This summer, I was back at Slack in San Francisco for the second time, working as an engineering intern. I was back on the same team as last year, working on a feature called Shared Channels that went into open beta last September! Having context and familiarity with the codebase helped me a lot this year, and I was able to get right into my work pretty quickly. This summer I worked on a couple of backend projects, including public to private channel conversions (which officially launched this week!) and refactoring the way Slackbot messages are sent.
Apart from working on my projects, I loved immersing myself in the culture of the company. One of my favorite things about Slack is the culture of learning that is so open and welcoming. There are weekly workshops, presentations, and talks about various ongoing projects, new technologies, and feature proposals. At one of these meetings, I found out about a competition going on with the backend engineers — in an effort to make our codebase safer, we are moving from PHP to Hacklang. I thought I would just try to contribute for fun and to learn more about Hacklang, but I ended up in 13th place overall and 1st in the intern group! It landed me a sick Slack hoodie too 😀
Of course, internships are a great opportunity for you to discover where you want to work after graduation. Along the way, it’s important to communicate well with your mentor and manager to discuss your career interests and progress. Luckily for me, I have the world’s best mentor, an incredibly supportive manager, and an awesome team. I found out that I’m receiving my very first full-time job offer at Slack!
Outside of work, there’s so much to see in San Francisco. From brunch to natural scenery, San Francisco seems to have everything. I lived in the Mission District this summer, which is known for its Latino roots and hipster vibe. Each neighborhood is special in its own way and there’s always something exciting to see. If you’re ever hanging out in SF, check out Land’s End, Dolores Park, or the Exploratorium After Dark!
[/cs_text][cs_text]Adult life is coming up real soon (how is it senior year already??) and I’m so grateful to have the summer to start figuring out where I want to be after I graduate. I’m sad to leave but also excited to know that I could end up back here again![/cs_text][x_slider animation=”slide” slide_time=”7000″ slide_speed=”1000″ slideshow=”false” random=”false” control_nav=”false” prev_next_nav=”true” no_container=”false” ][x_slide]

