Building for success: A Q&A session with 2021’s engineering interns

A solid theoretical foundation, practical experience, and productive collaboration are just some of the ways software engineers can begin building successful programs and products. Whether you’re still in college or a new grad, one of the best ways to cultivate those skillsets is through a professional engineering internship. From take-home tests to endless tech screens, finding your perfect internship takes work and can feel like a full-time job, but when you finally land one, the rewards make the effort worthwhile.

We embrace a “full-time, short-term” philosophy at Blend, and from day one, we encourage all Blendterns to be equal parts self-driven, independent, and collaborative. Our engineering interns built something meaningful this summer as they developed their skills through impactful work, strong mentorship, and a great deal of virtual paired programming — and they’d like to share their experiences during their short but productive tenure at Blend.

How did you decide that Blend’s engineering internship program was the right fit for you?

Liseidy Bueno: Throughout the interview process, I felt that everyone cared about my success and was supportive, and they gave me constructive and helpful feedback. I got the feeling that Blend not only cares about the work that you do, but also about how you’re growing as an engineer and helping you reach your professional and learning goals.

Shreya Sridhar: I decided that Blend would be a great fit for me during the interview process when I got to meet some of the amazing engineers who work here and the enthusiastic recruiters. The internship program was well thought out and provided each intern the opportunity to work in a production environment on projects that they could complete over the three month course of their internship.

Thinking back on your time here at Blend, what is a goal that you wanted to achieve and how did your team support you?

Gabriel Meriano: Coming into the internship, my main goals were to learn as many new concepts and tools as possible while also building something that would be truly useful to the goals of Blend. My team helped me in doing exactly this.

First off, they gave me the support I needed when picking up new tools and technologies that I didn’t have experience with before. Once I started getting the hang of the tech stack that my team works with, they gave me a project that allowed me to use these skills and more to build a full-stack web application to make it easier for on-call engineers to debug and fix problems during their shifts.

Having a project like this that not only helped hone my software development skills but also had a real impact on the productivity of Blend was a very rewarding experience. I am very thankful to the Close team for setting me up for success in this way.

Shreya Sridhar: I had hoped to improve my skills as a full stack engineer, and my team supported me by taking my goals into consideration and allowing me to work on a project that integrates both UI and backend work.

Why should students consider interning at Blend?

Ethan Houston: It’s a great opportunity to grow as a software engineer because the work you do is actually impactful and is used in the actual products.

Will Duan: Students should consider interning at Blend if they are looking for a company that has the culture of a startup but they also want the scale and impact of an established company. Blend finds a middle ground between a new thriving startup and a large company as it is growing rapidly. The demand for products that Blend offers are high, and the company will continue to grow, so now is a great time to join and see what it is all about!

Experience, built to order

At Blend, we understand the importance of internships of all kinds, not just engineering internships, and our Blendships strive to provide everyone with an experience that will become a pivotal part of their career development. Internships often go by in a flash, and we want to provide every Blendtern with the opportunity to work on real-life projects in a challenging, supportive, and productive environment. We’re not just building platforms that support end-to-end customer journeys for banking products, we’re helping the engineers of tomorrow build their futures.

Are you ready to see how internship and new grad opportunities can help you build your future?

• Explore our University page
• See life at Blend through the eyes of our employees on our Instagram