How to get an internship?

How can I get the most out of my Facebook internship this summer?

• I'm going to be a Facebook engineering intern this summer and I'm excited to get out to Menlo Park. I have never worked at a big tech company before, and have only done one internship - my first internship was at a Fortune 100 (non-tech). Last summer I was a founder in a startup incubator. How can I get the most out of my internship? I want to learn as much as possible and really "experience" Facebook. Since there is still a bit of time before the summer, I'm open for brushing up on/learning things before I get there (like OpenGraph). Thanks!

• Answer:

  In a nutshell, I'd say the most important thing is to optimize for learning. While that might sound obvious, when you get into the swing of the things, it's amazing how easy it is to get tunnel vision and get caught up in the day-to-day routine without thinking about what you set out to do at the beginning of the summer. While it's definitely important to spend a good bit of time working on your project(s) (particularly if you want a good review and a return offer), this shouldn't be the sole focus of your 10-12 weeks without regard for anything else. There's a million awesome things going on in the company outside of your team/group/project, and if you miss out on exploring these opportunities because you're always trying to hit the next milestone in your personal project, you're definitely robbing yourself of the experience. The one thing I wish I had spent more time doing is learning about what underlies all the "magic" infrastructure that exists to make developers' lives easier and the site keep ticking. There are a lot of well thought out systems in place that you can use the entire summer without having any understanding as to what it took to put them together or why they were built the way they were. In hindsight, I feel like spending time to learn about those things would have done a lot more to make me a better engineer than reaching checkpoint x+1 on the road to finishing my particular project. Secondly, I'd say make sure you meet lots of people. From the execs, to other engineers, to full timers in other areas of the company, to other interns, it's rare to be surrounded by such a concentration of interesting and capable people. Make sure you take advantage of this--don't be that intern who sits in the corner at his/her desk 12 hours a day with headphones in coding straight through oblivious to the world around him/her. Whether you come back to Facebook or not, these are people you want to know. When it comes to the intra-company presentations that take place about a variety of topics, some of them are really interesting and informative, and for others, your time might be better spent hacking away or doing something else. With time you'll learn to tell the difference, but in general, I'd advise against the extremes (either going to every single one of them or not going to any). Another piece of advice: if you're going to spend a significant chunk of your free time hacking away at your own pet project feature that you hope to launch, be wary. Try hard at the beginning to find something that actually has a good chance of launching (i.e. has broad, widespread support) because I saw plenty of polished intern pet projects that hundreds of hours were poured into get heartlessly shut down when it came time to try and launch them. Finally (and this is slightly tongue-in-cheek), always remember that, no matter how hard you try to justify it to yourself, hours spent chatting on IRC or reading posts to internal Facebook Groups do not count as being productive.