Internship Experience 3: Saul Wecht (Junior, Computer Engineering)

So let’s start at the beginning. Last summer, I was supposed to study abroad in Japan. I had my deposit sent in and my passport renewal in the mail. And then… the earthquake happened. Needless to say, the program was cancelled.

So there I was: A sophomore in March with nothing to do for the quickly approaching summer. I decided to approach Penn State’s Engineering Career Resources Office and see if there was anything they could do for me. To make a long story short, there was. After tearing apart and rebuilding my resume with me, they sent my information to a few different companies. Then, about a week later, I had an internship offer with Intel in Folsom, California.

So that was cool.

After finals week and a quick week at home to relax and pack (two things that I now know do not agree with each other), I was off to California. A few days after I landed, I was in Intel’s new employee orientation. Sound rushed? It felt rushed.

But, it was amazing. In a few short weeks I had gone from aimless student to full time Intel employee. I would say intern, but Intel doesn’t really make that distinction. One of the best parts about my internship was that I wasn’t treated like an intern. Once I joined my team, I was a full time developer just like everyone else. I attended team meetings, planned team projects, participated in team quarterly celebrations (which were awesome (and on company time)), and did pretty much everything else that anyone on the team did.

My team was responsible for Microsoft certification of Intel graphics drivers. Basically, Intel wrote software to control the graphics aspects of its computer processors and needed Microsoft’s seal of approval in order to call it a Windows certified driver. My team was responsible for executing the Microsoft-approved tests and getting that seal of approval. I specifically worked on automating that process. At the end of the day, my workload was mainly C# and aspx coding.

Possibly my favorite part of working at Intel, however, was the atmosphere. I’ve worked on countless teams in my life so far, and never (until this summer) have I been on a team where I genuinely liked every single member. Sure, I’ve had plenty of positive team experiences… but nothing quite like what I found at Intel. Each and every member of my team was friendly, knowledgeable, and supportive. And, from what I could tell, that was the case for every other team at Intel as well. Everyone was always happy, and there were no boundaries between offices. The CEO walked around in jeans and people called him Paul. The CEO of a multi-billion dollar international corporation. Paul. In jeans.

All things considered, I think you could say my summer was a success. After finding my last minute internship with this little company called Intel, I had an incredible experience where I learned a ton and met amazing people. I can only hope that I’m lucky enough to find my way back there again in the future!