We’re really excited to welcome our interns onto our team for the summer! Before running off to play FIFA in the game room, we sat each of them down for a quick Q&A – quizzing them about everything from food trucks and their personal goals to how/why they chose a summer job at WayUp. We only accept awesome interns and this group is no exception! Read along to discover how Sara found her passion from a Little Debbie cupcake and Will found his in a tent underneath the stars.
Alex – Software Development Intern
School: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Major/Concentration/Minor: Computer Science
Campus Involvement: I’m involved with a few organizations at UIUC
Graduation Year: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Why did you choose this internship: I knew about it from a friend working here now and applied because I wanted to be in the Bay Area and work for a startup where I would be surrounded with fun people and do actually interesting development work.
I knew that I was passionate about: Programming when my dad walked me through the development of a tic-tac-toe game in C++ and I actually understood the code that looked like gibberish to me beforehand. That year I ended up building a few more simple games like that on my own.
Personal goal for the end of this internship: to be fluent in Ruby on Rails because it’s extremely useful for web programming and whether I end up here or at another company after graduation, there’s a good chance that they will be using RoR as well.
Piece of advice that you’re glad you did/didn’t take: (Did) My grandfather’s advice that overworking yourself won’t make you more successful or happier. (Didn’t) Friend’s advice to choose the most profitable career path.
The last song you listened to: “Hillbilly Man” by Gorillaz
Three things that inspire you: My parents, Elon Musk and his fictional counterpart Tony Stark, and all types of music.
Is the glass half empty or half full: Half full, there’s too much to look forward to for me to be a pessimist.
If you owned a food truck, you would sell: Tacos, coffee, pizza, hot dogs, ice cream, Chinese food, Russian dumplings, macaroni, Kool-Aid and squirt guns during the summer.
Sara – Marketing Intern
School: UNC Chapel Hill
Major/Concentration/Minor: Advertising, Entrepreneurship
Campus Involvement: UNC Entrepreneurship, Persian Cultural Society
Graduation Year: 2013
Why did you choose this internship: From the first time I used WayUp last Fall, I noticed its unique position not only as a source for amazing internships, but as an educational tool for mastering the entire internship process — searching, interviewing, finding housing and beyond. It became my go-to for anything internship-related and as I searched for my own internship in an entrepreneurial field, I realized there was nothing more that I wanted other than to join the WayUp team itself and expand the brand name so everyone can witness their amazing work as a start-up. Not to mention, there’s a FIFA room in the office and no dress code!
I knew that I was passionate about: Marketing when I was in elementary school. I used to buy Little Debbie cakes, re-package them in paper lunch bags, draw a new brand logo for them in purple pen, and sell them in my neighborhood. Operation “Swirlz Bakery” was born. Since then, my love for brand marketing has done nothing but grow. After being accepted into the Entrepreneurship program at UNC last year, my passion geared exclusively toward strategic brand development for startups.
Personal goal for the end of this internship: Connect interns like never before by organizing super fun events as part of our SF Summer Intern Program and encouraging interns to write about their focus.
Piece of advice that you’re glad you did/ didn’t take: Glad I took: “Go to the Mission District. Get a pastry to-go from Tartine Bakery and eat it on a hill in Dolores Park.” (If only I could do this every morning…) Glad I didn’t take: “Don’t live in Berkeley, it’s too far from the city.” (Livin’ in Berkeley and lovin’ it!)
The last song you listened to: “White” by Frank Ocean
Three things that inspire you: The view from an airplane window, A butt-kicking workout, Beyonce
