This blog post is part of the Student Spotlight series, which was originally published in the current student newsletter. It highlights SEAS graduate students taking on exceptional career and research opportunities. This spotlight features Zheng Yang, an M.S. Computer Science student, who scored an internship at Facebook this summer.
- How did you find the internship at Facebook?
I was referred by my friend in Facebook. Then, I got Facebook's offer after several rounds of interviews. In fact, I got Google's offer in the same time. But I finally decided to accept Facebook's offer due to some reasons. - What are some of the responsibilities you will have as an intern at Facebook?
Since my position is system generalist, my job will be building fundamental software for other applications. In other words, I will try to build the infrastructure on which web applications and servers are built. It should let other software engineers be able to focus on their products rather than spending time on the hardware and services behind the products. - What are you looking forward to the most during your internship?
I want to connect the knowledge I learned in class to the real-life production of Facebook. As a computer science student, the best way to understand computer science is to work in a great company such as Facebook. In addition, I want to make friends with the talented brains at Facebook. I want to share opinions with them to see if we can come up with some great things. - Any advice for your peers who may be interested in pursuing a similar internship?
It is very important to build up a concrete framework of fundamental knowledge such as operating system, the compiler theory, and traditional algorithm. After that, it will be very helpful to do some programming practice in online judges.
