2025 EES Snowflake Inc.: Intern to Full-Time Engineer: My Snowflake Career Path

Hello everyone. Thank you for all of the love in the chat. Say hello and I will say hello back.

My name is Emmanuela and I am a staff member at CodePass and we are so excited to welcome you to our next breakout session. Before I introduce the session, I have a few reminders for you. Please make sure that you utilize the chat.

Like I said, show some love in there. Be sure to share some key insights that you’re getting. Encourage others and just share all the gems that you’re hearing so that you can help others.

Make sure that you keep the comments relevant to the session. Please also take a minute to take the survey that we have at the end of the session. You will be prompted in this session.

So, be sure to fill that out because your feedback will help us to improve future sessions and future EES that we have in the future. With those reminders out of the way, I am very excited to introduce this session which is called intern to full-time engineer, my career path at Snowflake with two individuals from Snowflake. I will go ahead and read their bios now just so you can get a little sense of who they are.

First we have Michelle who serves as the senior manager of global university programs at Snowflake where she oversees the intern program and works to drive impactful experiences for students and educational partners. A multilingual leader in talent development. She has successfully scaled multiple international programs throughout her career building bridges across diverse global markets and educational institutions.

And then we have Sarah who is a senior engineer at Snowflake and helped to build snow park python features. She received her bachelor’s degree in science of science in computer science with a minor in statistics from the University of Wateroo in 2022. She has two years of her professional experience and a deep enthusiasm for C++ which is amazing.

And so please help me in welcoming both Michelle and Sarah to the stage. All right, show some emojis. Of course.

Of course, Michelle. And I will go ahead and hand it over to the both of you to take on this session. All right.

Thank you, Manuela. Thank you, Manuela. And you can hear us all.

Okay. Welcome everyone. We’re so excited to be here.

And as Emanuel shared, my name is Michelle and I’m so excited to talk with you today about how Snowflake is investing in the next generation of our leaders. It’s a huge focus for us and a very big part of that is creating pathways for our early career talent. And to help us dive into that experience and what it’s really like, I’m joined by Sarah Abdel Rahman.

And Sarah started as an intern with us and is now a full-time engineer. So welcome Sarah. Thank you for having me.

Yeah. So Sarah, it’s, you know, it’s a pleasure to have you, as I shared, and our goal with the intern program is to turn an internship into an unforgettable experience. So, we provide meaningful work, no busy work here, and we believe in setting up our early and career talent just to have success for everyone from day one.

And Sarah, you’ve been on the snow park team for almost three years now, as you joined as an intern. Can you tell us about your role and what is snowpark? Yeah, for sure.

So I work on the server side or the backend side of snowpark. Snow snowflake was originally built with a primarily SQL interface. So when users have data on snowflake and they want to query it they it was primarily only SQL supported.

But what snowark did was extend that support for other languages as well like Python, Java and Scala. So now when the users want to interact with the data in snowflake, they can run arbitrary code in those languages without having to extract that data from the secure snowflake environment. So it’s all within snowflake.

Personally when I was an intern, I worked on two projects because I was lucky enough to do backtoback internships. My first internship was on Java UDFs and improving observability and the debugability experience for users. My second internship was building Python table functions.

So you request data and you run a function and the result that you have is multicolumn and multi row. That’s amazing. Thank you for for sharing and just thinking through about doing two backto-back internships.

It’s incredible to hear about the distinction between the two projects as well and and making it into production. Just knowing that what you produced was, you know, foundational. So thank you for sharing what Snow Park is.

And, just going into your projects and, you know, how it can be productionized and released to our customers. They can definitely have global impact. So, thinking through what our internship experience is like.

So every intern is given, you know, that meaty project. How did that experience prepare you for the path that you’re on now? I was very exposed to the day-to-day of my co-workers as well who are working full-time.

I got to see what their day-to-day looked like. So it helped me set up to know what I would my what my day would look like as an individual contributor. As I said, because of that back-to-back internship, I was exposed to different projects.

It’s still within snowpark, but it gave me an idea of like what do I want to work on as full-time. So, that flexibility was also pretty nice. And you know working closely with the more senior engineers as well exposed me to what a senior role would look like and helped me look at what the future might look like as an engineer as well.

Not just when I first joined as a new grad but what my career down the line would look like. Thank you for sharing and just thinking through what a senior engineer would look like and the skill sets there. And again about your backto-back internships.

It I think it really speaks to like our team’s collaboration and how we work with other departments and like how we ensure our interns, you know, get to be placed, you know, to map to those projects. What are some of the differences and developments you’ve seen in yourself since graduating from an intern into a full-time employee? The main thing I would say is like things are not taking as much time as they used to.

You know, as I got familiar with the code base, our code base at Snowflake, especially Snow Park, is very unique. There’s a lot of best practices and a lot of decisions that we follow. So, now that I’m familiar with the with the code base as an intern, I was able to hit the ground running as a as an ICO when I first joined.

The other thing is written communication and documentation. That’s not something a lot of students think of when you’re still an undergrad and an intern, but you get to write a lot as an engineer and especially when you’re trying to share your ideas like in a design doc. You don’t think about how much context you need to give the reader.

You have to assume that the reader is not only an engineer who’s not familiar with your project. They’re there’s just an engineer in the company. But you have to provide all the context about what your team even does so that you’re you’re able to communicate what your project is and what your ideas are.

So I’ve definitely seen a lot of growth in terms of things are not taking as much time as they used to and as well as writing designs and written documentation and communication. Yeah, thank you for sharing. Yeah, I mean I think written communication is is key and I think it’s sometimes underestimated about the just the the the quality and the connection and the connective tissue that that that produces.

And as you mentioned the design doc you also mentioned you know context. So having that context is key that level to detail what that looks like in there. And I think that’s something that really speaks, you know, to our intern program overall is like how we’re committed to help folks grow even from, you know, all the life cycle of of communication.

And so laying those foundations for one’s career, and having access to that and having that feedback, too. Another piece, you know, just thinking about our program and how we focus on three key pillars. We have three pillars at Snowflake and that’s building connections, professional development, and Snowflake for good.

You know, we want all interns to feel very connected and you know, engaged to one another, you know, for their path for their career. Were you you you were recently promoted from an IC1 to an IC2 which is fantastic. Congrats.

Yeah. No, huge congrats. It’s a big milestone.

And what responsibilities helped like propel you towards that next stage in your career? I was given the chance to really own a project and a feature from end to end. When I was an intern or when I was working as an IC1, the projects that I was working on were someone else’s ideas and someone else’s design.

So I got to just work on the implementation but my manager gave me the chance to start from the design implementation timeline progress production rollout and all the way to support and customer communication. So giving that chance to really take ownership and take something all the way to production was a way for me to show that I am ready for that next level. I am ready to be an IC2.

Additionally I was pushed to review a lot more code. So I was nominated as a C++ best practices reviewer across our entire codebase not just Snowart. That gave me a lot of visibility on what other projects and what other teams are working on.

And and when I think of an engineer growing, I think of when you start as an intern IC, you’re so focused on your own project, but as you grow as an engineer, having that visibility of and and broader understanding of what goes on around you is is for sure a sign that you are progressing towards your progressing career towards it’s the right the right trajectory. Yeah, most definitely. And I think you know just as you shared being being able to like push that to to code review and having a lot of visibility.

I mean that’s a lot of responsibility and also just amazing to to have that you know touch point across all. So you know you’re not just focused on your own thing but you’re also looking you know broadly at at everything else. And so love hearing about the ownership of the C++ and just you know being a reviewer overall.

You know and that really shows like acting like an owner and that’s a great way to put it. I think it really highlights, you know, also when we’re looking at our internship, you know, and our our pathways to full-time and then stepping into that, you know, we have our employees and what our culture looks like. And so with the help of managers and mentors, you know, as you’ve been been sharing, what role did your team specifically play in like helping, you know, get you to that next level?

Well, my manager for sure played such a huge role like starting off by just giving me the the chance to own this project, but also when he for when he first like joined and came in, he told me, I want you to get to that next level within the next three quarters. Let’s work on a plan. This is what you need to do.

If you’re able to achieve this, then we are able to get you that promotion. So, I really appreciated that clear communication and transparency. It gave me milestones to work towards and I knew what I needed to do to get to the next level.

And I really appreciated that. Another confidence booster for me was from my team lead and mentor at the time. She it was an off-handed comment from her where she said like, "I already treat you as an IC2." but I’m sure for her it might have just been just a comment of a throwaway comment, but for me it helped me fight that imposttor syndrome and it was such a huge confidence boost.

That’s amazing. And just also, you know, knowing that, you know, she’s your, you know, advocate or, you know, what that looks like as well. I think, you know, continuously that that that feedback, you know, those milestones.

And confidence is key when you feel like you have an advocate behind you. And seeing around corners, I mean, you’re able to, you know, have that that together. Yeah.

So now let’s talk about like like life after promotion like you said you know like the freedom to explore rather just being you know kind of given that clear benefit. So what’s changed for you now and what are you most looking forward to in you know your new role as you look ahead? What’s changed for me is I have a I’m given a lot more responsibility.

I’m I’m that again that ownership aspect like I now own an area instead of owning just a project. And when you own the area, you don’t necessarily only work on like one feature for the entire quarter. Yes, you have some OKRs that you’re committed to delivering, but also as you’re working during the quarter, if you stumble upon something that you think, hey, I could fix this and it will give the customer a better experience or maybe this will help our internal debugability.

I am able to just work on it. I communicate with my manager obviously, but it’s it’s there’s less like friction when it comes to, you know, can I work on this? It’s a lot more flexibility because the the team trusts me and knows that that’s not going to come in the way of me delivering my OKRs for the quarter.

What I am most excited about is mentoring. Like I said, my mentors have had such a huge role in helping me grow my career and it would I just would love to be that person from someone else and kind of give back, helping out interns or other juniors start out their career because I know how scary it was for me and having that support was really a game changer. That’s amazing.

And I love hearing that value and I think that that speaks to our internship pillar around Snowflake for good and giving back to the community, giving back to someone else as you shared. It’s fundamental. It’s like you know the circle of you know how we all support one another.

And you know and trust you is consistency over time and that’s amazing to see that development between you and your manager and just also you know your greater team as well. And so speaking of mentorship, you know, as I mentioned, it’s a core component of our intern program. Our goal is to collaborate, you know, with mentors and create that like structured and meaningful experience.

You know, with your passion, for mentorship now, what’s your advice for anyone looking to like follow in your footsteps or looking, you know, kind of in a similar pathway? My biggest advice is to always try to be proactive. So if you’re working on something in your blog, don’t wait until someone asks how it’s going.

You take the initiative to ask questions. Show that you’ve tried, you’ve researched, but you are stuck and you need help. And also give feedback.

Like if you are if you see if you stumble upon someone else’s design, even if they’re a senior engineer, and you have a piece of advice that is valid criticism or a good idea, it’s okay to give feedback even if there’s like a even if they’re a senior and you’re still an intern because a good idea is a good idea no matter where it came from. So be proactive, take that first step, be involved is is what I would summarize it as. Yeah, 100% 100% being involved and the the proactivity that’s fantastic advice and I think you know being the person to ask questions because it can be very you know intimidating to ask those questions but once you do I mean it creates that whole safe space and safe space is so key to know that like we’re learning and growing together and we’re sharing that saved objective of you know how do we get to that next step and you know our talent out there you know competition is you know fierce and so how we stand out and how we, you know, work through that, you know, together, I think is is so key.

And so just kind of moving us along, you know, wanting to think about, you know, at Snowflake, we, you know, really want to develop into that community. In your opinion, what is the best part of like why Snowflake? You know, if someone is looking into start their career, you know, what is it about Snowflake that, you know, made it unique and and made you want to come here?

Honestly, I always go back to the people and the culture. Even as an intern, I would have principal engineers spending their time helping me out with a problem that I’ve had. There was no they were so generous with their time and their knowledge.

There is a big emphasis on knowledge sharing. And that’s such a unique position to be in as an intern or a new and just absorbing all of that knowledge from the people around you. That that would be my main thing.

And then the second thing is I also like to be challenged. I think it is easy to find a company where like the work itself is not as exciting but you know your day-to-day is just you’re getting by. But for me like I like that every day I come to Snowflake I work on an interesting problem something that challenges u me and makes me work like my problem solving skills and like try to figure out way how am I going to solve this problem.

So like the the the two aspects of I like to work on something challenging, but I also know that it is challenging and if I need help, someone will be there to help me. Was the main reason I I came back to Snowflake. Yeah, that’s amazing.

I think that speaks to the community and just knowing that you’re not alone in the journey. And then with that, like you said, you got to solve so many meaty problems and challenges and explore new ones that, you know, that maybe weren’t on your your bucket list or your list to do. So, but with that, you know, I know that we’re we’re closing up soon on on our time here, but we do want to open up, you know, for questions.

So, I just want to take a moment and, you know, thank you Sarah for all of your advice and guidance and also sharing your story because it is so inspirational to hear just how you, you know, went about, you know, putting that productivity, putting, your design, you know, and taking things to production. And also just, you know, not, you know, being afraid to take that step and and share and speak, you know, what what your needs were and what you were looking for. And then also having as you share the advocate.

I know it’s a two-way street but you really you know demonstrated that. So thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.

Yeah. Yeah. Of course.

And with that you know I do want to call out you know we have a lot of resources. So we have our booth that you know we will be having today and for the next three days. So please connect with us on LinkedIn which is you know really a great place to stay connected.

And also you know we did really want to leave being that this is time is for all of you we wanted to carve out more time for questions and so that was you know intentional piece here. So with that I know Emmanuela might come back to the stage to help us facilitate the questions here. Awesome.

Thank you all so much and Sarah for you know just having this great conversation. I saw the chat folks were dropping some of the gems that Sarah was sharing. And then I do have some questions here.

I wanted to make sure that I’m encouraging folks to to drop their questions not in the chat but in the Q&A function here in the session. And then also want to encourage folks to if you see a question that you like that you want to get asked, be sure to upvote those. So, those are my little, you know, directives there.

So, first question with the most votes, let’s see. As a student who hasn’t had an internship yet, what steps should they take now to prepare themselves to succeed when they wait a minute, when they do get one? Sorry, this whole technology magic kind of threw me off a little bit.

So, hopefully that didn’t throw you off. So, the question is there on the screen there, any steps that folks should be taking to prepare themselves. Michelle, you can also share.

I know you work a lot with interns. But from a technical standpoint, I really think just brush up on what you know the company that you’re joining, let’s say they use their stack as like C++, SQL, or let’s say C. Going to that first day at least brushing up on like the basics shows that you were coming in prepared.

Be ready for whatever they hit you with. Like try to be flexible. So you know if even if you had some expectation and that didn’t work out for any reason, if you show flexibility as an intern, that shows like a lot of strength in and potential in you know just going with the flow.

And know that you know making mistakes is so normal. So don’t be afraid, don’t be so afraid to make a mistake that you end up like stopping yourself from even trying. It’s take that step.

Like I said, be proactive. Ask that question. Leave that comment.

And trust me, as an intern, you will not blow up the company. Like whatever you do is not going to have such a massive effect for you to like be stressed about it and stay up at night. Just like actually do your best, brush up on your skills and when you show up and you have that like energy and excitement to work like when first day at the job trust me people will notice that and you know you will stand out like that.

Yeah 100%. I think all that you shared Sarah you know not having that that fear but knowing that you know you can do it. And also thinking about like preparing yourself to succeed.

I think you mentioned this too, Sarah, is feedback and just like practicing, giving and receiving feedback or, you know, speaking your needs. I think that, you know, it might sound basic, but it’s so key. And then also just, you know, knowing like what what can you work on?

Kind of reframing feedback knowing that we’re all in intentions to grow. And so whether it’s something I’m doing well and keep doing or something to be improved, I think that you can take those like transferable skills are really transferable from your your projects and your groups to to the internship. And so even if you haven’t had an internship yet, you’re already doing the work now.

Just kind of looking at, you know, looking at that and you know, sharing that that back. But yeah, Emanuel, I’ll flip it back to you. Yeah.

No, great answers. And I think you definitely liberated some students especially with Sarah saying like you will not blow up anything, you won’t mess up. This is internships are places where you should be experimenting.

You should be, you know, doing your best and not being paralyzed by the potential of making a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. So yeah, thanks for that.

All righty. Next question. Kind of along those lines like what types of questions should interns ask to make a positive impression and which one should they avoid?

I’m Yeah, this is a great question. Go ahead. Yeah, sorry.

Yeah, this is this is a great question. So when you say what type of questions interns should ask when I I would say I am not able to do this thing. This is what I tried.

This is the result of what happened when I tried this. What is my path forward? So let’s say you are trying to run something and it the build keeps failing.

You would put in what you tried, what your understanding is and what you what questions do you need answered. So instead of saying like, "Hey Sarah, I can’t do this." Period. That’s it.

That’s not a that’s a negative question. That’s not something that I would see and be like, "Well, how why do you want me? How do you want me to help?

But if I say, "Hey Sarah, my build is failing with this error. This is what I’ve tried for like my understanding of this component is this. What am I doing wrong?" Or what what am I what piece of information am I missing?

Or do you do you know how this code works? And like linking to a piece of like GitHub source or something. So you you can give the person you’re asking the question to the starting point where they can help you faster as opposed to if you said if you tell me hey Sarah I can’t do this.

You know what I would do? I would ask you well what have you tried? So make shortcut that conversation and just immediately prepare everything that you’ve tried.

Those are the types of pos the questions that will leave a positive impression. I love that. I love that.

It just speaks to like the growth mindset right Sarah. I mean, I feel like like how you said like showing up and even like taking that positive energy even if things are failing or challenged like you you had mentioned on like how to list that out how to you know tackle and share what you’ve already done and it kind of is also like seeing around corners. I know one of my managers has shared that with me before is kind of like trying to see and anticipate and if you don’t know at least you’ve kind of like laid it out there and like seeking to understand like you said I mean I think that like whole kind of how you’re approaching it right is that seeking to understand so that already opens like the gateway for that like communication.

Amazing. Alrighty. So, in terms of the interview process, what makes a candidate stand out when they’re doing, engaging in networking and interviews, Michelle, I think you should take that one.

Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s a that’s a great question.

You know, there’s there’s a lot to be said around networking and and and interviews. I think the biggest piece is and Sarah, you called on this, too, is like having that inner confidence of yourself and knowing your skill set, right? And even if during the interview you need a pause moment or you need something like it’s okay to take time and time is okay and even kind of like talking out loud as you as you work through it because chances are you know you know what it is.

It’s just a matter of, you know, working through that. And I think, you know, when networking, again, you know, showcasing your authentic self and, you know, being able to also articulate, as Sarah, I’m going to pull on how you shared, right? That that forward like look like what is it that I want?

And even if I don’t know what I want, like, you know, just being an open mind and kind of asking those questions. I think the networking is all about that connectivity and how you can, you know, understand where someone’s coming from and where you’re coming from and what can you share together to kind of, you know, learn from one another. I think that’s the biggest piece because you never know, I mean, one year from now, two years from now, five years from now, where your network will be and, you know, how to pull on them and cultivating it, right?

Like giving back to your network. I think that’s another piece that you know, Sarah really shared out is that giving back piece and I think that’s a big part of networking. It might seem like one night, but it really becomes a community.

It becomes a community online. It comes community when you’re trying to build, you know, maybe cross collaborative or different comp company industry. You know, we’re all trying to move the needle towards that, you know, better space.

And so I’ll pause there. I know that’s that’s a lot, but Sarah, anything to add? Yeah so from the interview technical interview aspect of the the question I would say when I am doing an intern or a new grad interview I care more about your process than your result.

If I give you a question and you immediately give me a solution that tells me nothing about how you problem solve how you communicate how you think through a problem. So even if you’ve seen the question before, even if you know and if you have seen the question before, it gives you brownie points to say that. But if you know how to do the question immediately and you just give me the solution, that that is not a positive interview.

So walking through what I would I did when I was interviewing when I got a question that I don’t even know where to start with, I would always start with walking through an example. So if I’m as a person, not as an algorithm, I’m trying to solve this problem. What would I do?

And you know explaining that to the interviewer like what what I want is for this the walking through the example this is how I expect the behavior to work out to be when you’re writing code or when you’re writing pseudo code sharing that thought what you’re thinking about u to show how you tackle a problem when you hit one that is the point of an interview it’s not just about correctness amazing love that show if you’re a human being, right? Show how human you are versus the algorithm. Very simple ways of of doing things, but you know, we need reminders every now and then especially in these networking and very highly stressful kind of situations.

So we have this question and I really want to encourage folks to stop by the snow snowflake booth. Like Michelle shared before, it’s going to happen right after this session. And I’m encouraging you all to ask these questions and related questions, but the question is, does Snowflake sponsor international students?

Yeah, thank you for asking. I think that’s a a big piece of, you know, being a global company that we are. And so, yes, I mean, of course, you know, folks are going to need to be, on visas or being able to, you know, to to appropriately depending on your school.

But, you know, just to clarify, you know, depending on how the questions being asked, we do have offices in, you know, Canada, the United States, and we also have over, you know, throughout Asia and Europe. And so, if you are studying, let’s say, in that country, you’d need to, you know, apply to the internship in in that country, you know. So, we’ll work through that.

So, I want to make sure that you know we are we are global. But when we’re looking at you know, sponsorships and and different pieces there, again, it’s really working through your university and what that looks like there. But I do encourage you to come to the booth and we can give more detailed information on that.

And yeah, I started in Snowflake Canada since I graduated from the University of Wateroo. So, yeah. Correct.

Yes. And now you’re in Washington State, right? I don’t know if we shared that but I know we Oh yeah I don’t know if we shared your your journey if you want to share a little more Sarah.

Oh for sure I started out in because of the University of Wateroo so I was located in snow in Toronto so I worked in snowflake Canada this was over the pandemic so things were I’m sure a lot different but I had a fully virtual two backtoback internships that were both fully virtual. And then once I graduated, I worked out of Snowflake Canada for a year and a few months. And then, because my team wanted to kind of have everyone in the same location because we got hired during the pandemic when everyone was all around, we got our team to be based out out of either Menlo Park or Belleview.

So, I chose Belleview. Yeah. Which is Washington State.

Yeah. I don’t know how many people know Belleview. Yeah.

Yeah. No, it’s definitely It’s amazing. If you ever make it out there.

But yeah, we do support visa sponsorships and you know we can share more in the booth but you know just clarifying because it definitely depends on the role as well. So you know there might be a role just as you shared Sarah that might be like oh we want this office and you know that can evolve. So yes so we can definitely share more about yeah it is some teams are able to work across multiple locations because it’s such a big team but if it’s a small team usually the engineering mindset is to have all the engineers in one or at most two locations.

So just like an an FYI love that thank you for sharing. I think one question that’s not well it’s kind of related to this I’m gonna infuse my own question which might be helpful for some students but this question is how did you make a lasting impression when you first when you first started working full-time but I’m going to add an additional piece to this because in your story you shared that you did two internships right with Snowflake and then you got the full-time offer. So, what did you do to get that second offer, right?

Especially with standing out, how did you stand out in a virtual internship to get that return offer? And then, you know, then how did you make that lasting impression for that, you know, when you’re first starting that full-time, right? I don’t know if I would change my a like give any more information than what I said when when it comes to being like proactive and asking questions and and standing out like that.

Because I basically was told that I can get a return offer or do another internship and I chose to do another internship because I still had one more required to graduate. But yeah, like it’s it’s I go back to the same things of how do you stand out is you you’re asking questions. You even if you’re stuck like I will share that in my first internship I got only about 50% of my project done because we hit hurdles that we didn’t expect to hit.

So when my mentor designed the project he didn’t expect a specific like part of our design that will be a blocker. So I spent a like a month and a half researching different approaches to solve that problem. So I wasn’t always just like pushing code the whole time.

So like standing out is being flexible, flexibility of I was able to adapt to the fact that there was a changing requirement in my project. I was still communicating a lot with with the team asking questions and then you know making suggestions like I said as an intern and you know these are all like positive leave that positive impact. When I what I see as an unsuccessful internship specifically, and I have seen that happen at different companies, is being blocked and waiting until someone asks you how you’re doing to tell them that you need help.

Ask for help if you need it. That it is more it is more harmful for you to not ask for help than it is to ask for help and then you know like ask the wrong question. For example like I was saying it you know you could ask a wrong question but it’s better to ask question even if it’s wrong one than to not do anything so don’t not don’t do nothing always try to do something be proactive ask questions leave feedback and that involvement it also shows your enthusiasm that you’re excited about this thing that you’re working on you have all these ideas like even if you have ideas that you don’t think it might work or might hit production like share them there’s there’s no disadvantage or there’s no bad effects that will happen if you share an idea that doesn’t make it to production.

It’s still good to have to to share that you’ve thought about that you thought about it that you understand the component enough to to have that to even have that idea. If that makes like I hope that made sense. Yeah.

Yeah. Totally made a lot of sense. Yeah.

Love that. Thank you for sharing that. And then also sharing that piece about what makes a bad internship experience too, right?

And knowing to ask the questions, not to just, you know, be held up to your own and having that loop in your mind of trying to solve a problem or thinking that you need to have all the answers. You’re an intern, right? Yeah.

And yeah, 100%. And I also the word community when I think about lasting impression like Sarah you spoke a lot about this but you know building that community and having that you know camaraderie and also maybe helping others you know if questions come up and kind of raising your hand to kind of dive in. Of course you have your scope and it’s a lot but at the same time you know that community piece because it knows that you’re like a team player that you’re you know a part of that as well.

So that’s something that just think about when you last lasting impression. Yeah. And I will add try to connect with other interns.

Like having a big network is a great idea because what I would say is we did our internship like I said virtually but we had what I called the Friday coffee chats. So I sent out an invite to every intern in my cohort and I was like let’s join on Friday for an hour every other week and let’s talk. There was no agenda.

There was no HR involved. I’m sorry. It was basically like what would h like what we would have had if we were all in the same building and we had the chance for example to grab lunch together or go out for a walk for coffee.

So we didn’t have that because obviously we’re remote. So it was kind of an alternative to that where we’re like hey guys let’s chat no agenda. And then that gave me that helped me make connections with other interns.

And then when I had one other intern she wanted to switch teams. She came to me and she was like hey how was your experience? What are you working on?

I’m thinking about, you know, finding a new exciting project to work on, you know, and so on. So even if you have don’t just think about building your network outside of like Snowflake and with different people, for example, on LinkedIn, but think about building that network from inside Snowflake and you know, connecting with all the other interns and all the other projects that they work on. It sounds like you approached it as an engineering problem, right?

Like what are you trying to solve? And you took the initiative to create this, you know, gathering that didn’t exist. And made sure that it was like a safe place to support your fellow interns and not having HR, which, you know, I’m sure HR is fine with that as long as it helped with retention and and support of like the other interns.

So, kudos to you. Another question here. Could you share what your software engineering new grad recruitment process typically looks like both in terms of interview rounds and what you look for in strong candidates?

Yes. Well, thank you for for sharing that. Yeah, I’ll go a high level.

And then Sarah, you know, if you want to like share maybe your direct experience, I think that might be really interesting to to hear from also if it varied between the two. Because we do have different teams at Snowflake, but you do have you know, usually two to three rounds. And you know, again, you’re going to have a HackerRank, so a test prior.

And that, you know, is implemented you know, globally as well. So, it’s something that, you know, we do go through. And, you know, you’re a recruiter, so you should have a recruiter that, you know, walks you through it and also kind of helps, you know, helps connect you with like the next steps in the process.

I do think though from a strong candidate perspective so you do usually have to you know pass through that kind of gives us that that first realm and then depending on the role right so Sarah do you want to say share more specifically what it looked like for you and then if it differed between the the two different internships I don’t know how much I could share because I didn’t join as a new grad I joined as an intern conversion so if you right you usually get a return offer you don’t interview again. So that’s my experience. But yeah, so I I also joined three years ago like 2022 is when I did my intern conversion and I started in 2023.

So I don’t know how much my experience would be up to date. Yeah. No, that’s totally fine.

Is there any tips though when you were going through it structure? Did you still have to take the HackerRank test and kind of go through, you know, your initial phone screen? Okay.

So I did I did interview through waterlue which they have their own interview progress program excuse me. But yeah there was a online assessment and then if I remember correctly it was two rounds of technical interviews and then a team matching interview. So, I had an interview with a manager who we could possibly work together and he was sharing the project and asked me if this is something I’m interested in.

And how did also I think that’s a great piece when you talked about the team matching. That’s something that Yes. I think could actually be sometimes one of the the critical parts right to kind of get to that that space.

How was that conversation and how did you feel like you could be open and honest about you know what I think that that’s a frequent question we get. You know, you want to get the right fit, but you’re also, you know, excited to get that far. So, so yeah, to be honest, my main interest wasn’t really in the team that I ended up joining because I was previously working at a car, a Ford.

So, the I was working at really lowlevel interactions with like hardware. So, basically the the layer right over hardware is where I was at. I was writing a lot of C code, but I was I was like, let me give it a chance and like let me see what the the team is working on.

And the manager at the time just ended up selling it to me because I was mainly like I said, I’m a big C++ enthusiast. So, I just was like, can I use C++ here? And he was like, for sure.

And he was also sharing how he’s a C++ enthusiast. And he presented this really new problem that I’ve never ha dealt with before which is like how do we use C++ to execute other languages. So you can think of like the Java JNI or the Python C API.

So these were all things that I wasn’t exposed to before and I was like hey let me give this a chance. It sounds interesting. And I did and you know the rest is history.

I I I loved the the challenge and you know I’m still here. Yeah. Thank you for sharing.

Yeah. Thank you. And thank you Michelle too for you know volleying the questions too and going deeper into that.

All right, next question. How long did it take you to earn your manager’s trust? Sarah, this is specifically for you.

And what did you do to gain ownership and make sure to follow best practices consistently? So, as an intern or as a full-time, I switched managers or the managers changed. So I’ll answer as a as an IC since that was just more recent in history.

Yeah, I think Sarah, this might even be related to like the promotion probably piece. Yeah, I think and honestly delivering so G the way you gain someone’s trust is just being consistent. So if I say like hey manager this thing I’m working on I can deliver it in two weeks and then in two weeks times you’ve delivered it and then you’re consistent like that or if you can’t deliver it you can say like hey manager I’m this I can’t deliver it because of XY Z I need support in this and having that communication that’s how we gain someone’s trust.

So you know when I was like I was lucky enough that I worked on a table function feature when I first joined as IC. So I built I worked on building Python table functions as an intern and then I was I went back to school and you know it went to production and then when I joined back I built features on top of Python table functions. So I was already very familiar with the area and I was able to deliver things consistently and fast.

So that you know that gained that trust because I was turning into an expert into in that area because I’ve had so much experience with it. And I was able to you know help with people who have questions about it and then also deliver another feature on top of it as an IC after like only a couple months. So that that is is I would say how you gain owners how how you gain someone’s trust and the way you gain ownership is you know you work on a feature you continue working on it you start asking questions getting asked questions about it and then you end up working on features on top of it and that that became that becomes your you own this you built it so you own it is mostly how it how it works.

How do you make sure to follow best practices consistently? Try not to get the same feedback twice. So if you’re writing code and you put out a a PR and someone says like this is not how we do this in snowflake this is the correct way to do it try to make sure you don’t get that comment again like you remember this now that you know that this is how you do this try to follow it and I mean and at snowflake we have that documented so we have our best practices documented so try to go over them every like however you need to to just refresh your memory or for example like even now I’ve I’ve worked with the snowflake codebase for almost three years but sometimes I’m still like, oh, how do we start a thread in Snowflake?

What’s the best practice? Let me go look up the the doc real quick and remember or look at examples in the codebase of other code paths that do something similar to what I want to do and have that as my starting point. So you know that that’s how I would say like the goal is to not have the same comma twice.

How to get there is check documentation, check patterns in the CodePath and see like how do other people do the things that I’m I’m trying to do. Yeah. Amazing.

Great. Great, great tips. Okay.

So, we have about like 11 or so minutes. I don’t know if I’m I’m not doing my minutes right. 14 Minutes, I think.

And so I have some I think quick questions. Does does Snowflake have any freshman or sophomore internship programs? That’s a great question.

So currently we we used to have a high school program. But from a freshman sophomore it is more challenging to get in in those realms. So we typically haven’t had we don’t have a structured specifically for that group but it is something that we’re looking into.

I think it’s something that you know is is a huge component of what having that pathway right from when you start. So if there is any feedback or thoughts around that it’s something that we’re you know continuing to explore. But again, similar to Sarah’s, you know, journey, it’s really, you know, targeted towards, those classes up there.

So, love that. Third year when I joined. Yeah.

What did you say, Sarah? You were a freshman. I was in my third year.

Oh, third year. Okay. Yeah.

Amazing. Okay. Next question is for Sarah.

Reads, "Sarah, what resources did you use to get better with your technical writing?" Great question. Ah, good question. I think just doing it.

It’s one of those things that like you do it a few times and you realize like I one thing I do do is go back and read my old doc. So sometimes I would like go and see like give myself like feedback on what the what went wrong in that in that doc and like how can I make it better. But doing it, I I will be honest, I don’t like writing.

It’s not something that I particularly enjoy, but forcing myself to sit down and like try to just get it done and then go over it multiple times. And also putting myself in the position of someone who like someone else as the reader helped as well. And then reading what other people write.

So that’s that’s not specifically a resource, but I try to expose myself to a lot of other design docs even if I’m not particularly like involved in the in the project, but I will just read it and see how people structure their ideas, how they create their diagrams, and I’ll I’ll go over like okay like a project that was a little bit similar to mine like how did they introduce this idea? What how did they give alternatives? Like do they present all of the alternatives f all of the options and then pick one or do they put the the option that they want first and then put the other alternative.

So those kind of like just exposed to other designs and people who are better writers than me and try to like borrow from them and and see how I can get better u given how they how they write. Great practical tips there. Yeah, I love the each one teach one kind of methodology of just like checking out other folks because I mean you can really learn and that like innovation you know is key from you know what how your colleagues are looking through things.

So yeah love that advice. Learning doesn’t you know happen in a bubble. So you definitely need I think that’s like a theme we’ve been talking about community right and not doing things alone.

The other question I have is as an intern failure can be a vehicle for growth. How have you handled failures in your role? Furthermore, how do you navigate conversations with your manager to create a plan to overcome the failure and grow as an engineer?

I don’t know how you would define failure as an intern to be honest. Like is it you’re blocked? You’re unable to do something.

I I wouldn’t even classify that as as a failure. You’re just you’re stuck. Yeah, I’m like trying to maybe Michelle or Manuela if you have thoughts about that and then I can answer the question based on it.

Yeah, maybe what if we took this approach in terms of imposttor syndrome perhaps? I see. Right.

Maybe that might be helpful. Not sure. Yeah, for sure.

Like like I said, it failing as an intern. I I I’m trying to figure out what that would would mean. But if you’re if you’re working on a project and for example, you’re stuck because you like you’re not able to deliver it, whether you don’t have you you think you don’t have the the technical background or you know, you don’t understand how things work.

Like I said, asking questions and talking to your manager to figure out how to find a a path forward or for them to explain the the CodePath better. Like a lot about a big component in internship is mentorship. Like Michelle said, we usually pair you with a a mentor.

Not even like you wouldn’t have that communication with necessarily your manager, but you have a mentor that his their job is to set you up for success. So their job is to make sure that you’re you you can be unblocked, you have all the resources that you need. And then if you genuinely cannot move forward for some reason, then just try to figure out why.

And then if there are things that could help you and you need access to that, like ask for it. Like if you need help for with something, if you if you need time with a specific like person for more explanation, ask for it. I would try to say that.

And then if you think if you if you’re thinking failure as in you don’t deliver your project, I wouldn’t classify that as failure. Because like I said in my in my first internship, we didn’t end up delivering on 100% of the project. We delivered on 50% of the project because at the second phase, we hit something that we didn’t expect.

But that’s not failure. That’s just engineering. You hit you hit something you you didn’t expect and you try to find workarounds and you know you spend a few months prototyping and that’s what I ended up doing.

So I I I wouldn’t try to I would try not to think of it as failure but try to classify it differently in in your head and like you either ask questions or ask for help and that’s how you move forward. Yeah, I I love that Sarah and it also makes me think about the process piece, right? You mean you’ve talked a lot about process and really what that looks like and so tying in the process and the communication of asking questions.

I mean because you know we’re all going to make mistakes or have those hard moments or you know hit those walls and how to move forward. It’s really the the how, right? The how you’re you’re understanding and asking and collaborating.

And that’s where like I think the community again, I know it’s been a common theme here, but that really is kind of helps you get over that hump. And turning that failure into the opportunity, right? Yeah.

And I think I saw a comment that says failure is not like of not meeting a deadline. You should know before you reach the deadline whether you’ll reach it or not. So like if you have a month away, if you’re supposed to deliver a feature in a month and within two weeks you know that you might not be able to deliver it, then communication at that point is where you would need to talk to your mentor or your manager.

You don’t wait until the day of and you’re like, "Oops, can’t do it." But with a with a good mentor and a good manager, they will already be checking in with you like once a week or at least once a week. I used to have daily conversations with my mentor that might be a bit excessive but it was virtual and you know it’s hard not to talk to anyone all day but if you’re if you’re not yeah if you think you cannot deliver that project at that time you know that that more recurrent check-ins will you know help you know that you know it’s not a surprise when that deadline comes. Yeah.

Yeah. That’s a great piece. And I think just to even kind of tag team off of that, like when you think about your one-on- ones with your managers.

So, I know that we talked a lot about being with your your manager and that communication, but you know, you do have the one-on-one structured and that’s something that we do here at Snowflake is, you know, help set you up with what is a successful one-on-one look like and what is your project plan, what are the milestones. So, having that up front as you kind of track towards, like you said, Sarah, you’d be able to kind of anticipate that. But I do think that’s where like the the live feedback loops.

So, we also offer an awkward awesome feedback workshop that’s newer. So, I don’t know Sarah if you took it, but we launched it this year with for our Snowflake intern program. And I think that’s another key piece is just like being able to express Exactly.

You know, because sometimes you’re like, okay, how how do I express the timelines and moving around and and feel okay and save space like it’s okay? Like you even said, Sarah, you didn’t even get through half of it right that first time. Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly. And it’s okay to be like scared.

It’s okay to be nervous like you’re talking to your manager and all of that, but just you’ll get like do it. The only way to get over is is to do it. And at the end of the day, your manager is a person.

They’re not going to they understand. They were once in your position. Like I’m an engineer at IC2 now.

I was once an intern. So if you’re if you’re joined as an intern and you’re a little bit nervous to talk to me, like I will understand because I was once in your position. So it’s there’s a lot of like again like Michelle said, the community aspect of it.

There’s understanding. It’s okay to be nervous about your to talk to your mentor, your manager. Take notes before you go into the meeting so you don’t go in and you’re like, I don’t know what I needed to talk to.

But have the main points written and then, you know, even if you’re talking to them while you’re nervous, just do it nervous. Like, it’s better to do it nervous than not to do it. Yeah, 100% 100%.

Yeah, practice makes perfect. You have to do it scared. That’s the only way that you’ll get better at it.

And I love the awkward awesome feedback. I’m I’m going to borrow that. Thank you for sharing that, Michelle.

And then this is going to be our last question, our closeout question. Any top advice as well as like closing advice that you want to give our emerging engineers here? Michelle, do you want to start?

Yeah. I think, you know, just, really driving with that inner, you know, confidence that you can do anything you put your mind to and knowing that there’s a whole community out there of folks wanting you to, you know, feel your best, do your best, learn. And so just, you know, again, being that open openness that you’ve you shared, Sarah, and like really seeking to understand what it is you’re you’re driving towards and your needs.

I think that that’s just so key. So yeah with that Sarah I’ll pass it to you. Yeah closing remarks like I’ll go back to try to be proactive like I said and also be collaborative you know there’s I feel like a lot of competit competitive aspects in engineering but you will get so much further working with people versus working against them.

So collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. Ask questions and then once you have knowledge, once you’ve become a person who is a subject matter expert, share. So be that person for someone else.

Be generous with your time and you know what you give out there is what you’re going to get back. So if you are generative with with your time, other people are going to be generous with their time with you. So be proactive, be collaborative, and don’t take it don’t take stuff too seriously.

This is, you know, still have your your try to work on that work life balance. Still, have a life outside of your job. I will say that’s another thing about Snowflake is the work ends at, you know, the office.

Having having being able to have fun outside of work is and even at the office is something that you should think about. And yeah, yeah, thank you so much. And with that, with being generous of your time, I just wanted to thank both you Sarah and Michelle for being generous with your time, your advice, sharing your experience.

I want to make sure that, folks are sharing, their appreciation for you in the chat. Please be sure to do that and please be sure to stop by their booth in a little bit and ask any questions that we didn’t get a chance to you know go through. Stop by their booth to learn about the opportunities they have and to learn more about the organization and to network.

And the other thing I wanted to share too is don’t forget to fill out the survey that should be coming up. Well, it popped up for me so I know it popped up for you all. So, be sure to fill that out so that we can collect your feedback.

And to close us out, we will be having a brief video from our host, Bobby D. Thanks for joining. All right, I’m back.

And guess what? Now, we’re transitioning into the open networking session. Now, you can visit the networking lounge to build connections or check out company booths to learn more about organizations joining us here at the summit.

Now, don’t forget EES is all about those moments of connections that can change your future.