Pro­gram­ming intern­ships are excel­lent expe­ri­ences for any­one con­sid­er­ing enter­ing the soft­ware indus­try. They are “mini-versions” of full-time soft­ware devel­op­ment roles, and the projects interns are assigned are con­strained only by the sum­mer time frame—in other respects, they are real projects that a new devel­oper (or even an expe­ri­enced devel­oper) might work on. A student’s fin­ished prod­uct might be shipped exter­nally as part of a larger piece of soft­ware, or else used inter­nally at the com­pany after the student’s depar­ture. In this sense, a pro­gram­ming intern­ship is the real deal.

It’s worth point­ing out that, depend­ing your pre­vi­ous pro­gram­ming expe­ri­ence, you may find “real world” pro­gram­ming a bit alien. Unlike in COS 126, 226, and 217, where style is empha­sized, you’re likely to need to deal with poorly doc­u­mented, non-modular code. One way to make the change less shock­ing is to take COS 333 (Advanced Pro­gram­ming Tech­niques) before tak­ing on an intern­ship, though it is by no means a pre­req­ui­site. We’re telling you this not to deter you—hundreds of stu­dents make the tran­si­tion every year—but just as a heads-up.

The soft­ware indus­try is huge, and many intern­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties exist. One of the sim­plest ways to con­nect with one is to attend the yearly career fairs, where indus­try giants come to Prince­ton to hire stu­dents, both as interns and as full-time employ­ees. These events are adver­tised through sev­eral list­servs, notably the one main­tained by Career Ser­vices. (You should sub­scribe to it if you’re going for any kind of indus­try intern­ship, whether pro­gram­ming, finance, or some­thing else entirely.)

Finally, if a soft­ware devel­op­ment job is your long-term goal—or a possibility—you should def­i­nitely spend at least two sum­mers at pro­gram­ming intern­ships. This will give you use­ful expe­ri­ence, help­ing you decide if soft­ware engi­neer­ing is what you really want to do, and it will serve as a cru­cial step­ping stone to the full-time posi­tion you will be pur­su­ing after grad­u­a­tion. To put it frankly, intern­ships are not only use­ful for the actual expe­ri­ence, but also for your resume, which plays an impor­tant role in the job market.

Con­tact: Ilias Giechask­iel: igiechas@Princeton.EDU