A Week In the Life of a Software Engineering Intern

Week 2: Taking Risks and Venturing into Something Seemingly Impossible

Week 2 of my SDE internship at Zillow really showed me just how awesome their culture is. We started off our week with a talk, given by Zillow’s Executive Chairman, Rich Barton and Vice-Chairman, Lloyd Frink. We learned about what it’s like working in the industry and my big take away is that sometimes you may venture into something that is seemingly impossible — it could very well even be a waste of time — but taking risks is what differentiates the wildly successful from mediocrity.

During the week, I worked on a preliminary programming assignment where I was responsible for decoding attachments that were sent through email. I ran into a few hiccups, thinking that there may have been something wrong with my code but as it turned out the file itself was corrupted 😥. Eventually I came up with a rough solution but that was a great learning experience!

On Friday, we went on a companywide rafting trip! My coworkers and I had a blast hitting the white water before BBQ-ing. I realized that Zillow has such an interesting culture. The company has over 1,300 employees in its Seattle office, yet everyone feels like they are part of a tight knit startup. I am beyond proud to have this amazing opportunity as an intern, and I can’t wait for what lies ahead!