How the heck did I end up in Oregon?
First I am going to explain how I even ended up at this amazing company whose main mission is to train the future of tech.
Background Information on how I got the Internship
I am a Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program Alumni and if you have no idea what Girls Who Code is, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?
Basically, a truly badass woman by the name of Reshma Saujani created a non profit organization that takes middle school through high school girls and provide them with the foundation of Computer Science. The reason why this program is so special is that not only does it solve the problem of inclusion in the tech industry, a huge sisterhood has formed because of it. Girls Who Code is partnered with very big tech companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Adobe, and many more. They have many alumni events and I was lucky enough to go to one located at the United Nations where I met a girl named Vicky. The group was discussing the different internships or jobs they’ve done as well as some advice to younger alumnis like me. And Vicky recommended me to apply for a Software developer internship at a company locate in Oregon. I researched the company online and saw that they had a specific internship program just for high school students which is quite rare especially for the tech industry. So then I researched for a person that I could contact about the internship program and that’s where I came across my long lost older version of me, Dianna Chourarath. Dianna is a technical recruiter for the CDK Global’s internship program where she manages both high school interns and college interns. Basically, she’s the QUEEN of the intern program. And so I decided to email her to inquire about the program and also introduced her to the Senior Manager of partner engagement of Girls Who Code so she could share the flyer for the internship program to our internship/jobs database which has over a thousand prospective applicants and from there she asked for my resume which I thought was a pretty good sign since she wasn’t taking any at that time.
Fast forward to March. At this point, I have applied to several other summer programs and unfortunately weren’t accepted. Dianna then sends me an email sending me possible interview times for the Portland Office.
There was a little bit of a problem…
I lived in the east coast. And none of my family members lived in the state of Oregon. But I decided to risk and sign up for an online interview anyway. So the day of my online interview comes and I was absolutely terrified. My principal allowed me to miss a day of school so i could make it to my interview. Since it was through a webcam, I set up a desk with the background of a white solid wall and waited for 12 PM. What I didn’t know was that it was 12 PM PACIFIC TIME. So really, I had to wait till 3 PM Eastern time. I knew who were going to be my two interviewers, it was Joseph and Ricky, both software engineers. It’s actually funny because Ricky turned out to be my mentor which I’ll explain later. They asked me about 3 or 4 technical questions in which I still managed to screw up. And the rest were about myself. One thing that I never forget to mention when ever I am interviewed or in an elevator pitch about myself is that I am a performer. I love to sing, dance, do theater, rock band and it’s shaped me to the crazy, vocal extrovert that I am today. The art of performing has provided me with so many skills that can be utilized in other fields and I couldn’t be any more thankful for that. Interview was extremely short and it gave me the feeling that I bombed it, they mentioned that we will get an email whether we get an offer or not by the end of next week. At this point, I had a feeling that this internship was out of the picture. Until Thursday afternoon came and I was at a BuiltByGirls event ( BuiltByGirls is also a nonprofit organization created by AOL that helps girls interested in Tech) at Refinery 29 ( a website similar to Buzzfeed but has to do with all things women) and I saw a glimpse of an email saying “Congratulations…” and I freaked in the middle of the event and I was able to share my excitement with one of my best friends I met through the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program who is now a software engineering intern at Bloomberg in New York (WOO).
Except there were MORE problems. I had three months to figure out a living situation and I had to accept the internship offer in three days. IMPOSSIBLE? I THINK NOT. I began messaging everyone I knew and telling my parents to ask everyone they know if we had any friends or family living in Portland. Nein. Nada. Wala. Absolutely no one I knew lived in Portland so I asked Dianna for an extension to accept or decline the offer and for some advice on internship and so she recommended me to Deven. Deven was a former intern, now software engineer who had to deal with the same problem that I had. Except he was much older and more capable of life. Deven was my literal savior. He posted on the PSU facebook group to see if anyone was searching for a roommate. I was desperate at this point and was willing to stay at anyone’s couch. I really wanted this experience and I was not going to stop at any cost.
Another one of my problems was the money to pay for my housing. I was not going to ask my parents and become a financial burden. My job as a hospitality associate at the science center was insufficient to cover even my airplane flight. So with the encouragement of my amazing friends, I created a GoFundMe Account.
in a matter of two months, I was able to raise over 1175 dollars and I was beyond ecstatic. I couldn’t thank my friends and family enough for supporting and believing me enough that I will be able to do this.
On June 20th, I hopped on a plane to Portland and never looked back. (cheese Louise). The next following posts will be a play by play on each week!
A few pictures!
