My Summer Internship Experience at LinkedIn
This past summer, I worked as a software engineering intern at LinkedIn on the Platform Automation team. In this post, I will be covering what it was like to work from home and from office, the type of project I worked on, and the overall company culture at LinkedIn.
Work from home
The internship lasted 12 weeks and was completely remote due to the ongoing pandemic. Since I had been doing Zoom University for the last year and a half of school anyways, I was already pretty accustomed to Zoom meetings, pair programming online, etc.
Home Office Setup
A week before the internship started, LinkedIn shipped me a MacBook Pro as my work laptop, the biggest monitor I’ve ever had, and lots of swag ranging from a LinkedIn backpack to nicknacks from Bay Area small businesses. Working from home, I was able to get several pieces of home office equipment reimbursed. With the stipend, I chose to invest in a standing desk and mat.
The Experience
Having only done remote internships before, working at LinkedIn remotely was a blast. Throughout the internship, I worked from several different locations without any difficulty. This was a huge benefit to remote work and I loved the flexibility that I was allotted throughout my time there.
Despite not having face-to-face interaction, I was still able to communicate frequently and effectively with my mentor and manager, as well meeting plenty of other interns for socialization. The internship program also did a great job of hosting virtual events such as game nights, trivia sessions, and tech talks. Personally, I really loved to just get to talk with other interns in small breakout rooms after the events.
Throughout the internship, I attended several fun virtual events hosted by the LinkedIn programming staff where I learned how to make coffee the right way, practiced the dances of various cultures, and drew my favorite cartoons. They also sent me materials for different events throughout the internship such as legos for an intern lego competition and a canvas with paint for painting with the LinkedIn ERGs.
Near the end of our internships, a group of interns and I were able to schedule a virtual small group coffee chat with Ryan Roslansky, the CEO of LinkedIn! We were able to introduce ourselves and chat with him on everything from the future of the company to imposter syndrome. I loved he was so approachable and accessible to us, even as interns. I even got to connect with him on LinkedIn afterward :)
To be honest, working from home and living with my family was amazing for me. I got to save money, spend time with family and hometown friends, and engage in work that I enjoyed doing throughout the day. However, there were a few pieces of the in-office experience I was craving: casual socialization with other interns/forming organic relationships and the top-quality office food that my coworkers had always raved to me about.
Work from office
Halfway through the internship, the LinkedIn offices opened up to allow employees to visit or work in the office whenever they wanted so long as they reserved a desk. Despite being a remote intern, I was also allowed to reserve a desk to come into any of the LinkedIn offices.
New York Office
Although my internship and team were based out of the Sunnyvale offices, since I am only a train ride away from New York City, I was able to visit LinkedIn NYC, which was conveniently located in the Empire State Building! Even though I have lived within an hour of New York for most of my life, I have never actually been to the Empire State Building, so I was extremely excited to go.
I took the train to Penn Station with a fellow intern from Jersey and from there, we just walked right into the Empire State Building. It was at this extremely surreal moment where I felt the most adult I have ever felt. The entire first day that I was at the NYC office, I could not believe my life.
That day, I got to have breakfast and lunch with so many incredible interns and employees, indulge in desserts and matcha lattes, and enjoy all of the amenities they had from the views to the food to the ping pong tables. Every desk was a convertible standing/sitting desk and everything was styled with that playful LinkedIn style. As a kombucha lover, I also really appreciated that they even had kombucha on tap!
Chicago Office
In the middle of my internship, during the week of the July 4th shutdown, I flew to Chicago to stay with my boyfriend. The plan was to stay there for a week and a half and to work from his apartment remotely for a week before heading back. Before I got to Chicago, I learned that LinkedIn also had a Chicago office. Excited that the apartment was not too far of a walk from the LinkedIn Chicago office, I booked a visit for the first day back from shutdown and made my way there.
At this point, my expectations for LinkedIn were already through the roof and the Chicago office definitely did not disappoint. Compared to the NYC office, there were not nearly as many people working there but there were still all the amazing amenities I experienced in New York, including all the amazing free food from the cafe, pantry, and cafeteria.
Because of how great it was to work from the LinkedIn Chicago office and since I was really enjoying seeing Chicago, I decided to extend my trip for another two weeks. Therefore, in total, I was in Chicago for almost an entire month, working from the office for the majority of my stay there.
The Work
I was placed on the Platform Automation team and assigned to work on cloud management. Specifically, I was given the opportunity to investigate, design, and implement a recommendation engine that recommends quota limit values for services to use LinkedIn resources based on actual traffic data. I won’t go into specifics about the project, but I’ll say that getting to work through the entire development process was highly rewarding.
The learning curve
Like with any new role, there was a big learning curve for me at the beginning of the internship. I attended internal bootcamps, watched LinkedIn Learning programs, and had extensive talks with my mentor for setting myself up for success, all of which were extremely helpful. But still, during the investigation and design portion of my project, I was struggling a little bit to orient myself within the context of the team, the work, and the company. There were many holes in my knowledge that I had to investigate and it was difficult to make decisive decisions in regards to my design because of my lack of knowledge. However, during this time, even though there were obvious growing pains, I really did feel my brain expanding and my perspective changing, which was exactly what I was looking for in terms of growing technically during my software engineering internships.
Smooth finish
Because I had spent so much time investigating and coming up with a thorough design document, I was able to implement an MVP of my design without too many hiccups. With the guidance of my mentor and my manager, I was able to build what I set out to build, do comprehensive testing on what was implemented, and have the code in production with time to spare. In the end, I had a recommendation engine that would be the first step to what will eventually be automatic quota adjustment.
Wrapping up
At the end of the internship, I gave a presentation to my broader team about my project, my personal and professional growth, and more. I also really tried to write extensive documentation and keep every document from my internship organized on my own Wiki page. Putting together a timeline of everything I’ve accomplished throughout the 12 weeks at LinkedIn, I really felt a huge sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.
Company Culture
Although I haven’t worked in many places within the same industry as LinkedIn, I am confident in assuming that LinkedIn has one of the best company cultures out there.
Everyone is SO NICE
Every single person who I interacted with throughout the duration of my internship from the baristas to the CEO has been so friendly and approachable. Throughout my internship, it really felt like everyone would go out of their way to help others get through anything. Though it was more difficult to make those organic friendships in a remote environment, I definitely feel like I’ve made connections with other interns and full-timers that I want to keep and grow going forward.
The friendliness of everyone at LinkedIn and the product as a whole is one of the reasons that initially drew me to the company. During one of my interviews, my interviewer mentioned that LinkedIn makes you a nice person, and it’s embedded into their culture through perks like having LinkedIn premium accounts to give out every year, donation matching, volunteer organization, etc. After joining the company, I definitely saw that to be true even as a remote intern.
Work-life balance is a priority
Another point I love about the company culture is that work-life balance seems to be a huge company-wide priority as another highlight that is embedded into the culture. With InDays once a month where employees can focus on giving back to themselves and their communities instead of working, half-day Fridays for the summer, and more, LinkedIn exhibits trust that we as employees will “act like an owner” and affords us the flexibility to prioritize our lives outside of work.
On my team, we had several no meetings days every week so that we can focus on our own work and take a break from Zoom. We also had weekly happy hours on Friday afternoons to play games with the team and socialize in efforts to mimic the in-person team happy hours that used to happen at the office. During one of my first weeks, I got to host a happy hour and force my team to play the Wikipedia game. It was a blast getting to know and play games with my team in a different type of setting that made me feel a lot more connected with them. By the end of the internship, my team threw a going-away party for me virtually over zoom and we could not believe that we had never even met in person and they were on the other side of the country!
Conclusion
I signed the internship offer last fall and was completely ecstatic about joining a great company. Ever since my initial interviews, I’ve fallen in love with the mission of the company to connect professionals as well as the company culture. When I joined as an intern in May, I found my already sky-high expectations of the company to be blown away day after day. These expectations continued to be topped until the very last day of my internship and beyond as I stay in touch with my team, recruiters, and other interns from the program.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed reading about my LinkedIn internship, check out my Glimpse internship experience and how I got my NASA internship.
