March 11 2010 03:39 Shengster wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2010 16:50 Amnesia wrote:
this thread makes me depressed. i have yet to find an intern :'(
best of luck though! Thanks, I hope you find a great summer job. I just accepted my offer from Cisco over the summer. Thanks for helping me in my decision guys!
Congratulations. Give us a report after the summer and tell us how it all went.
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I'm struggling with all of my might to get a really shitty internship :[ :[ :[.
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On March 11 2010 16:25 imDerek wrote:Being a cs major and without doing any further research on these companies, my immediate decision would be Amazon because it pays high (my friend who is returning for a 2nd internship there told me it pays high too). I was told their training and program is pretty nice and fun, and they make you work hard (extra hrs?) so you learn a lot. As for hardware, well you have to decide if that's your thing. Do you want to become a systems software engineer or just general application? Seems like u have decided already. At my school Amazon is one of the big three to work for (the other two being Google and MS) and it's a good resume builder, probably better than Cisco, but it may not matter if you plan to become a full-time at Cisco. you never know when you want to change your mind though. And kind of off topic, my friend was a cisco intern last summer, they only paid her $16/hr and they want her to come back this summer. But she got an offer from Google (not software though) and she was like uhh no thanks cisco
I'm in a pretty good position right now; many of my friends would kill to have just one offer, but I have three at the moment. I appreciate your insight into an internship at Amazon; it's definitely a great company to work for, and looks good on your resume as well.
I had my interviews with Intuit and Salesforce on Monday. Intuit was very impressive, I had two forty-five minute sessions with two different people. One was a program manager, and the other was a software developer. The software developer had me code most of the time, while the program manager asked me knowledge based object-oriented programming questions and went over my previous work history. My offer from Intuit was free relocation, and possibly free rent. They set up housing for me, and literally all I would have to do is pack my suitcase and everything is furnished. They also informed me that my position could last the entire school year, because they have a campus in San Diego.
I haven't heard back from Salesforce, but the job is a QA position, while my other offers are definitely going to be developer positions. I wanted to interview anyway to see what they offered and also to gain more experience in technical interviews. The guy I spoke to was a QA engineer who graduated from UI-Urbana; he was really bright and seemed passionate about what his company did in cloud computing. We basically coded most of the time, debugged, and tried edge test cases.
I feel that every company that I have on my list has something great to offer. It's just the fact that I have so many choices that makes things difficult. The funny thing about HP was because that their hiring manager screwed up, they decided my initial thirty-minute phone screen was enough for a formal job offer. They're still putting something together, so I wont know what it is until next Monday.
During the entire process of meeting recruiters to finding a job, I've been really impressed with how Cisco employees have treated me. They've always been respectful, and treated me like a peer. My friend worked at Cisco last summer, and he said he had a great time (pay definitely was higher than $16 for a software engineer). While they don't provide possibly free or subsidized rent like Intuit, they do have a nice lump-sum relocation bonus. I'm definitely not a hardware guy, but networking is so huge and pervasive everywhere now in computing, and I think I'd learn a great deal.
Maybe it's a little too early to think about where I want to work after I graduate, but I know that Amazon doesn't have a tuition reimbursement program, and Cisco provides $10k/year (they gave offers to 90% of their interns last year). I haven't interviewed at Amazon yet (possibly next week with a phone interview) and I hear their process is pretty rigorous; we'll see what happens though.
After receiving my offers from Intuit and HP, I really have to look at all my options. Cisco has a nice choice program where you can choose from 13 business units. Intuit has several business units as well; I asked them about whether I could work on mint.com, and they said was a possibility (how cool is that?). HP, I have no idea what they would have me do yet.
Turns out, my hiring contact in Cisco told me that I'm just in the beginning of the hiring process. I just filed some information for a background check, and only afterward will I know which business unit I can match up with, and what my salary will be. I'd say my decision right now is pretty tentative at best. It's funny that you mention Google and Microsoft; I didn't have an interview with Google (got notified I wasn't a good fit) and didn't pass to the second round with Microsoft (I could have sworn I did well enough during my interview to warrant it though).
A terrible story about Amazon--I had a scheduled interview with them on Tuesday; it was going to be the last interview I had that week. I had two on Monday (Intuit and Salesforce), and for some reason thought my Amazon interview was later in the afternoon. When I got to school, I found that I was scheduled for the morning. It was completely my own mistake and actually missed my interview slot. At our career services center at school, when a student is a no-show they get suspended from going to any events or interviews for a year; because I showed up to apologize in person, and it was an honest mistake, the lady at the front desk waived the suspension. I actually got to meet the engineer I would have spoken to, and he was really nice. He said he thought my apology was sincere and that I should send them to set up a phone interview instead.
Anyway, I was pretty crapped out for the rest of the day. My girlfriend told me that maybe it was fate. I studied maybe two weeks and went through every Amazon interview question I could find online. I created an account on mechanical turk to perform a HIT, just to see what the process was like. I learned about EC2 and how they setup server instances for clients.
I'll probably keep you guys updated on what happens. At the very least it will be somewhat entertaining and/or insightful for those of you who want to have a deeper look into technical internships.
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On March 11 2010 17:11 Comeh wrote:
I'm struggling with all of my might to get a really shitty internship :[ :[ :[.
What do you study?
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I thought I'd update you guys on what has happened so far. I didn't receive an offer from Salesforce or Amazon. Salesforce told me that this was partly because I was on such a tight schedule, and while they wanted to give me an offer, they would have to wait for an opening in their company before any tangible offer would surface. Amazon straight out rejected me and didn't offer any feedback. It was still nice of them to set up a phone interview considering that I missed them at school. Overall my experience with them was a pretty good one; coding over the phone really wasn't, but hey, it was a good learning experience.
Yesterday, I had an interview on-site at Teradata in Rancho Bernardo, San Diego. It was pretty cool actually; they have a development group that's working with offshore developers in China and India and wanted me to be part of a project that would involve me collaborating with people overseas. I think it'd be a pretty interesting experience. I wasn't told too much about the project because my interview with the development manager was only 30 minutes. The rest of the interview was with a HR lady who asked mostly behavioral questions. She set up an offer for me at the end, and I'll have to wait to see what the details are.
I got an update from Intuit; their development manager (who I would work for if I went there over the summer) called me from his house and we spoke for about thirty minutes. It was pretty chill; I found out that their interns get free housing in Mountain View, and that's a big plus. If I went back home over the summer, we'd have to squeeze five people into three bedrooms, and I'm not big on sleeping on the living room floor (which I did through high school for a while). I think if I went to Cisco, I would end up renting my own place, which makes more sense anyway.
Cisco was nice enough to extend my deadline to next Tuesday. They're trying to renegotiate my salary to be closer to Intuit's which is much higher than what HP and Teradata would be able to offer. I don't think salary is a huge issue considering I'll only be working for a few months, and I'm really more interested in the experience as opposed to the pay. It is cool that I get to experience what negotiating with a big company is like though.
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Of the places you listed, Amazon is probably the hardest to get in for software. Amazon has a great reputation within the software industry, competing directly with Microsoft and Google for top talents. It is generally accepted that if you can get into one of the three, you can probably get a job at the other two as well. Amazon pays an average of $100,000 per year over the first three years (combining signing bonus and stock options), which is one of the highest paying software jobs out there; higher than both Google and MSFT.
Since your focus is on hardware, I would wholeheartedly suggest Cisco. The full time pay is great (I keep on talking about full time because I think the purpose internships is to open doors for full time) and they have a great tuition reimbursement program. I am certain you will learn a lot from this internship. I am surprised that you didn't apply to Qualcomm and Apple though.
Summer internships are great fun, but San Jose is not overly exciting. Luckily, you'll be close to SF
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On March 21 2010 08:43 Cambium wrote:Of the places you listed, Amazon is probably the hardest to get in for software. Amazon has a great reputation within the software industry, competing directly with Microsoft and Google for top talents. It is generally accepted that if you can get into one of the three, you can probably get a job at the other two as well. Amazon pays an average of $100,000 per year over the first three years (combining signing bonus and stock options), which is one of the highest paying software jobs out there; higher than both Google and MSFT. Since your focus is on hardware, I would wholeheartedly suggest Cisco. The full time pay is great (I keep on talking about full time because I think the purpose internships is to open doors for full time) and they have a great tuition reimbursement program. I am certain you will learn a lot from this internship. I am surprised that you didn't apply to Qualcomm and Apple though. Summer internships are great fun, but San Jose is not overly exciting. Luckily, you'll be close to SF
Actually my focus isn't on hardware. It's on software. I'm studying computer science and not EE or CE. I didn't receive any information from Qualcomm (must have been lost in their system) and Apple wasn't at our school's job fair.
I think the advantage of Cisco is that I can take that experience and pretty much go anywhere. Networking is so pervasive now, and comparatively, a company like Cisco is better on the resume than Amazon would be. At least in the bay area.
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In an unexpected chain of events, I've actually decided to go to Salesforce, the company that denied me about a week ago. I don't know how common it is for people to send thank you emails after they've been denied, but in this case, I left a good review for my interviewer. He was happy, and sent my resume over to another department. They called me yesterday, and I had an hour long talk over the phone with a software developer. I was recommended by her, and received an offer within fifteen minutes.
Later last night I called their hiring representative to talk about what projects I would be able to work on. It seems like a pretty cool program. They only have 25 interns total over the summer, and we get free corporate housing (dorm style) in San Francisco. On top of that we have bi-weekly meetings and luncheons with corporate executives. There's also baseball games, barbecues, and networking nights that should be fun as well.
Overall, I think I'd be able to learn the most by going to Salesforce. My background isn't in web applications development with AJAX and server side programming, but it's definitely a very useful tool to have. I think what also swayed me was the fact that there weren't many interns, and the ones that they do hire are expected to do "real" work that will be released in their version of their cloud computing services product. I think cloud computing is a really exciting concept, and getting into it early wont hurt.
What's unfortunate is that I had to turn down four other great companies in the process of finding an internship. I think I would have been able to learn a lot at any of the companies I listed in my original post. Anyways, I think this pretty much concludes my internship search. Maybe I'll recap my experience after summer is over!
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Gratz man. Salesforce is definitely in an area of the industry that will only get bigger and bigger in the future with all the booming internet and mobile services. Hope you have fun there over the summer and get a lot out of it.
(was I the only one who voted salesforce in the original poll o.O?)
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Congratulations on landing at Salesforce Sheng! Would you mind shooting me a PM and letting know of the process after you accepted your offer? Did they put you through a background check + drug screen? I'm in a similar situation deciding between offers and would like to find out more about the onboarding process for Salesforce. Thanks a lot in advance!
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PM sent! Thanks Phase, your single vote made all the difference ;-)
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EPT
