Personal Insights: Ace Your Amazon SDE Internship
First of all, congratulations on getting shortlisted for the Internship at Amazon. Securing a spot as an SDE Intern at Amazon takes a lot. But trust me, securing a Preplacement Offer (PPO) can be even tougher.
There can be different scenarios depending on the team you join, the project you work on & some unpredictable circumstances that will decide the amount of hard work you need to put in. To yield the best, it's crucial to be prepared for all these circumstances beforehand. Consider this guide your secret sauce — a compilation of tips and tricks that are guaranteed to oil the gears of your internship experience.
The Internship does not really span for 2M. It's an 8-week Internship, out of which the first week goes into training & understanding the project, and the last week into evaluation, so ideally, one gets only six weeks to work on the project. Knowing a few things beforehand will surely help speed up tasks in your internship. Take a look at the below timeline to understand it better.
I know the anticipation is killing you, and you’re probably itching to know the specifics of the project or the particular tech stack you’ll be working with. But given the size of Amazon, predicting your exact project title is like trying to nail jelly to a wall. Regardless of the project that lands on your lap, sharpening your skills with the following prerequisites will help you ace your internship.
- Git: Amazonians will roast you if you don’t know this!
- IntelliJ: Familiarize yourself with this IDE. It will increase your productivity tenfold.
- Java: Use IntelliJ & Get familiar with this language.
- Software Design & Architecture: Your CRs will be evaluated based on how clean, modular, and scalable code you write. Master this, go deep into every topic.
- CS Fundamentals: Computer Networks and Operating Systems are a must.
- AWS Basics: learn how Amazon Web Services works
- Notable Internal Systems at Amazon — a blog by Gergely Orosz.
Apart from the prerequisites, having a few non-technical skills such as effective communication, deep dive skills, and documenting your work will make a good impression on your manager. Moreover, these skills are lifelong earnings, and they will make things automatically fall into place for you. Walk in armed with the below tips — I gathered along the way and wish had been passed down to me.
Tip 1 Take Ownership: I strongly urge you not to think about PPO for these two months. Your primary goal should be to take complete ownership of your project. Think of it this way: suppose you are running a startup where your company's success depends on how you present to your customers. You will do whatever it takes to deliver high-quality solutions and ensure you beat the clock, right? This sole motivation will give you novel ideas while working and make your project more enjoyable. In my case, I took the initiative to work on tasks that were not mentioned in my project document just because I felt it was critical to do so. It helped me raise the bar.
Tip 2 Be Proactive: Being new to the corporate world & unaware of what new challenges we may face while developing, it's important to follow the guidelines of the mentor assigned to us & establish clear and effective communication with him. These two months are really short; therefore, slipping away from the track is common. Make it a habit of having daily 1-on-1 with your mentor to discuss your work progress. Your mentor might be preoccupied with preparing for new launches, handling multiple services at a time, or being on call for a week. Follow these three strategies to keep moving with your project.
Tip 2.1 Show Bias for Action: Getting stuck at work is fairly common for an intern; you cannot wait for someone else to unblock you. Learn to parallelize your work and keep it moving!
Tip 2.2 Reach Out: Spend no more than one hour on errors. There’s a 90 percent chance that someone else has encountered the same problem. It could be outside Amazon, inside Amazon, or even within your team. Extensively use Sage, Intern Search, and Wiki for Amazon-specific bugs.
Tip 2.3 Document Your Work: Your manager can assist you by requesting the team to help you. Share a Quip folder with your mentor and manager to keep your work transparent. Every night, document your work and reflect on how you could improve. This will help you prepare for daily standups.
Tip 3 Show Productivity: Last but not least, take small breaks in between and look for strategies that can multiply your productivity. I used to take small breaks in between long code deployments. That would help me to think broadly and ring the bell of leftover tasks. Stand and code when you feel drowsy, or grab a room if you are struggling to focus. And remember, the pantry offers a variety of different coffees — your perfect pick-me-up to brew new ideas!
This internship will be special, so make it memorable by taking time from your weekends or 1–2 hours after work (depending on your bandwidth) to enjoy it as well. Explore the city with your friends, try out new food, increase your network & have fun. My friends(from the same college & company) explored a chai/coffee adda close to our PG. It became a routine to go to the shop, discuss our progress on work & clear out the daily clutter from our heads. In our free time on weekends, we would explore clubs nearby, try out food at different restaurants, and meet our college mates working at different companies. All in all, ensure you don't burn out yourself by sheer work.
