From day one you’ll be given a meaningful assignment that will make a real impact on our business, our hundreds of millions of users—and on your future career and the opportunities that will be available to you. You certainly won’t be making copies and coffee runs (unless you like coffee, in which case you’ll love our free latte bars).
 
This is not your ordinary internship!
You’ll be amazed at the difference you can make—even in a few short weeks. It’s possible that your code will be used by millions, or you’ll launch a marketing campaign, develop a new product strategy or an amazing GUI. Our interns have done that— and more.

Apply Here:
Summer 2012 Technical Intern
Summer 2012 Non-Technical Intern

Feel free to come back to see what's new. More summer internships will be posted here soon.

It’s 3 a.m. and piles of sleep deprived students line the hallways around campus, happily coding away. Those who are used to pulling all-nighters remain glued to the faded light of their computer screens, stocked with energy drinks and snacks in an effort to stay focused on their project and fight the urge to sleep. Some find comfort in the space they’ve claimed on the floor – a makeshift workstation created with nothing more than a backpack as a “chair” to lean against. Others huddle around tables desperately fixing bugs and trying to figure out what features should come next. The students will take different approaches but one things remains true for everyone…they have less than ten hours to complete their dream project so they have to think quickly! This scene depicts what some students still refer to as the “coolest thing they’ve done in their entire university career- Yahoo!'s Hack U!.

Yahoo! has been bringing the excitement of Hack U™ to university campuses for over five years. During the course of one academic year, top developers from Yahoo! fly out to a select number of universities across the country to teach a series of web technology workshops and classes, and then host a 24-hour coding competition with plenty of caffeine, food, music, camaraderie, demos and awards. Hack U™ is not about perfect code – it’s about learning new things, fostering community, inspiring creativity and bringing a cool idea to life.

Throughout the years, the hack program has changed quite a bit as web programming tools and technology have become better, more open and accessible to computer programmers. This new level of quality and access to technology has raised the bar and these days students are developing hacks that could actually turn into start-ups or become a real product, app or feature. This caught the attention of several top technology companies and VCs who are now consistently looking to this bright young group of developers for fresh product ideas, technical feedback and of course, top talent.

Today you’ll find Facebook, Microsoft and others have joined Yahoo! in hosting their versions of all night university hackathons – a move which has created a terrific opportunity for students around the world to dream big and showcase their skills and ideas to top engineering teams at these companies.

University student groups such as the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) love these hack competitions so much that they’re no longer waiting for a company to host an event on their campus. Several schools are now organizing their own hack competitions and inviting the companies to participate as category sponsors. This student-run format creates an even wider playing field for the students, one that has opened the door for partnerships with nonprofits and government organizations. The students are thrilled to work with organizations such as RHOK which provides them with the opportunity to work on solutions for real problems facing the world today.

Whether students are hacking to solve a problem, connect with friends, build their dream app, find an exciting career opportunity, showcase their big idea to a VC or save the world – it’s clear that they love to innovate and hack – in whatever form it may take. Hack on!

For more information on Yahoo!’s Hack U™ program, go to http://developer.yahoo.com/hacku/

- Jamie Lockwood, Hack U™ Program Manager
Originally posted on Yahoo! on Campus Blog

Join the Yahoo! University team as we travel around the country looking for the best of the best to fill our summer internships and new college grad positions. We will be rolling out the purple carpet and hosting info sessions, networking socials, career fairs and more.

Come visit us and show us what you got! This season come say hi to us at:

Meet Joy, a software development intern in Yahoo! Mobile.

Tell us about your path to Yahoo! What is your current role?
I started as a Summer Intern and was assigned to work with the Yahoo! Mail Front-end Engineering team. It was a great experience while I interned for 12 weeks. I was later offered a full time position, and I joined Yahoo! in May 2011 again with the Mail team but as a Back-end Engineer with Mail Search.

As an intern, my project was to work on Yahoo!’s new Mail product called Minty. I primarily focused on the internal beta release of Minty and part of the public release. Things were constantly changing and a lot of bugs needed to be fixed. Many of the fixes I was involved in were aligned toward working on emoticons, the design of the Mail UI page, and the feedback page. Every task I did, I could see that it was making an impact.

The internship was my first corporate experience and it was amazing to see the work that I did being used and impacting millions of users.

After I completed my internship, I completed my Masters at UCLA. My masters focused mostly on backend information retrieval so when I was asked my preference for a job, I told them that I preferred to work with the Mail Back-end team. I really enjoyed the team I worked on as an intern, the feedback they gave, and their work ethic. I currently work on Mail Search. I work on the search experience and making search more relevant and faster to the user within Y! Mail.

What was your first project with your current group? How has your role evolved since then? What do you see yourself doing next?
I recently started my full-time so I am currently work on Mail Search. In the future, I plan on trying to understand the different components of search. I see myself mastering the product. I really hope to apply what I acquired in graduate school.

In what ways have you been able to innovate at Yahoo!?
As an intern, I was able to innovate by creating the Minty feedback link and how users could access it. There were also a lot of UI issues I worked on. There were a lot of challenges that came up. The system was constantly changing. Issues arose that could not be fixed immediately. When this happened, the team would sit together and try to figure out the problems. We would find bugs, file them, and then try to reduce them. There was so much team work.

What do you love about Yahoo!?
The best part about Y! is how Y! mixes work with fun. It makes you want to work harder and play harder. As an intern, there was a treasure hunt, a foosball tournament, a softball game, and so many other different events. An event that really stands out for me was women in engineering. There are so many things happening on campus that it keeps up the enthusiasm at work.

In the past month, there have been so many events that I’ve been able to attend. Last month, I was able to attend “Birthdays with Blake”. The event was for those with birthdays in May and June who worked in Products. Blake came in and spoke for 5 minutes. After that, he allowed everyone to ask questions. It was like a Q&A. I got insight into the different products and Blake talked about how employees can fit in and play a role in Products. It was cool to come up with ideas and be able to convey them to Blake. 

For someone considering Yahoo! as a place to work, what would you want them to know about Yahoo?
I want them to know that first, Yahoo! is a great place to work. For the period that I’ve been at Yahoo!, it’s been a wonderful place to work. Even as an intern, I was given importance. I wasn’t given tasks that were less important than what the full time employees were doing. It didn’t require less expertise. It made me feel equally as important as any other team member. The engineers were always helpful when I needed some guidance in figuring out a solution to a problem or understanding some part of the code. I really love the work ethics and culture within Yahoo!. Yahoo! also encourages internal learning. Its really helpful if you need to pick up a new programming language for your project. Manager are always open to that and allow you to attend development courses. There’s so much to learn. And if you can’t make it to the class, there are resources on our intranet.

In your opinion, what makes Yahoo! a unique place to work?
Everything stated before. Also at Y!, I find it not so intimidating to talk to your manager and colleagues. They are very smart people and experts. It’s great to be a new college grad or intern and not feel intimidated. You’re immediately made to feel a part of your team. When I came to my current team, I was assigned a mentor who helped me understand the tasks assigned to me.

Another thing that makes Yahoo! unique, especially with the Mail team, is that they follow the Agile way of software development. It is a method of working on smaller tasks in small time frames of a few weeks, while keeping the end product in mind. We have weekly meetings and tasks assigned to each of us. You always know what tasks to work on and when they need to be completed. Y! also has All Hands meetings periodically for each of the larger teams, where one can raise bigger issues. I believe it’s important to keep up with the pace of the internet era. I believe an effective way of achieving this is by implementing Agile. Every team should follow this way of organizing tasks. All of these things really give me pride in the work that I do.  

Are there other things about Yahoo! that make you proud to be an employee?
Everything! Even wearing purple! I’m proud to be a Yahoo because of our work culture, the fun, the purple craze, and not to forget the amazing coffee we are pampered with.

Tell us about your experience with the University Relations Team and going through the new college grad hiring process.
The UR team was great. The intern team was awesome. There’s so much energy and they really made us [interns] enthusiastic about everything we did. My most memorable experience with them was during an Interns vs. Managers softball game event, for which they even had a practice session. The energy level was just great.

The new college grad team was great too. When I converted to a full time employee, they constantly kept in touch with me. After my internship, the Mail Front-end team didn’t have an opening so they couldn’t hire me on that team. As a result, converting was a long process. In spite of this, the new college grad team was in constant touch with me. They were interested in finding out what other team would interest me, and tried to find a position that would be the best match for the skills I have. They matched me with the Mail Search team and my manager, and it worked out really well. After I got my offer and joining date, I had one small hiccup. My work visa did not come through on time. So my start date got backed up and I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to start working until July. But Yahoo! was very accommodating and very understanding of my position, and helped me join in May itself.

What advice might you have for new college grads that are interested in Yahoo! or will soon be starting as a new Yahoo!?
For someone looking to start, they need to make their presence felt during the career fairs. The career fair is when you can converse with developers and the University Recruiting team. When they see what you know, the energy you have, your experiences, and your interests, they’ll become interested and be able to translate this information. In those conversations, you can leave behind an impression on the team. I think this is how I got recommended. I remember that the developer I spoke with the first time, remembered and recognized me the next time he visited my university. The career fair is where you can make your first mark with a company.

As an intern, I felt it was important to build interpersonal relationships with your manager and team members. Make sure you emphasize your experience and that you want to come back. You have to work hard and do your tasks really well. That’s what leaves that impression. For people who have an offer, they just have to look forward to the experience. I want them to know that they have a lot in store and that they should just look forward to it.

Anything else you’d like to share?
Yahoo! gives flexibility to its employees. I feel that I can make a difference with the work I do and whatever I work on is going to be valuable. Yahoo’s values are directly aligned with my own.

Also, I loved Yahoo! so much that I waited for their offer. Although I interviewed with other companies in between the time I was an intern and received my offer, Yahoo! was my number one choice!