Coding for Adventure: Izzy Hurley ‘23’s Experience as a Garmin Intern
Written on October 23rd , 2022 by Naser
This post is part of a student spotlight series highlighting the work of exceptional students. The series aims to facilitate knowledge sharing among students on topics such as internships, jobs, and graduate school. Today, I have the pleasure of talking to Izzy Hurley ‘23, a rising senior who will tell us about her internship experience at Garmin this summer.
Naser: Can you tell us about the internship you had this summer? What kind of internship was it?
Izzy: I was working as a Full Stack Software Engineer for Garmin. I was working specifically on their Garmin Pay Team. This internship threw me right into a fast-paced agile environment and had me working with a full stack of tools. During my time with the Garmin team, I worked on everything from database management to API development and some web app design.
Naser: How did you find this internship? And why did you select it?
Izzy: As a runner and cyclist, I have been a user of Garmin watch products for a long time. I found this internship just browsing LinkedIn job postings, but I was immediately intrigued because of my personal experience with the product. Throughout the application and interview process, everyone I talked to at Garmin seemed to share this same interest in the product and desire to improve it. I selected it because of the culture of work-life balance and the company’s passion for improving the way people adventure outdoors.
Naser: Can you tell us about the interview process? And how did you prepare for it?
Izzy: I had only a two-part interview process with Garmin. After submitting my application, I was contacted for a behavioral interview and, after passing through that, granted a return interview which included a technical portion. To prepare for my technical interview, I did a lot of studying about different data structures and algorithms and brushed up on languages that I know but don’t use as often (Java, Ruby, C++).
Naser: What kind of activities were you involved in during your internship? And what aspects did you find most interesting?
Izzy: During my internship, I was in charge of the creation of a new microservice to expand the functionality of my team’s product into new deployment spheres. The work I was doing was very preliminary, so I got to be part of many planning and design meetings to solidify and shape the types of code I was structuring. I was also part of a new “class” of hires and got to attend a lot of knowledge shares about everything from SpringBoot and Kotlin to Kubernetes and how to code for compliance. I found the breadth of my job to be one of the most interesting parts. Because I was controlling so many different parts of a project, I constantly had something new to discover. I also loved that I was given space to explore what I wanted and was given a chance to speak with different people in Privacy and Data Protection at the company in order to further explore some of my academic interests in the career space.
Naser: What tips would you give students interested in doing an internship in the future? You can mention any details that you like, including websites and other resources.
Izzy: I would say don’t be afraid to ask questions, and don’t be too hard on yourself. Be willing to put your ideas out there and ask for feedback because your team will want to help you grow! I would also say reaching out to the Colby network and just talking about what experiences people are having is a great way to learn what you want in an internship/job!
Naser: Thank you for sharing your experience, Izzy. It was great hearing about your summer internship, and I am sure others will find your experience motivating and beneficial in their journey.
Izzy: Thank you!
