Internships: Zero to Many (My Summers)

This Series – Internships: Zero to Many

Dedicated to the rebels for whom on-campus recruiting isn’t an answer.

I’m an international student and a start-up enthusiast. I landed all my college internships by reaching out to people I didn’t know. I not only got internships, but built my own “network” in the process, learnt a lot about the industry I was interested in, had good conversations with industry veterans, and got enthusiastic and real career advice for free! Campus recruiting folks are missing out!

This series will share my reflections on summers, developing your interests, how to informational interview and network, landing an interview, the interview, evaluating offers, and making the most of your internship.

Posts in this series

Part 1 (This): My Summers

Part 2: Networking & Informational Interviews

Part 3 (Coming soon): The Resume & The Interview

Part 4 (Coming soon): Making The Most of Your Internship

About me

I’m a bioengineering student, but my mindset and experiences have largely been in the electrical engineering and physics realm. While this series originates from my personal experiences, I believe certain posts (particularly part 2 and 4) will be useful for non-engineering students as well. Here is a great blog for business analyst and consulting roles.

I aspire to be an entrepreneur in the health tech space and have used my summers to work at health tech companies of different sizes and get a glimpse at the various stages of company growth.

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My Summers

For each of my summers in college, I share where I interned and what I leant, as well as how I ended up finding that opportunity. For each year, I distill down some takeaways.

Freshman Summer – Maybe Don’t Do A Summer Internship!

It’s not necessary to do an internship every summer! Especially if your main motivation for an internship is to get a job, you might be fine simply with a Junior year internship. However, if like me, a particular summer internship is what you absolutely want to do – then go for it! I spent Freshman summer working at a pre-series A wearable tech start-up, Shade, in New York City. That was the absolute summer experience I wanted! More on it in a bit.

My freshman summer internship search

Despite having some relevant engineering project experiences on my resume and a kick-ass first semester GPA, it was challenging scoring an internship freshman summer. As always, “luck” played its role. Out of the maybe 40+ companies I reached out to (I didn’t have a nice excel tracking sheet freshman year), only two responded. I made spring break plans to New York City and flew myself out to interview with both of them. One never followed up, and the other was Shade. My only other option for freshman summer was the OEDK SEEED internship (a great program!). I weighed my options and went with Shade.

I had initially reached out to Shade by sending them a message through the inquiry box on their website. For a small company, you can be sure the CEO themself receives those messages. Apparently only half of my message had made it through due to the word limit. The CEO followed up within a few mins, informing me so.

How my time at Shade panned out

My time at Shade was probably the 2 months in my life that I learnt the most technical skills in. I learnt how to design a Printed Circuit Board (check out my first PCB below), how to select electronic components from distributors such as Digikey, how design for manufacturing works. Essentially, I learnt how to take a prototype to the next level. Something I had not done myself in a previous project – EBlocks (electronics kit for K-12 students). I got to stay in New York City, learnt I didn’t like it too much, fell in love with ramen. Learnt how to make a PBnJ sandwich – changed my life. With my internship experience in design for manufacturing, circuit design in school just wasn’t the same again. I lived 2 months in an early stage start-up. This was absolutely what I wanted to do with my life.

Me and my first PCB during my freshman summer internship at Shade in NYC.

Alternative summer plans for freshman

Freshman summer will be one of the last times in your life where you are off for more than a month. Once we start working, most people don’t take more than a month off outside of maternity/paternity leave (very busy with the baby) or getting laid off (busy finding the next job). The next opportunity might be when you retire, by which time your knees might be too old to hike the length of the Great Wall.

If you are someone who hasn’t had the chance for international travel, but yearn for it – this is the time! Living in another country for ~months has been shown to increase creativity. It broadens your perspective and is cool in general. Travel can be costly, but look into programs that provide opportunities for you to volunteer (e.g some teach english in China programs) in exchange for housing, etc. Study abroad programs are another option to consider. Check out the Goliard scholarship at Rice too!

Make time for cool projects your freshman year

Take the freshman academic year to work on a project you are excited about that is related to your career interests! At Rice, ENGI 120 is a great class to get you into the OEDK and using killer tools with no experience at all! The OEDK Maker Grant takes it to the next level by giving you money for a 1 paragraph application of ANYTHING you want to make!!! Why aren’t more people applying for this? These projects can all take a place in your resume, regardless of whether they were for fun or not. If you made something that works (or even not) – it’s great resume material! It’s even more excellent interview material when you talk with enthusiasm about the projects you worked on and are familiar with the nitty gritty of the technicalities of it.

Take practical classes early

If you are set on doing an internship early on in your college career, consider taking certain courses earlier. Courses in which you pick up skills and tools useful for an intern – e.g. circuit design, troubleshooting, data analysis and work on a real world project. Some courses to look into at Rice are ENGI 120 (general engineering internship), ELEC 327 (firmware engineering internship), MECH CAD Class (mechanical engineering internship), financial accounting, data science statistics class, SOCI 444 (consulting practicum – requires application), HART program, an OpenStax internship. Take your final projects in these classes to the next level. Some of the classes might be listed with pre-reqs – reach out to the professor and make your case. Worst cast they will say no! Maybe they will even admire your initiative and point you else where.

Unpaid internships

I was advised by an esteemed Rice Prof not to take unpaid engineering internships in the US, it’s not part of the US work culture. By and large, this advice has served me well. Certain organizations are just unable to pay though. Rice has some funds that can help cover the costs here. The Rice LILIE Entrepreneurship Summer Internship program has some good opportunities with start-ups (if the system says applications are for upperclassmen only and doesn’t let you apply – reach out to the company directly). I was partially sponsored by LILIE for freshman summer – I reached out to the company directly and they took the initiative to set-up the fund with LILIE from Rice. This was despite the company saying initially that the internship was unpaid. I went ahead with the interview – no harm in interview practice and learning what they did!

Career fair as a freshman

Would suggest attending the career fair just to check it out even if you are not interested in a freshman summer internship. See what sort of companies attend, what the atmosphere is like, and whether it is a viable way for you to get an internship next year or the year after. Recruiters might not pay you attention if you are an underclassmen or not in a relevant major to them. Be polite! They are on a mission here too – hire the students they think are best for their company. For some this includes ignoring students not relevant to what they are looking for. That’s not ideal, but understandable! Career fair is not representative of networking! Check out the next post.

Sophomore Summer – Try For An Internship, Especially If You Are Unsure Of The Industry You Have In Mind

This is the year where you will put in the most effort for the least award. But the work you put in here in networking and applying will create a solid foundation for next year and familiarize you with the timeline and processes for applications.

My sophomore summer internship search

I informational interviewed (more on informational interviews in a coming post) A LOT sophomore year. Managed to land an interview with Medtronic (the Google/Apple/Facebook) of the medical device world. Got to the 2nd round of interviews, but then found out they do not consider international students for internships. Kua kua kua (sad sound). I kept a positive relationship with the recruiter. Got turned down by GE Healthcare for the same reason.

Despite my valiant efforts in reaching out and applying to ~70 companies beginning in Aug the previous year, I still had not received an offer in mid-April. I had no solid leads either. Besides Medtronic, I had come close with another pre-series A health tech start-up in San Francisco (somewhere I really wanted to spend my summer). They knew Shade and had heard good stuff about me. The interview went well and they seemed excited. Unfortunately, funding fell through (no surprise in such an early stage company) and they weren’t able to take me on as a summer intern. As always, I kept up the relationship. Eventually I got a late follow-up from LivaNova, a large medical device neurostimulation company. The interview converted to an offer in later April! The relationship with the potential SF start-up led to an introduction to another young company in Houston, which I ended up taking as a part-time gig for the summer – Allotrope Medical.

Internship experience at a big company: LivaNova

Staying in Houston, the first thing I did was found a friend who would rent me their car for the summer. My time at LivaNova was great, I was on the electrical engineering team and surrounded by some very real experience and talent. I learnt how a larger company views the industry and start-ups in the field. The team had a good manager and was responsive to my requests to learn more regulatory and documentation – we even had a sessions by the head of the regulatory department! I met a passionate engineer – Ritika Agarwal, who became a strong technical mentor. I worked a lot with Blue Tooth Low Energy (BLE) which ended up being more prevalent than I imagined. Because of LivaNova’s influence as a bigger company, we had access to some pretty new BLE chips. LivaNova provided intern housing for the summer – that was a unique feeling.

What Bluetooth power consumption looks when signals are being sent and received.

Start-up company + lots of initiative from you = great learnings

The part-time gig at Allotrope Medical developed into a powerful opportunity. I had free reign to design the companies alpha prototype to deliver an electrical stimulation during surgery. I learnt how to manage a project and communicate goals and progress to a non-technical manager. I learnt how much folks appreciate (apparently its rare) when people deliver by the time they promise. Because Allotrope was a small company, I was able to take initiative and organize a large animal model study. Woohoo! Bioengineering me was very happy – not only was I doing electrical engineering in the medical device industry, I was actually looking at biology through the lens of physics and engineering!

First iteration of the alpha prototype design. Lights make everything look good!

My first animal study!

Reasons to consider an internship sophomore year

If you are passionate about industry, Sophomore summer is a good time to get some experience. I think it is especially useful if you are unsure if the industry you have in mind is for you – get a taste for it! It is also useful if you are shy about talking in a professional setting, this will get you warmed up!

Take this year to find the right time and way to apply

Putting in your application at the right time can be a game changer. The medical device companies only tend to look for interns starting in early Feb. For early and mid stage start-ups (before Series-B), early Feb is about the right time too. Use Crunchbase to check the funding stage of a start-up you are interested in.

The internship is a path to take in attempting to find what you want to dedicate your life to

Know what you are looking for as you are applying! When comparing a generic sophomore and junior application, the company would choose the junior! Know what you are looking for and hammer on it hard – this is your competitive edge over juniors. Spend lots of time thinking about what you want to do. It doesn’t have to be final, but you need a working hypothesis. If you know a broad field (e.g. electrical engineering) explore specific industries and be methodological. Think about what you want in life – money, work-life-balance, passion driven work – speak to people from various industries and see how their experiences match up to your goals. This takes time and effort, but it is worth it! “Find a job you love and you won’t have to work a day in your life” ~ Some famous dude.

Additional tips to scoring a sophomore summer internship

If you haven’t had some industry experience yet, but have the projects from freshman year (read above) you are in a good place. If you can make some time in sophomore fall, a part-time internship could be a great learning experience and will help your summer internship applications. Check out companies in the Houston area – TMCx  is great (digital and hardware medical device start-ups). Attend their demo-day or just email the companies for a meeting (more on writing emails in a coming post)!

Note non-engineering students: Check out the LRME program at Rice.

Junior Summer – Make It Count

This is the internship that will contribute greatly to your job search process. If you have a particular geographical location you want to be in after graduation, find an internship in that area. This has the added benefit of allowing you to network in person over the summer!

My junior summer internship search

I expected the search to be much easier this year given my past experiences. But because of industry timing, things only picked up in the latter half out of my search. Despite knowing the medtech and start-up timings to be closer to Feb/March, I had started in Sept – mostly out of excitement. Nothing much came of it till Feb.

For this last summer in college I decided I wanted to work in a series-B start-up company doing something in the neuroengineering space (I narrowed down to this area based on last years summer experience). I reached out to ~40 companies.

I ended up with 5 offers to choose from!

How  I got those interviews

Cala Health (electrical medicine, series-B start-up, San Francisco) – email to info@ address in Sept (to which they responded!) and LinkedIn contact to ~8 employees in Feb.

Sano (glucose monitoring, series-B start-up, San Francisco) – email to CEO

Carbon (3D printing for manufacturing, series-D start-up, Bay Area) – Referral by a Rice student who had interned their previous summer and had signed full time.

Procyrion (heart pump assist, series-B start-up, Houston) – Houston start-up career fair at TMCx

LivaNova (neuromodulation, public listed, Houston) – Welcome back from last summer. Didn’t formally interview but inquired for the role I had in mind.

Second Sight Medical (electrical medicine, public listed, Los Angeles) – Met founder (now chairman) at a talk he gave at Rice and got some intros from him. Then reached out to ~6 employees through LinkedIn and one of them sent my resume to a senior electrical engineer at Second Sight Medical.

Why I picked Cala Health

I went with Cala Health, a series-B start-up south of San Francisco. Cala did not make the highest monetary offer, neither were they the “coolest” company amongst my options.

But I saw an opportunity for good mentorship and a place for me to learn something new. I would encourage similar consideration if you have to make a decision between multiple offers your junior summer (or before). A seemingly high % difference in pay rate over two months doesn’t translate to too much in $ amount. However, give that more weight when deciding on an after college job! Through the interview process, one thing about Cala stood out at me – out of the ~8 employees I had messaged on LinkedIn, about half of them responded. This is crazy response rate for a company. I took it to mean well about them.

Cala Health, Bay Area.

I loved the Bay Area (a relief after not liking NYC freshman summer). The company was amazing and I found mentors in many of the wonderful people who worked their. The experience solidified my interest in pursuing a PhD in neuroengineering before starting a company in the health tech space.

The Nice Ending

What drove me through the hundreds of applications and phone calls over the last few years was a yearning desire to find a path in life that is meaningful to me. Motivation from the panic of having to find a summer internship can be more immediate, but is often short-lived and won’t contribute to your long-term growth as much. I hope what drives you forward in your internship search is a desire to live a meaningful and passionate life.

If you are on a path where the odds are stacked against you, where the bar is set higher for you, do not dismay. Forge on, and when you have conquered – turn around and watch for those who come after you.