How to Get an Internship: Q&A with Data Science Student

Data science senior Amogh Channashetti is what some would call an internship guru.

With notable companies such as Hilton, Vanguard, and Milliman on his resume, he is gearing up for his fourth internship at Capital One this summer. Beyond his academic achievements as a National Merit Scholar in the Collegium V Honors Program, Channashetti actively participates in UT Dallas student organizations like the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), FinTech and Alpha Kappa Psi.

But what truly fuels his success? Let’s delve into his strategies and tips.

How do you think you’ve been so successful at finding and securing internships?

For me, I think one of the biggest things that helped me get started was being involved with clubs on campus. Joining organizations that align with my interests and career goals showed me what things might look like in the industry. Plus, it’s something to talk about during interviews or whenever I’m networking with people. It shows that I’ve taken the initiative to gain skills that are transferable to what they look for in an intern.

As a TA in NSM’s new professional development courses, what common misconceptions or pitfalls do you notice regarding career readiness?

A lot of people have aspirations to go into research or graduate school, so there’s a huge emphasis on hard skills, but not an equal emphasis on soft skills. To be successful, you need to have both. It’s important to be personable to build connections with people. You can teach someone how to work in a lab or how to work with all these different tools, but it’s really effective communication that is the deciding factor.

What steps do you take to target companies that feel like a right fit for you?

So the first thing I do is decide what type of roles I’m looking for, and then narrow it down to a few companies. Then I go to LinkedIn and check out the employees who work there. Most people post about projects or their experience, so reading about the things they’ve worked on gives you a good idea of what you might be working on as an intern or new hire. During the interview, I always like to ask about the culture of the company because that’s something that I care a lot about. But I’ve also asked about some of the projects that previous interns have worked on, or if anything is in the pipeline. You can also ask what professional development opportunities they offer.

What would you say to someone who is applying for internships but not getting contacted for an interview?

Instead of just cold applying, build those connections, whether that’s with recruiters or employees at the company. When you have a referral, it’s someone on the inside vouching for you. It adds a lot of weight to your application, and if you are connected with a recruiter, you have even more direct access to the things that are looking for. I also recommend reaching out to upperclassmen who have had internships since they’re the ones who can directly connect you with their managers. Having a former intern say, ‘Oh, I actually have a friend who’s really interested in what this company does,’ is a great way to stand out from the crowd. But it really just comes down to building connections.

How do you approach challenging situations in your internships?

I don’t think there was a single internship where I wasn’t challenged, honestly, because it’s always a new experience, right? You’re working with new technology in a new space, so there’s an inevitable learning curve. The most recent challenge would be during my current internship at Milliman. The company focuses on actuarial consulting, which I had no experience with, so the first few weeks were hard. But just by taking the time to look through some of the material they provided, write down my own questions and having conversations with my manager, I cleared up a lot of confusion. So definitely utilizing the people on your team as a resource is a great way to approach that uncertainty. And because you only have a certain amount of time to work there as an intern, it’s really important to get up to speed as fast as you can so you can leave a good impression on the company.

How do you make connections with industry professionals, outside of interning?

I usually identify people who are currently in a career that I’m interested in, either through something like an internal company directory or LinkedIn. Once I figure out who I want to reach out to, I just send them a quick message asking to set up a quick 15-minute virtual chat or ask them to get coffee. It’s a great way to learn more about what their role looks like, and it gives you more insight than what you can find online, which can be very biased and filtered. Overall, it just helps build a more personal connection.

Where do you see yourself after graduation?

I’m planning on starting my career as a data analyst within a financial firm. In the finance industry, so much happens so quickly, so you have to make sure everything is working perfectly. This past summer when I was at Vanguard, my project was sort of like an internal ChatGPT they were building to help financial advisors provide better information to their customers. I was doing AI research for them, and the data was really interesting to me, so I want to continue doing something like that.