This week, most of the students from the MIMS class of 2014 are finishing up summer internships and preparing to return to South Hall for the second year of their master’s program.
We spoke with seven MIMS students from the class of 2014 about what they’ve been doing this summer, how their first year’s classes prepared them for their internships, and what they’re planning for their second year and beyond.
Sandra Yuen Helsley
Web Developer
LinkedIn
Sandra Helsley just finished twelve weeks as a web developer on the team that supports LinkedIn’s 300+ Influencers. She worked with two designers and two other web developers on a new version of the editor tool that influencers use to write their posts; she also added a few smaller features which are visible from the article pages.
The summer as a web developer has been a detour from Sandra’s background in HCI research. Although she plans to return to user experience research, she took the web development internship to gain experience working with code in a real-world environment. “I think doing so has ultimately made me a stronger, more well-rounded researcher,” she said.
Sandra found the course Info 253. Web Architecture, which she took last fall, especially helpful for her internship. Info 247. Information Visualization and Presentation and Info 213. User Interface Design and Development also gave her valuable design experience and web coding skills.
Her number one resource during the interview process was classmate Gilbert Hernandez (MIMS ’13), who was a LinkedIn intern last summer. “He gave me some interviewing tips and assured me that the company and culture is great,” said Sandra. Gilbert joined LinkedIn full-time a few months ago.
Sandra wrote about her internship experience in the LinkedIn blog: “The Best Perk of Interning at LinkedIn: Free Knowledge.” (She also participated in the 2013 LinkedIn intern video, flashmobbing the company’s all-hands meeting.)
LinkedIn has already offered Sandra a full-time web development position upon graduation.
More:
Sandra Yuen Helsley
Web Developer, LinkedIn
Ryan Baker & Ignacio Pérez
Pop Up Archive
Priya Iyer
Customer Database Intern, Apple
Lisa Jervis
Researcher, Progressive Technology Project
Corey Hyllested
Data Scientist Intern, StubHub
Eric Zan
Technology & Interpretation Park Ranger, Bandelier National Monument
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For more information and statistics about MIMS students’ summer internships, see the results of the 2013 MIMS Internship Survey 2013 (PDF).