Friday, April 14, 2017

AHHHH I FAILED MY INTERVIEW


After a written application and an online interview, it was finally time for my on site interview!

For what, you may ask? I was applying for an internship position at Pivotal Inc., as an alumna of the Girls Who Code program they hosted last summer.

The internship would allow me work at the Pivotal office in downtown SF, coding for their open source cloud foundry. (Plus it was paid!!!!)

A timestamp of the interview and rest of the day follows:

7:00 AM - I review my slides to present to the interview panel. I basically cover two code projects I have worked on, and the current skills I am learning in AP Comp Sci at school.

1:30 PM - I leave Chem class and skip an in class essay to get going to SF.

2:00 - Sitting on BART with a zucchini plant.

2:30 - I enter the Pivotal office, which welcomes people with a bright green reception wall. My interviewer, Rupa comes to take me to the conference room. (Nope we did not come to the part of the blog title yet haha)

3:23 - I wrap up my presentation to Rupa and Cornelia, who I am pretty sure enjoyed my code projects (a health app and pun page).

Current emotional status: Okay, that wasn't too bad. Good job on presenting! They didn't seem bored at least. YOU GOT THIS :D

3:45 - I sit in the office kitchen taking a break, eating orchard peach sorbet and doing calculus homework. I am slightly nervous about the second half of the interview, which is technical pair programming with a developer. However, the very nice receptionist helps me microwave the frozen solid sorbet so it is more scoopable.

4:07 - My technical interviewer comes to get me, and we head into an office with two monitors. Surprise! I don't need to actually type -only voice my logic and the code out loud for him to type.

ALERT: An obstacle approaches. Do you take the left side, a technical interview designed for the high school interns (in Python), or the right side, a technical interview in Java that every adult Pivotal employee takes before being hired.

4:15 - I start to question why I turned right and if I know how to code in Java after all. I don't even need to type and I still stutter over my code. Then again, I never did TDD before, or much refactoring.

Current emotional status: ABORT! ABORT! Ahhh I can't code at ALL!!! APCS really ignores runtime efficiency :( HAHAHA why did I think I knew Java?

5:00 - whew the coding is over, and I passed the tests (with a lot of help).

5:15 - I get the speech where Pivotal is looking for interns that have a bit more experience, so that they do not have to invest too much time teaching us in the first place. Sigh.

5:16 - Waiting for the elevator, thinking about getting a job at Chipotle. Sighhhhh.

5:18 - A cool worker from Pivotal is also heading home and walks to the BART with me. She graduated from college last year, and is currently in the business department. I tell her how I failed the interview, and she laughs. She tells me how it is cool that I am already interviewing and a lot of positive comments that make me feel better.

5: 22 - I learn that she was actually rejected from Pivotal due to her lack of experience, but she wrote to the CEO about how she really wanted the opportunity. The company worked to create a new position for her to fill :O

5:24  - I also learn about her dating tribulations in Silicon Valley, and how every guy replies "machine learning" when she asks them what they do in their free time. "Boringggg," according to her. I am not too optimistic on my chances consequently, as machine learning sounds pretty cool :P

5:25 - We part ways amicably at the BART. I get on the wrong train with my zucchini plant. Sighhhh. Chipotle....

5:28 - I switch trains to the right one (finally). Time to begin the KDrama OST playlist to feel better. Sigh.

5:36 - An old chinese lady is staring at my zucchini plant. She murmurs something but Descendents of the Sun drowns out her words. I take out my earbuds and look inquiringly, but she shakes her head. "What did you say?" I ask in Cantonese. Her face lights up and she begins speaking in Canto. She calls me pretty, which I vehemently deny, and I wave as she leaves for her stop.

5:50 ish? - It's my stop. I wonder, will I gain experience if I don't get an internship (which requires experience) (which comes from an internship? )?

6 - Yay, I decide to take some coding courses over the summer at community college. Time to build up my skills :) Today was a good day, and I took away some valuable tidbits from the interview.

6:15 - But first, time to watch some Kdramas. I earned it.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Open Letter to the Mills Robotics Team (Electronics Deparment)


As you may be able to discern from the letter, our robotics team did not perform as well as we hoped at the Silicon Valley Regional. We had put in the hard work and struggles into getting a good robot done, but our efforts did not seem to pay off. Instead of having regrets or wishing that we had a bit more experience from attending other competitions, it is important to reflect back and come up with the next steps. 



Hi Electronics,


I wanted to thank you all for a very good season. We made great improvements within the department from previous years, so do not beat yourself up with the results from today's competition. You all helped create a better robot with a solid electronics board (no repairs needed!), the integration of more sensors, and even a button board. Although they weren't used to the fullest, it was a good step towards even better automation.

Our captain messaged me, and basically he said that he was proud of our department and that we should not feel that we held the team back in any way. In his own cheesy words "hold you head high and congratulations."

Of course, there are a lot of improvements that can be made to become an even stronger team, but rather than feeling down about our ranking or thinking about the what ifs or "ehh that was expected,"
please come up with more ideas and suggestions for our department. We will be having a meeting soon to plan out the rest of the year, decide on leadership positions, and come up with goals and steps we can take to achieve them.

Thank you!
Kaitlyn

TLDR: we will bounce back, but it is up to everyone to help out :P