Internship Panel: Autumn 2024

These notes are formatted as a series of Q&A. Respondents are not cited for general, non-company specific thoughts and advice, however, readers should assume that the majority, if not the entire panel answered. 

How did you find your internships?

• Fall career fair – Walmart was one of the companies, specifically their supply chain group. Chatted with recruiter, gave them my resume, and applied through the online portal.
• Started search later than many others, conducted a massive search for DS or SWE and applied for a lot, expecting a lot of rejections. Applications were submitted online
• Applied online, focused on quant research, got lots of rejections. 
• Attended Stanford events.
• Applied online, also got a lot of rejections. My mom suggested consulting!

What was the hiring process like for the most recent internship? 

• Process for Amazon:
  • Round 1: Online Web interview: 2 coding problems, and Behavioral Questions with a machine. Any programming language. First coding problem leetcode easy, second coding problem leetcode medium.  Study the Amazon Leadership Principles to understand how to best answer the behavioral questions.
  • Round 2: Zoom interview with a Software Development Engineer “Bar-Raiser.”  ~15 minutes of Leadership Principles / behavioral questions.  ~30 minutes for a coding problem and discussion.
• When Amazon invites you to interview, they give you a couple of weeks to schedule the coding interview with a machine. This online interview has a mix of simple and complicated problems. Amazon places emphasis on leadership principles, so I looked at their values and mission statement to prep, because they weight those highly. I did not get through the full solution for the 2nd problem but left ‘this is what I’d do with more time’ notes throughout. The in-person interview had a lot of the leadership principle questions.
• Long process for Balyasny:
  • Round 1: a chat with the HR team, covering interest and motivation. 
  • Round 2: technical with quant developer – probability, coding, quant focus. 
  • Round 3: coding challenge, highly relevant problem. 
  • Final round – portfolio manager, who was my manager during the internship.
• The time between submitting the application hearing back was about 6 weeks. Two rounds of interviews: 
  • Round 1 had two parts:
    • AM: AI chatbot, hypothetical consulting case,
    • PM: in-person, questions on leadership, mission. 
  • Round 2: one week later - 2 back to back case questions – hypothetical business case study to gauge your approach.
• I applied through their portal, 2 weeks after the career fair – it was late and I’d do it earlier now. Lot of follow up with the recruiters, a candidate assessment, aptitude test on data analysis, quantitative aptitude and situational questions: this was straightforward, and no prep was necessary. One interview with 2 people, for about 45 minutes: product sense case question, and a behavioral set of questions, (eg, communications style, facing a challenge). Heard back within about a week.

What was the actual experience like, eg, projects you got to work on, training/mentoring provided?

• Walmart was very structured, because they had about 600-700 interns across the company in various roles. 
  • First week was orientation in Arkansas, with fun immersion events around the city, lots of pampering! 
  • Week 2 was when the actual work started. Worked specifically on transport optimization, working at the distribution centers talking with the truck drivers, learning how things actually work on the ground, so was able to see the impact of my work. Was a 0-1 product which was very valuable. 
  • Midpoint review. 
  • Penultimate week, gave final presentation in penultimate week, 
  • Final week is when you find out if you have return offer. 
  • Other: had 1-1 exposure with executives from the C-suite, 30 minute conversations.
  • It was a great experience overall. Daily mentor relationship, and a manager. Lots of collaboration.
• Balyasny – was in NY, great summer. A lot of 1-1 chats with C-suite and portfolio managers. The company held educational sessions in small cohort groups, but a lot of learning by doing too. 
• BCG – week 1 was orientation with excel, internal tools, then got assigned to an existing project case. So everyones experience was different. I had some travel, part of a large team, initially felt light while coming up to speed, ended up getting ownership of a small area, building a dashboard. Was very fast moving, every day was different.
• Amazon is semi structured – first week was onboarding, then four weeks getting setup with design document, then weeks 4-10 was implementation, final 2 weeks was writing up the report and giving my presentation. Judged based on ability to solve problems. Very fast paced. Had a few mentors on the team, who provided periodic advice and support.
• All – mid point review and ending review.

Plans for the future – will you be returning to the company, or that career area? Why or why not?

• Poorva got a return offer and is negotiating with Walmart as we speak!
• Amazon gives final review with inclined/not inclined to give offer, and actual offers come from HR based on actual company needs. Kent got an inclined, and is waiting to hear. Amazon is now entirely in person but he’d prefer a hybrid situation, so if multiple offers come through, the decision will come down to desired work-life balance.
• Yonglai will definitely stay in hedge fund/trading firm area. By the end of the internship, HR will promptly expedite the process and initiate discussions about employment details the following day.
• BCG gives return offers on 2nd to last day, Mishika will most likely be returning to them. 

What are your top tips for finding/getting/doing internships?

• Trust your gut and be yourself. Don’t make things too structured or more structured than they need to be. 
• Consulting: you get problems and situations, it’s how you deal with it that’s important. 
• While it’s tempting to try to appear as the perfect candidate – don’t. Instead, just be authentic and genuine to build rapport, rather than show a façade.
• Speak up for yourself. If you’re interested in a project, communicate that with your manager. In previous internships, I did as I was told, but managers don’t know what you like and what you are passionate about until you tell them.
• Communications – set the expectations early on. 
• Get info from everyone – team, managers, other interns. 
• Know what you’re looking to achieve and the deliverables expected. Ask early and continuously. Don’t have assumptions. Some people had fun presentations but they didn’t get return offers, because the expectations of managers were different.
• Have grit. It is going to take a lot of time and effort and it’ll be frustrating at times. Know that you’re not alone. 
• At the internship, celebrate your growth rather than milestone accomplishments. Celebrating your growth makes you more open to the feedback, which will help you achieve (even) more growth, and increase your chances of a return offer.

Even though you were applying online, how much time did you spend networking too?

• Yonglai – applied to 100+, got rejected on most. Coffee chats – talked with 5-10 SU alum, who were very helpful and gave insight into the interview process, and did get some offers there.
• Kent – didn’t spend a lot of time networking, David Telleen Lawton (see ‘Meeting Your FutureSelf’ event writeups and video) would give me a ‘B’ grade, but it got me a job! If I’d not got the Amazon offer, I’d have gone to the spring career fair and networked there. Former classmates will be leveraged for referrals though for next jobs!
• Talking to previous colleagues carries a lot of weight. They can talk about how you are to work with, so spending time to nurture those relationships is good.
• Mishika - I didn’t do as much networking before and during my search as I should have! But BCG staff who were SU alums contacted me for coffee chats. Being curiosity driven is key, because they don’t expect you to know everything.

I missed the career fair. Where can I find openings?

• LinkedIn – set your job alerts for locations, job types, etc. applying early helps.
• I used Levels.com to see which companies had internships available, and then went to those company websites to specifically apply.
• Watch the Stanford email lists.
• Handshake

Top resources for applying?

• Career Ed for resume reviews – especially if you have a complicated story. Get multiple sets of eyes on your resume.
• Career fairs – even those who are hiring for full time. I asked them for an on the spot review of my resume. 
• Treat your resume as a living document. Cater it to the domain.
• Diego Grenados PM videos on YouTube. Watched a few of those. Tried some cases in a timed way, cross interviewed with a mock interview on that question.
• Professional headshots. 
• Mock interviews with friends and others.
• Talking with people who were in the industry. They want to see how you think, it’s not necessarily about the right answer.
• Have a few key stories in mind for behavioral questions. Have your stories ready.
• AI for writing/refining cover letters – but keep your own voice!
• Leetcode for practice coding questions. 

What helped your resume stand out? Did you have relevant experience?

• Worked a lot with different setups/layouts. Reformatted to have Stanford at top since previous work experience wasn’t so relevant to what I was applying for. Added relevant coursework. Had all this up top.
• Experience in a different field could be more relevant than you think – it’s still projects, communications, working with others etc.
• In terms of relevant classes: CS 106B helpful for coding efficiently. Heard that CS 161 helpful too. CS 107 had concepts that Kent applied in his internship. MS&E 211 was helpful to optimizing solutions to a problem – doing more with less.

One random piece of advice:

• Try to work in person, even if you prefer hybrid/remote – you’ll see the culture more and learn more. And there can be a lot of free food too!