Last summer was the longest time I had spent in a metro city in USA, and it was my first internship at one of the Big 4. This is a brief reminiscence of those amazing 3 months.
To begin with, while I was in my 2nd semester of Masters studies, I was actively looking for Software Engineering opportunities for the coming summer. On a busy morning, one of the recruiters called me and asked me to schedule an on-campus interview for tomorrow. Well, that was kindof a shock as usually I get notified at least a week before the interview day. I convinced him to schedule it for day after tomorrow and spend the next day searching questions from Glassdoor and Cracking the Coding Interviews. Though the questions I ended up getting were a bit difficult than I expected, overall the interview process was fun. I appreciated how the interviewers were continuously working on the solutions along with me and suggested hints wherever necessary. The email containing offer letter after a week was a total bliss :D
Before I joined, I received an email from my to-be Manager and Mentor that I will be working with Imaging Research team. After stalking their online profiles, it literally took an hour to digest the fact they were both PhDs and I will be a part of a Research focused team. Never was I so proud in telling my close friends the team I was assigned, and undeniably, the wait to joining day got harder. I still had a month to finish up my final exams, teaching assistantship and research tasks.
Fast forward to May: The trip from airport to downtown was mesmerizing enough to make anyone fall in love with this town. Space Needle, view of Mt. Rainer, greenery (fun fact: Seattle is in top 10 green cities in US) set my expectations for the summer too high. Seattle is undoubtedly known for its summers (since it rains most of the remaining time :P) - lots of outdoor activites and events.
// TODO: Internship experience: work culture, events for interns, things todo in Seattle.
Something really funny happened on 4th of July though. As the Independence day is marked by celebration and fireworks across the country, I reached Kerry Park in the evening with my friends, hoping for a view just as I Googled for. We luckily got a perfect view of the Space Needle from a vacant spot, and patiently waited for fireworks to begin in 2-3 hours. As it grew darker, more people gathered there. Some were professional photographers, busy setting up their cameras to get the perfect shot. For most, this was their first time in Seattle and didn’t know what to expect. As the clocks ticked beyond 10pm, the crowd grew restless begging for the fireworks to being. 10.30pm, 10.45pm, 11.00pm and finally fireworks started! Buuuuttttttt… there was a problem everyone realised. The fireworks were actually set not near Space Needle, but rather at other locations obstructed by building in our view. More than 3 hours of patiently waiting and all we could see was reflection of those distant fireworks in clouds. Three cheers for those professionals who had camera stands set to get the perfect shot of… dark sky.
