This is the 14th in the qi Sister Talk factory series

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Extra extra! The first 12 articles are available in PDF!


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Richie said.

This article is shared by Amy Porridge, who worked as an intern at Facebook this summer. He shares the whole process from the application interview to the end of the internship with you. Let’s take a look at it

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A time line

At the end of September 2019, I asked my friend for the post of Software Engineer summer internship in Facebook. The HR of FB was very efficient and received an email reply within 3 working days saying that I was looking at my resume.

In early October, I received a text message on a Thursday, saying that an interviewer would come to the school’s information session next Wednesday and asked me if I was interested in attending the interview directly.

After the first round passes, the second round is electric. After that, I received an email to make an appointment for the third interview (also a telephone interview) on the morning of October 30th, and got the offer in the afternoon of the same day (I sighed about the work efficiency again).

internship

I started my Summer internship in June 2020, doing ios development work.

Because I work from home this year, I also have a different work experience. At the beginning, I have some Settings and detailed teaching. Step by step, I will soon be on the road.

My mentor is a Chinese brother. We have been in contact with each other by email since April this year, mainly asking him if there are any recommended books that he can read in advance to familiarize himself with the working language (it is the first time for me to do ios, so I have no experience and feel a little nervous).

I didn’t expect that my brother wrote a long essay of 500 words to reply to me, which probably meant that he was also an intern who became a regular employee. I can understand my mood, but don’t be too nervous, I can do everything at work. But there are also two basic books recommended so THAT I can have time to learn (it turns out to be really useful because I am so familiar with the code from these books that I can understand it directly without having to query syntax).

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Which books? Qi asked.

“Objective-C Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide” pretty good for beginners, and “Effective Objective-C 2.0” for more advanced topics and tricks.

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In addition, I also found some tutorials by myself, such as the ios class at Stanford, which really laid a solid foundation for my successful internship in the future.

After receiving the group information and knowing the email address of your mentor, go to say hello and briefly introduce yourself to know what this group is for and which function to develop app. It is sure to get familiar with it in advance. If you are not familiar with the working language, you can also ask mentor for the recommended learning materials as I did.

When I started my internship in June, I found myself in a group of fairies.

In the first week, Mentor made video calls with me every day, leading me to be familiar with various tools hand in hand, replying to messages every second, directly sharing the screen to teach me without clear text explanation, and telling me that you should not feel embarrassed or what the problems are now, nor should you drill the same thing for hours without asking. It’s a waste of time and I have no way of knowing your questions or progress.

Because early problems can be solved quickly, I finished the work of the second week in the first week.

In addition, in the weekly group meeting, my boss would ask me what thoughts and opinions I had on the work, how the progress was, what I thought was difficult and easy, and so on.

One of my two mentors is a workaholic, who is always there at 11 o ‘clock in the evening. Therefore, my writing is reviewed around the clock, with high efficiency.

All the people in the group are very friendly. My mentor helped me to form a group with the design people. I could directly communicate with designer if I had unclear design requirements.

During the internship review, I had finished the whole project, and the manager was very happy to know that. He held a special meeting to ask me what you are interested in, and you can do the work you are interested in in the next five weeks.

In order to get the return offer, I was a little utilitarian, so I said, is there any urgent work to be done in the group now? I will do it.

The manager assigned me some tasks with high priority in the group, so IN the latter half of the period, I basically helped the group to solve some tasks with high priority and I could handle them.

The activities organized by HR are also very interesting. There are tea time with the intern of our school every week. Let’s get to know each other. Every week we have intern Happy hour (with mentors) and team Happy hour every two weeks. Happy Hour is the best time to relax.

The internship experience in FB made me feel that I was being watched all the time. Mentor is always on call, manager comes to ask about his feelings every week, and HR also asks about the situation three times. I feel that the company attaches great importance to the experience of interns, and also wants to improve their own shortcomings.

When I finally quit, every member of the group sent me a message, which moved me very much. I hope we can continue our cooperation in the future.

advice

Finally, let’s share some of our own suggestions and impressions:

  • Do not understand the early ask, do not think for two or three hours to waste time.
  • In the middle and later period, I will check more documents, find online examples or similar codes, and try to solve the problem by myself. If I have to ask again, don’t waste the mentor’s time. It is best not to repeat the same question twice. Some complicated setting or operation should be recorded, so as to avoid wasting your time by asking your mentor next time, who may doubt your learning ability. I also know that some interns say that their mentors are not responsible or not good. If you feel that you are not treated equally, you must inform the manager or intern director of your situation as soon as possible. Otherwise, there is no way to change the situation in the later stage.
  • If the mid-term review is no trend to offer, do not abandon yourself, a large number of people later against the wind to overturn. It was mainly to see the advice from mentor and peer mentor. They would clearly say what should be improved according to AXES.
  • Be good at communicating with mentors. Don’t be afraid. You can ask mentor what do you think I can improve now? Most of the mentors are willing to answer. In this way, I can know my shortcomings as soon as possible and improve them.

In general, I had a very good internship experience in FB and successfully got the return offer. I will work in February next year. I know it is not easy to find a job this year, I hope you don’t lose heart, wish you can get an offer!