Meet BuzzFeed Tech’s 2017 Intern Squad!
This summer, nineteen interns worked on BuzzFeed Tech’s various products and services. We got to see first-hand how BuzzFeed maintains and improves the platforms which allow our vast audiences to enjoy their favorite media content. Under the guidance of mentors from across BuzzFeed’s various tech teams, we designed products, analyzed data, improved internal tools, and built all sorts of apps. It was hard work, but we had fun doing it!
Keep reading to get an idea of the insights we gained, the challenges we faced, and the perks we enjoyed in our ten weeks at BuzzFeed. If you’re interested in a tech internship for next summer, you can follow along with the application process here.
Terrance Liang — Software Engineering Intern
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019
What did you work on this summer? I worked with the Data Infrastructure team and my main priority was cleaning up our framework that helps launch spark batch jobs on Amazon Elastic MapReduce clusters. I helped generalize the workflow to create a common interface for developers to work with. I also began developing a prototype for integrating our service with Google Cloud.
Why BuzzFeed? BuzzFeed has always been my go-to site when I’m just browsing the internet. They create a variety of content, from quizzes about what kind of dog I am to breaking news investigations, which our generation often lacks knowledge about. As a software engineer, my goal has always been to work for a company with a great culture and a big impact on the younger generation, and I believe BuzzFeed does just that.
What’s been the highlight of your BuzzFeed experience? That would have to be Hack Week. Seeing everyone in BuzzFeed Tech work across different teams and even office locations was very interesting. I took this opportunity to learn something new and ended up working with someone from the People’s Team to develop my first SlackBot, which helps direct users to an expert if they needed help on something.
Derek O’Brien — Software Engineering Intern
New York University, 2018
What did you work on this summer? My summer project involved creating a new service that utilizes the Google Video Intelligence API to make videos searchable by content. In addition, I contributed new features to existing video infrastructure services as well as a SlackBot for documentation discovery during Hack Week.
Why BuzzFeed? Having worked previously in small businesses, I knew I wanted my first tech internship to be at a larger and more established company. BuzzFeed provided that, but at its heart, it still felt like a scrappy start-up. Despite being an intern, I was able to make substantive contributions on a regular basis like any other engineer.
What’s been the highlight of your BuzzFeed experience? It’s hard to choose, but working on my Hack Week project was a lot of fun. I was lucky to land on a great team developing a SlackBot to help users find documentation for existing services. It was a great way to meet other people in the company and tinker with new technologies.
Amanda Nguyen — Software Engineering Intern
Macalester College, 2019 @ProgrammerQueen
What did you work on this summer? I worked on an internal tool used by editors to manage the Top Story and Breaking News bar on the homepage. Additionally, during Hack Week, I built the backend of a book app to demonstrate the functionalities of WebSockets when integrated into the BuzzFeed infrastructure.
Why BuzzFeed? I never really considered myself a BuzzFeed user until recently, when I realized I actually view tons of content originating from BuzzFeed across various social platforms! BuzzFeed delivers platform-specific content to the apps where its audience already spends their time, and then collects data to create and distribute even more viral content. It’s a continuous cycle of building, learning, and improving. How cool is that?! TL;DR: It’s an exciting company doing exciting things and I wanted to be part of it.
What’s been the highlight of your BuzzFeed experience? Contributing code that millions of users interact with is really exciting! I can say, “Yes, I did help with that feature! 😎” Also, diving head-first into unfamiliar technology was challenging, but it was incredibly rewarding to work with intelligent programmers. Not only did I get advice on how to code, but I also got to see how others approach problems through pair programming.
Lauren Zhang — Software Engineering Intern
Barnard College, 2018 @lazhangna
What did you work on this summer? I worked on a tool called the Ad Audience Generator, which creates custom audiences, or groups of users that our ad partners want to target, who have consumed different kinds of BuzzFeed content on a particular platform e.g. users who have watched at least three seconds of any video posted on one of our Tasty Facebook pages. Hopefully, it will save the BuzzFeed employees who currently create and maintain such audiences manually a lot of time.
Why BuzzFeed? BuzzFeed has a really well organized internship program — I knew that I’d have a formal mentor and work on a project that would make it into production. The culture was also a plus! They hired me even though I talked about the Remy Ma vs. Nicki Minaj beef in my cover letter.
What advice would you give yourself, if you were starting again? The best part of this internship was having a boss who trusted that I knew what I was doing — my advice would be to trust myself as much as others do.
Aljosa Cucak — Software Engineering Intern
University of Minnesota — Twin Cities, 2018 @acucak
What did you work on this summer? I worked on the Tasty iOS app. When I got to BuzzFeed, the app still needed a ton of work before launching. I added different UI elements, made design and bug fixes, and implemented some new features.
Why BuzzFeed? BuzzFeed’s work environment and broad social reach have made it a rewarding place to intern. Millions of people use BuzzFeed every day, so even contributing to the smallest feature will result in a big impact. Combine that with the fun, well-balanced company culture, and working here was a no-brainer for me.
What’s been the highlight of your BuzzFeed experience? The Tasty app launch day was so much fun! Popping bottles of champagne, eating cupcakes, and watching Twitter explode with people raving about how excited they are for the app.
Chloe Rosen — Product Management Intern
Stanford University, 2018
What did you work on this summer? I was a Product Management Intern on the Apps team, working on a project to make the BuzzFeed Android app Chromecast-compatible. I also ran an experimental A/B test on increasing engagement with content in a low-performing section of the BuzzFeed iOS app.
Why BuzzFeed? BuzzFeed is revolutionizing how we discover and share information, and continually providing new ways for us to connect and relate to each other. This summer I had the opportunity to see firsthand the data-driven way in which BuzzFeed’s digital products are developed. As an added bonus, I’ve also gotten an inside look at what goes into creating the content that I love.
What’s been the highlight of your BuzzFeed experience? Hack Week was an awesome opportunity to collaborate with new people. Our project was a content concierge service designed to customize content flow based on how a user is feeling. Getting to see our product vision come to life in 5 short days, and presenting a demo of it to all of BuzzFeed Tech, was definitely one of the highlights of my summer.
Kat Zhao — Software Engineering Intern
Duke University, 2019
What did you work on this summer? An internal custom notifications service! Soon, video producers will get to choose to be notified when their content is published, scheduled for release, or published. They will also be able to customize which Slack channels are alerted and filter by criteria like language, region, and franchise.
Why BuzzFeed? BuzzFeed is using technology to make a huge social impact, and I wanted to be a part of that effort. Also, as an avid fan of the site, it’s been really cool for me to see how tech contributes to the content I consume. I wanted an internship experience where I feel integrated into the team I’m working with and can see my contributions being put to use. I’ve definitely gotten that at BuzzFeed.
What’s been the highlight of your BuzzFeed experience? The Minneapolis and Los Angeles interns were flown out to spend a week at the New York office. It was a great opportunity to meet the people I usually work remotely with and hang out with all the interns together. I also got to see more of New York City, which is a huge plus!
Trishala Neeraj — Data Science Intern
Cornell University at Cornell Tech, 2018 @trishalaneeraj
What did you work on this summer? I built a framework which clusters BuzzFeed Quizzes based on their content and structure using unsupervised machine learning. This resulted in a consistent method for generating low-level tags for the quizzes. I then worked on creating a service that updates the current filters on the Quizzes page using the tags I produced. Aside from my main project, I also built a tool for the quiz creators which allows them to easily check the difficulty level of any Trivia Quiz based on historical data of scores obtained by users.
Why BuzzFeed? I’ve always seen BuzzFeed as a creative and energetic company. I knew it had a great data science team and a wonderful work culture. It was a really simple choice!
What’s been the highlight of your BuzzFeed experience? That is a very difficult question because this summer has been super exciting and I’ve learned something new every day. I found the group discussions very enriching, from Tech Talks to Data Mysteries. I think the best part of this internship was being told that my work would make it into production, and seeing so many people both within and outside of my team excited about my project.
Brandon Truong — Software Engineering Intern
Stanford University, 2019 @btrooo
What did you work on this summer? I worked on component-izing and refactoring most of the cards, bars, and other features that you see on the Feed and Article pages of the BuzzFeed website, as well as the Weaver service we use internally to organize, monitor, and build our numerous content feeds. The result was more data visibility and a streamlined workflow.
Why BuzzFeed? BuzzFeed’s at the intersection of media and tech, which aligns perfectly with my interests. While some people may know BuzzFeed mainly for its funny memes and Tasty videos, I think it’s an interesting company that is in many ways driving forward what new media is and will be. I wanted to see that and explore the technology that powers it.
If you could make any BuzzFeed video, what would it be? I already made this one, and it’s all I could ever ask for.
Sean Zhang — Software Engineering Intern
Boston University, 2018 @puzzledsean
What did you work on this summer? For my summer project, I added a new service for Pinterest in our distributed pipelining service, Ferret. This data pipeline gathers metrics data from the Pinterest API, which can then be served to BuzzFeed content creators so that they can see how well their content is performing on the platform. I also worked on optimizing endpoints in the Laser Tag API so that users can query for newer, more advanced filters and access data that had previously been timing out.
Why BuzzFeed? As a side hobby, I enjoy making fun videos to share random things that I’m doing in life. Working at BuzzFeed seemed like the perfect fit given my creative interests and desire to grow as a developer. It’s been a great experience learning about many of the frameworks and architectures used by BuzzFeed to maintain and keep track of its content.
If you were a Tasty recipe, which would you be? Emoji french fries :)
Derrick Ho — Product Design Intern
University of Washington, 2018 @derrickhho
What did you work on this summer? For the first half of my internship, I worked on designing an internal tool to help facilitate performance feedback to BuzzFeed employees. And for the second half, I worked on the Site Experience team, exploring how and why people share quizzes and making design improvements to this experience.
Why BuzzFeed? BuzzFeed has played a big role in shaping the design community as a whole. Coming from a different background, I learned a lot from BuzzFeed’s contributions to design, and jumped at the opportunity to work alongside this team. The culture here is also insanely diverse, and I think it is important for a designer to work in such an environment.
If you were a Tasty recipe, which would you be? Banana Bread Ice Cream Cake. I don’t like bananas, and I don’t like dairy. But I love banana bread, and ice cream.
Annie Zhang — Software Engineering Intern
Columbia University, 2017
What did you work on this summer? This summer I was an intern on the Shopping team! I worked on a couple projects. I built a new ad unit that is part of an experiment to bring more options for product advertising to BuzzFeed, while still maintaining the BuzzFeed brand. I also built an internal tool for the Marketing and Data teams to set up notifications for various metrics on BuzzFeed posts.
Why BuzzFeed? The tech team culture at BuzzFeed is honestly one of the best you’ll find at any company. There is a really solid representation of women and non-binary people, and the environment was incredibly inclusive. Everyone is so friendly and cool (and they dress really well)!
If you were a Tasty recipe, which would you be? Realistically, a 30-second video of someone putting a pan of water on the stove and then forgetting about it.
Eshwar Chandrasekharan — Data Science Intern
Georgia Tech CS Ph.D., 2020
What did you work on this summer? I worked on developing a human-machine collaboration service which informs BuzzFeed’s content distribution strategy on Facebook. I built machine learning models which will provide post-publishing recommendations for the social distribution team. This includes suggesting BuzzFeed links which would perform best on certain Facebook pages, and identifying which pages to post on for the most content shares.
Why BuzzFeed? DATA! BuzzFeed has access to massive amounts of cross-platform data on how people interact online. The opportunity to engage in applied data science research that has the capacity to impact the experiences of millions of users was a major reason I was drawn to Data Science at BuzzFeed.
If you were a Tasty recipe, which would you be? Fidget Spinner Cookies.
Jessica Kustra — Software Engineering Intern
What did you work on this summer? This summer, I built out an application that allows BuzzFeed employees to create nicer looking internal marketing emails, with the goal of increasing the overall readability of these emails. I also contributed to the company’s internal dashboard, used by content creators and their managers to view the performance metrics of their content, by creating a feature that highlights new additions to this dashboard.
Why BuzzFeed? Having worked at a smaller agency before this summer, I wanted the opportunity to move into the world of product creation, as well as a larger-company environment. At BuzzFeed, I was able to contribute to a product I personally enjoy using while also exploring technologies that I didn’t have any prior production-level experience in.
What’s been the highlight of your BuzzFeed experience? Hack Week!! For this Hack Week, I joined forces with two junior engineers and created BuzzFeed & Chill, our idea of what the BuzzFeed homepage would look like in the worlds of our favorite TV shows. See it here.
Rukia Sheikh-Mohamed — Software Engineering Intern
Prime Digital Academy, 2017 @rukiaasm
What did you work on this summer? For my summer project, I worked on a user management feature for PubHub. PubHub is a tool for social curators and editors to publish videos to BuzzFeed’s distributed platforms from one place. I worked on a feature that allows users to be easily added and removed without a production deploy. I did this by creating a Users endpoint in the PubHub API and connected it to PubHub UI. I’m so glad I got to work with amazing and talented team members in the MN, LA, and NY offices, from whom I learned so much!
Why BuzzFeed? I have a background in international relations, so I’ve always wanted to do work that impacts people on an international scale. I really love the variety of content BuzzFeed produces, from hilarious quizzes and great Tasty recipes to serious news stories. I was also really attracted to BuzzFeed’s work culture, how nice and supportive everyone is, and how open they are to new ideas!
If you were a Tasty recipe, which would you be? ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING AVOCADO! My obsession with avocados is unreal!
Noga Raviv — Product Design Intern
What did you work on this summer? I designed a Tasty Skill for the Amazon Alexa Show device! It was such a rad project — I learned a ton about voice user interface (VUI) and graphical user interfaces and how they connect with each other in the context of cooking. I worked with a small team of 4 and had a lot of autonomy over what I contributed, which is pretty awesome as an intern.
Why BuzzFeed? The product design team at BuzzFeed is very talented and I’m constantly impressed by the work they produce. They are extremely transparent with their process, very agile, and super friendly. I had been following and reading about the team in the BuzzFeed Design blog for a while, so when the intern opportunity came up it was a no-brainer!
If you were a Tasty recipe, which would you be? Without hesitation, Jiggly Fluffy Japanese Cheesecake.
Douglas Rudolph — Software Engineering Intern
Rutgers University — New Brunswick, 2017
What did you work on this summer? This summer I got to work with the site Infrastructure team! While working with site infrastructure, my project was a backend service designed to cache the most recently viewed and uploaded content to BuzzFeed.com. In the event that BuzzFeed.com were to go down, incoming requests would be directed to this cache service, which would respond with the most relevant content at any given time. What made this project so cool was that it was essentially a cache that hosted BuzzFeed’s minimal viable product.
Why BuzzFeed? When I confirmed my internship with BuzzFeed, I wasn’t completely clear as to why I wanted to work there. While I couldn’t pinpoint the one thing that made me sign on in the beginning, I know now that it was a combination of my expectations, the work culture, and the sense of camaraderie I felt while interviewing that made me say “yes.” BuzzFeed as a company is very transparent about its motives, and the culture is designed around doing great work and having fun. After experiencing all the dimensions of BuzzFeed, my expectations have been more than met.
What’s been the highlight of your BuzzFeed experience? Without a doubt, Hack Week. During Hack Week, I got to design and develop a retro easter egg that was approved to go live on the main site. This experience showed me how BuzzFeed stands apart from other internet companies by being open to new ideas!
My Phan — Data Science Intern
What did you work on this summer? I worked on the recommender system for articles on the website. This system tries to predict the articles that the users are likely to be interested in, and suggests that content that they are more likely to want to read.
Why BuzzFeed? I’m interested in algorithms which increase user feedback, and BuzzFeed has a lot of data on that! Coming from a technical background, I also found it refreshing to take in the practical and user-oriented perspectives of people in other departments.
What’s been the highlight of your BuzzFeed experience? I enjoyed having technical discussions with my mentor and seeing how our experimental results revealed the structures in the data. I also loved going to talks with journalists and hearing them describe their experiences. Moreover, what has impressed me the most is the spirit of learning and experimentation here. Many people here have had a career change, and are continuously learning as they work, and I find that courageous and inspiring.
Charlyn Buchanan — Software Engineering Intern
@Charlyn.Buchanan
What did you work on this summer? This summer, I worked on adding the ChromeCast feature to the BuzzFeed app. This feature will enable users with a ChromeCast to stream BuzzFeed video content on their TV! It essentially turns a user’s phone into a powerful yet familiar custom remote, which can be used to bring the BuzzFeed experience to real life in a new and immersive way. I got to dive into the intricate BuzzFeed codebase, work with new tools and libraries, and create a user-facing product that enhances the BuzzFeed experience!
Why BuzzFeed? BuzzFeed has been a long-time staple in my media diet. The relatable, current content always kept me coming back. I jumped at the chance to to contribute to a company that I engage with regularly. How often do you get the chance to work on an app you already love and work with people who are genuinely excited about what they’re making? Best. Summer. Ever.
If you were a Tasty recipe, which would you be? If I were a Tasty recipe, I’d be Honey Lime Sriracha Chicken Poppers. Because BAM!!
Check out some other posts from our interns this past summer!
To keep in touch with us here and find out what’s going on at BuzzFeed Tech, be sure to follow us on Twitter @BuzzFeedExp where a member of our Tech team takes over the handle for a week!
