Hey everyone! Dropbox has a pretty interesting history with interns, but 2011 was something different and crazy altogether. In past years we've had one or two interns, but this year we made a huge jump to eleven. I'm not gonna lie when I say that the beginning of summer found us panicking at the thought of a bunch of kids running around and tearing up our couches, but everything turned out pretty great. Our interns represented every year and came from a variety of schools (MIT, Stanford, Brown, CMU, Tufts, Chapman, and University of Ottawa). With such a large class, we basically increased our engineering team by 30% overnight. Instead of fetching coffee or doing paperwork, our interns hit the floor running and were treated as full-time members of their respective teams (Web, Client, Mobile, Support, Server, Analytics) working on user-facing projects critical to Dropbox's core. While all our interns got the freedom to work on any project they wanted, a bunch of their projects are coming to a Dropbox near you:
- For times when you don't have a computer or Dropbox's mobile apps, our mobile web interface was rewritten and redesigned to be more powerful.
- Our Android app has an impending full redesign that makes it super easy to navigate and find whatever actions you're looking for.
- Another intern helped us on our transition from Python 2.5 to 2.7.
- A code obfuscator was written from scratch to help make sure Dropbox's secret sauce stays secret.
- Our iPhone and iPad apps gained batch file operations (move, copy, delete!)
- Support has working on analytics and tools to streamline our (and your) experience with support.
- Several interns also provided great help to the analytics team by providing valuable new stats.
As a whole, we think this list is really impressive, and I'd like to give huge props to our entire intern class for being able to deliver. The things they've accomplished this summer speak hugely to their creativity, ingenuity, and work ethic. This isn't to say that they were working 24/7 though - In addition to working in our amazing office, our interns had their share of fun stuff around San Francisco: whitewater rafting, hiking in Los Altos, participating in hackathons, and even bouncing around at a trampoline park. We've had a great track record with interns - many of the ones who worked with us over the years have stuck with us and continue to make awesome things for Dropbox. In fact, our very first intern now leads our analytics team! Pretty awesome progression if you ask me. Our internships are available all seasons, last for 3 months, and pay competitively. If this sounds like something you or someone you know would be interested in,
let us know! Also, let us know if you want us to visit your school for a career fair by emailing us at edu at dropbox.com
