This month, I wrapped up my 10-week software engineering internship at Northrop Grumman. Northrop Grumman is a major player in the defense industry with 90,000 employees and a market cap of over $75B.
From writing on the walls to management presentations to mini golfing, here was my experience –
Pre-Hiring and Interview at Northrop Grumman
After submitting my resume to Northrop Grumman, I was selected for a technical interview with a software engineering manager on January 27th, 2022. The interview was an hour long and included a variety of technical and non-technical questions. Other interns that I spoke to had vastly different interview experiences, but my interviewer asked me many questions about the projects I had listed on my resume.
A couple of weeks later, I got the notification that I had been unofficially hired! Before they could extend an official offer, they needed to conduct a background check. The pre-employment checks were certainly extensive due to the classified nature of defense work. I won’t go into too much detail about the specifics of what Northrop Grumman requires, but expect to divulge nearly every aspect of your background before being granted access to classified information.
I was assigned to a team a couple of weeks before my start date in June, and my manager reached out to me with logistical information about where and when to meet on the first day. My manager was different from my interviewer (I actually never met my interviewer in person). I didn’t know anything about the project I was stepping into until I got to the office on my first day.
Sunday, June 5, 2022 (Day 0)
The day before my start, I ran my first full marathon. The culmination of seven years of running, it was an incredible experience. You can read more about my running journey in my July blog post, but the relevance to my Northrop Grumman internship is that I went into the office on Monday with very sore legs.
Monday, June 6, 2022 (Day 1)
I woke up Monday morning and re-read the email I received from my assignment manager. I knew I had to report to the main lobby at 09:00 and bring various forms of identification. But what else was I supposed to bring? I ended up packing a small bag with a waterbottle, notebook, some pens and pencils, a charger for my phone, and that’s about it. I had no idea what to expect, and hoped I didn’t forget anything important.
I left my house at 08:25 to get to the office right on time at 09:00. In the lobby, I met an intern who had also driven half an hour to get to work (little did I know that we’d be working closely together for the next 10 weeks) and my manager came out to greet the two of us.
We were issued computers, had a companywide virtual intern welcome meeting at 10:00, and I had an appointment to get my badge before lunch. My first lunch was with a small group of about 10 interns and managers. We all went out to lunch together and got to know each other a bit.
After lunch, a longtime member of the software team gave a high-level overview of the project we were assigned to. This was the first time I had learned anything about what I’d be working on during the internship. During this meeting, I was assigned to work on unit testing various aspects of the newly developed code (I had no idea, but 5 weeks later I would be reassigned – read on to hear that story!) The presentation definitely got me excited about the project and I was glad to learn about the impact that my work would have in the field.
After this presentation, I was definitely ready for a snack – I wrote a reminder for the next day to pack some more food! Aside from snacks, I didn’t really need anything else; the company provided me with everything I needed.
The internship certainly started off with a bang!
Tuesday, June 7, 2022 (Day 2)
I had finally gotten used to the office setup, and I wish that I could insert a picture here, but phone use was restricted at Northrop Grumman for security reasons. The office was very well-equipped. Us two interns worked in a big lab with about ten desks (the other eight were empty) arranged in a circle. There were no cubes or dividers, so communicating was super easy. It was a software lab (I’ll refer to this room as “the lab”), which meant the room was full of computers, cables, monitors, and hard drives everywhere.
Another perk of the office was that all of the walls were laminated, so you could write on them with dry-erase markers. When we started the internship, the walls were empty, but by the end, they were completely full of meeting notes, progress trackers, and announcements. We also had a small mini golf installation in the office, which was a great de-stresser during our break periods and lunchtimes.
On Tuesday, I began studying the program-specific technologies that I’d be using for the rest of the internship. The infrastructure for upskilling was great at Northrop Grumman; at the beginning of the internship, I learned a lot of skills that I could take away far beyond the end of the 50 days.
The highlight of Tuesday, though, was certainly donut day! The company bought donuts for everyone at our site, which included people from all 6 buildings working on many different projects. This helped to give some perspective on what others in San Diego are working on, as the program I worked on is just one of many. I met fellow interns, senior directors, and everyone in between. This social time was valuable in helping me get my feet wet with the company.
Friday, June 10, 2022 (Day 5)
One of the major perks of working at Northrop Grumman is the 9/80 work schedule. Most employees are eligible to work 9 hours a day, and get every other Friday off. Generally, 9/80 participants work 8 hours on the Fridays that they don’t get off, totaling 80 hours over a two-week period.
The company’s next “off Friday” landed on my first week. It was definitely great to take a rest after a whirlwind of a few days. I spent some time on product development for my startup in the morning and met with some family friends that were visiting from Austin, TX in the evening. As time went on, my off Fridays definitely became something to look forward to and plan around; as you’ll read soon, I made even more elaborate plans for my future off Fridays.
Monday, June 13, 2022 (Day 6)
Despite how much I enjoyed the social interaction of going into the office, this internship was technically hybrid. We had the option to work from home as we saw fit, as long as our onsite presence wasn’t required for any meetings.
This was the first day that I telecommuted to work. Having the option to telecommute was convenient, but I did it as little as possible; spending time with my fellow intern on site was well worth it!
Tuesday, June 14, 2022 (Day 7)
I drove back to the office on Tuesday and was glad to see everyone again. The highlight of Tuesday was a sitewide email with various announcements that was signed by a director that I met on donut day the week prior. It was awesome that within the first two weeks of the internship, I was already able to put faces to names on the senior leadership level.
Thursday, June 16, 2022 (Day 9)
Thursday was the first day that I made it out to the gym at Northrop Grumman before work. There’s a reasonably good gym in the building, which made working out super convenient. The bathrooms next door to the gym had showers and lockers in them. The little amenities like this definitely helped improve the quality of my work day.
During the day, we had an enrichment event where we were able to virtually meet other local interns in a small group. Each intern was instructed to make an introductory slide about themselves, and then we presented to each other in a group of about 7 people. It turns out that many people shared a love of poke, so we set up a lunch meeting for the next week to grab some poke together.
Monday, June 20, 2022 (Day 11)
I hit the gym in the office for the second time on this morning. Definitely a great amenity that I took advantage of for the rest of the internship (I’ll stop noting every day that I go to the gym haha).
The software team for this project follows the Agile development methodology closely, with daily scrums and 3-week sprints. At this point, I had integrated into the team well enough that I was ready to start presenting at the daily scrums. This was my first day speaking at the team meeting! After a short learning curve, the Agile development methodology was one of my most valuable takeaways from this internship.
The biggest event of Monday was that five new software engineering interns started on my project this day, making a total of seven interns in the lab. Once the occupancy of the lab increased from two to seven, things definitely became a lot more lively. At lunch, I got to know everyone a bit and showed them the office minigolf course.
Tuesday, June 21, 2022 (Day 12)
I went out for poke with the interns I met in the virtual get-to-know-you session the week before. I also invited the other interns from the lab, which helped bring us all closer together. It was a good opportunity to learn more about everyone, and a great follow-up to the event that Northrop Grumman arranged for us. The interns were from many different schools, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Southern California, UC San Diego, San Diego State University, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
On another note, this was my first time ever trying poke; overall I thought it was squarely okay, not bad but not amazingly good. I’d tag along if someone had a craving, but I won’t be the one to suggest it.
Friday, June 24, 2022 (Day 15)
This was my second “off Friday!” It was less eventful than the last day off; I spent the day relaxing with my family.
Tuesday, June 28, 2022 (Day 17)
After work on Tuesday, I went to the movies with my close family friends to watch Top Gun: Maverick. I spotted the technology that I’m working on at Northrop Grumman in the film, which was really neat! The movie accurately depicted the function of the technology just as it would be used in the field, which I greatly appreciated. Top Gun: Maverick quickly became the favorite movie among the interns in the lab.
Also, fun fact: Northrop Corporation is in the credits of the original Top Gun (it was filmed before the merger with Grumman Aerospace Corporation).
Thursday, July 7, 2022 (Day 24)
No significant developments to report since June 21. I was coding away, working on the unit testing task I had been assigned little by little each day. All seven interns in the software lab were also working on this task. Even though we were all contributing together, our progress on the task was slow. One of the major installments on the whiteboard wall was a daily progress tracker so we could gauge how close to the goal we were. We had no idea how long it would last (future me: this goal was just met at the end of August).
On Thursday, right at the end of the workday, I got an email from my manager letting me know that management valued the work I had been doing on the unit testing task, and assigned me a different task to start on Monday. The other interns in my office all stayed on the previous task. At this time, I wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing, but either way, I had to take it in stride.
Friday, July 8, 2022 (Day 25)
This “off Friday,” I spent my time preparing for my speaking engagement at SEMICON West. This was a great opportunity to pack my bags and make final preparations for my panel discussion. I wouldn’t have another chance to do this before I left on Monday afternoon.
Saturday, July 9th, 2022 (Day 25.25)
Northrop Grumman was very flexible with my work schedule. I wasn’t going to be able to work on Tuesday or Wednesday due to traveling to speak at SEMICON West, but I was able to “pre-work” those days by working from home on the weekend. I was grateful for being granted this option; it allowed me to reach my 80 hours over the two weeks without working during my travels.
Completely by chance, a director at Northrop Grumman who I met during a lunch event at work came knocking on my front door while I was working from home. His family also fosters kittens who otherwise wouldn’t have a home through the organization SPOT Saves Pets. They were dropping off their foster kittens to our house so we could care for the kittens while they were on vacation. It’s truly a small world!
Sunday, July 10, 2022 (Day 25.75)
I worked again on Sunday, as my work over the weekend would cover my absence on Tuesday and Wednesday. I spent the day primarily wrapping up my work on my original unit testing task; I’d be switching tasks starting on Monday.
Monday, July 11, 2022 (Day 26)
I started my work day at 04:00 so that I could wrap up in time for an afternoon flight to San Francisco. The flexibility of start and end times on my Northrop Grumman team definitely benefited me on days like these.
At 09:00, I met with the subject matter expert for my new task. He gave some more insight on what I’d be working on for the rest of the internship and next steps about where to get started. The meeting was great overall and I left with a grasp of a complex subsystem that I came in knowing very little about. I would be responsible for updating the code to function properly with the latest versions of various dependencies that are not backwards-compatible with the older versions. The only wrinkle was that I would be traveling for the next couple of days, and the subject matter expert was heading on vacation for the following two weeks.
Just before I left for the airport, we booked a few hours of further meetings on Thursday and Friday to make sure I was ready to go on the new project. I was tired after that busy morning; I made sure to take a nap on the plane! I made it to the conference in San Francisco that afternoon with no issues.
Tuesday, July 12, 2022 (Day 27)
In San Francisco, I spoke at the SEMICON West conference at the Moscone Center. I had an insightful panel discussion on “Elevating Industry Image and Awareness” where we discussed outreach strategies for exciting the next generation about the semiconductor industry. Click here to watch the recording of the panel!
Wednesday, July 13, 2022 (Day 28)
Aside from the panel discussion, I had a great time at SEMICON West on Tuesday and Wednesday. I met a number of amazing industry leaders and learned a lot about the exciting opportunities in microelectronics. On Wednesday, I caught the last flight home (I didn’t reach my bed until about 1:30AM)!
Thursday, July 14, 2022 (Day 29)
I woke up on Thursday morning absolutely wiped from the day prior. I didn’t have too much time to be tired, though – I had an inbox full of emails and a calendar stuffed with important meetings to attend. I went into the office but didn’t get a chance to work out (I’d regret not working out the next day).
The most pressing thing in my inbox was a reminder that we had a sprint review meeting with management on Friday, and I was asked to present about the interns’ progress on the unit testing task. I created a few slides that compiled information about vulnerabilities that the team patched while testing the code repository and sent it over to our scrum master first thing in the morning.
I spent the majority of the day working with the subject matter expert on the new task I had been assigned. I took plenty of notes to prepare myself to continue making progress while he was out of office.
I fell asleep shortly after dinner to try and catch up a bit from the late flight.
Friday, July 15, 2022 (Day 30)
Okay, I know I said that I’d stop writing about the gym, but something unexpected happened. I got an email from corporate saying that due to increasing COVID-19 cases in the local community, additional safety measures would be implemented temporarily in the workplace. One of those safety measures was an indefinite gym shutdown, which definitely decreased the convenience of exercising before work.
On a more positive note, I presented at my first sprint review on Friday. Speaking to management was a great opportunity, and it helped shine a light on all of the amazing work that the 7 interns had been doing during the sprint. Management commended the interns and encouraged us to continue robustly testing the systems and identifying/resolving more vulnerabilities.
Monday, July 18, 2022 (Day 31)
I worked out at my local gym today, because the gym at the office was still closed 🙁
This was the first day that the subject matter expert for my new software updating task was out of office. My notes were decent, but developing software proved challenging without having someone to consult. Over the coming days, I consulted others who are familiar with the software, but being forced to figure most of it out on my own certainly helped me gain a deeper understanding.
Thursday, July 21, 2022 (Day 34)
Thursday was another 04:00 start, and in the afternoon, I set out on a camping trip to Lake Mohave with my best friend. The trip was incredibly relaxing, and it was an excellent way to spend my “off Friday” and weekend. I used it as an opportunity to recover from my busy past couple of weeks!
Tuesday, July 26, 2022 (Day 37)
I made a major breakthrough on my new task. I found a way to automate most of the work I was assigned, which turned a colossal task into a manageable task. I was proud of the insights I had on this day, but didn’t quite realize how great the impact was until the subject matter expert returned.
Wednesday, July 27, 2022 (Day 38)
As my internship wrapped up, I had a performance review with my manager. I didn’t know what to expect or how it would go, but I hoped for the best and had a candid conversation with her. The review went very well; I received many supportive comments, and management was impressed by my work on both tasks. They noted that they were impressed by my leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving abilities. I was given an offer to return next summer; and overall, I left the meeting glad that they valued me as a member of the team.
Thursday, July 28, 2022 (Day 39)
Northrop Grumman hosted a sector-wide intern event where we had a 6-person “ask me anything” session with two directors. This was my favorite virtual intern event – I learned a lot from the directors and it gave a lot of insight into career trajectories for leadership positions.
Monday, August 1, 2022 (Day 41)
The subject matter expert on my new task returned from his time off and I updated him on my progress. He was impressed, to say the least. The automation approach that I had come up with took a task that was expected to take many thousands of development hours and turned it into mere hundreds of hours. Because of my efforts, the updates feasibly could be completed within a couple of sprints, which was certainly not possible before. My insights saved Northrop Grumman a sizeable amount of money on their project’s budget.
Thursday, August 4, 2022 (Day 44)
I presented to management about my progress on the software updating task during the sprint review – they echoed the same sentiment I heard on Monday and were very glad to hear how much I had accomplished.
After the sprint review, the interns celebrated by heading out to lunch and a minigolf course together. As I mentioned before, we have a minigolf putter and hole in the office, so all of the interns had been putting a lot during our breaks. Heading to the real minigolf course was our way to settle the ongoing debate of who’s the best at putting in the office (spoiler alert: not me).
Thursday, August 11, 2022 (Day 49)
On the second-to-last day of the internship, we had a sitewide ice cream social. I greatly enjoyed meeting people at donut day all the way back on the second day of the internship, and this was the perfect follow-up event. I met new people and reconnected with people from all 6 buildings. I also saw the director who was at my house with the foster kittens for the first time since then!
Also, in other news, community COVID-19 cases had subsided sufficiently for the temporary precautions to be removed, so the gym was finally reopened! The only bummer is that it was my second-to-last day in the office, so I didn’t have a chance to get back in there.
Friday, August 12, 2022 (Day 50)
This was my last day in the office. Staring at the scribbles on the wall, I could clearly see how far we’d come over the past 50 days. My final use of the putter in the lab was quite bittersweet.
I was sad to leave but glad that I learned so much. From being integrated into the Agile development process to familiarizing myself with multiple tech stacks to presenting to management, I got a valuable glimpse into the life of a software developer. The skills that I learned markedly increased my confidence in contributing to larger projects; before this, all of my experience had been on solo projects or relatively small teams. I’m ready to use what I’ve learned to continue innovating and leading.
Northrop Grumman allowed me an excellent work-life balance with the flexibility in start and end times, the option to work remotely on occasion, and the 9/80 schedule. The team was professional and the intern program was well-managed. Us interns had a great time together and made coming into the office something to look forward to. Ultimately, with this internship, I enjoyed my summer both inside and outside of work. I would definitely recommend it!
Now, onto Stanford for me… stay tuned for my September blog post 😀
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