I am a computer science student at Oberlin, and any computer science student knows how important it is to get an internship before graduation. In those months before the summer, it feels all the more significant to get an internship, like an internship is the golden key to some unimaginable success (a job). And any computer science student will tell you just how easy it is to get said internship: not.
The winter before summer 2025, I applied to dozens of internships. In December, I received an offer as an Application Development Intern at Lockton, “the world’s largest independent insurance brokerage.” Exciting stuff. The hiring manager assured me I would be working with Salesforce a lot. I was too scared to ask what Salesforce was. Does she know? Does anyone know?
It was a good offer, but it wasn’t the right fit. I turned it down. I spent January and February in knots, cursing myself for not accepting an internship when one fell in my lap. Out of sheer desperation, I applied to REUs and lo and behold, earned offers at about half of the twenty REUs I applied to. I was about to accept a research opportunity at Carnegie Mellon University when, in London on a Wednesday night in March, I received an internship offer from Amazon.
I was absolutely sure it was a scam. I mean, come on, the offer came from an email like amazonjoboffersuniversityinternshipsyourehired@amazon.jobs. Sure, it ended in @amazon.jobs, but it couldn’t be real. I’d interviewed with them, but I interviewed at many companies. I sort of lost track.
I called them that night from London and discovered that the offer was, in fact, real. Because I didn’t want to go to grad school and because Amazon felt like a great opportunity for a CS student with a sum zero experience, I accepted it. In May, I moved to Northern Virginia and started work as a Cloud Support Associate Intern.
I think there is this idea that it is impossible to find a job with a degree from a liberal arts college, especially one from Oberlin. This idea is patently untrue. As the job market shifts and technologies change, Oberlin continues to adapt and stay on its feet. This year, Oberlin added Business and Data Science programs (and a Musical Theater program!). The CS department hosts alumni and professor talks on latest technologies and work with industry leaders. We aren’t on the top of CS research, but I found that Oberlin offered me a unique experience where I could blend an education in technical skills with liberal arts knowledge. My writing skills were indispensable to earning offers at acclaimed research institutions. My interpersonal skills made all the difference in interviewing at Amazon.
There’s also another aspect of internships and jobs that can be tricky to talk about. So much of Oberlin is centered around activism, challenging institutions and systems, and inspecting the frameworks that keep so many populations oppressed or marginalized. Working at Amazon felt antithetical to all of that. In fact, getting a job anywhere in corporate America feels antithetical to that. I don’t know if I have a great answer to that, but in looking for a job, I would encourage you to bring your values wherever you go. Bring compassion, intelligence, and courage to every workplace. At panels hosted by engineering managers, I wasn’t afraid to challenge them on critical questions on technology nowadays. How is Amazon employing artificial intelligence and thoughtfully deploying services such as agentic AI? Where is Amazon as a company going and how is technology parallel to that trajectory?
It is difficult not only to get an internship, but to be thoughtful about the opportunities that you choose. This summer, I worked at Amazon. I talked about how Oberlin prepared me to apply to research and industry experiences, and better yet, how Oberlin made me think about my contribution to the workforce. As I look ahead to graduation and a job following, I think about the impact I want to leave. How can I make a difference? Where am I meant to be?
And finally, how can I avoid working with Salesforce?
