The 10X Intern

The 10X software engineer is an elusive beast. Worth $2+ million in value-add, they are the creme de la creme of Silicon Valley. As a hardware engineer, I have a hard time conceptualizing what that even means. Do they type faster, use shortcuts, know how to leverage Google and forums more efficiently? I have no idea. But it begs the question . . . does the 10X Hardware Engineer exist?

I think the answer to this question is NO.

Hardware engineers are limited by things that can’t be sped up 10x. Ordering parts from suppliers takes time. Machining parts take time. Yes, some mechanical engineers might be able to CAD faster, but 10x than the average mechanical engineer . . . I don’t think so. So, this is why this guide is not “The 10X Mechanical Engineer” because I don’t know one. 

That being said, the 10X Hardware Intern does exist. Why? Well, the baseline is low enough that I believe it is possible. Here are the traits and tendencies of the 10X Hardware Engineer.

An internship is a 10-16 week journey characterized by two things. Expectation setting, and execution. It’s only a dozen or so weeks, so you can’t change the world, don’t promise anything you can’t actually deliver on, and deliver on what you promise. A successful internship is one where the intern requires little attention from other engineers and solves actual problems. The key to this is finishing what you set out to do. Nothing is worse than handing off a half-finished project to a full-time engineer who doesn’t have the time to finish it and probably couldn’t track down all the details anyways if they tried. You need to be a value add asset, and setting realistic expectations and delivering on them is crucial. 

If you didn’t document the work you did, you might as well not have done it.

I like having a running presentation documenting every aspect of what I worked on. While it may be hundreds of slides long by the end, it is an awesome way to keep everything in one place. 

• Requirements: Open with the requirements of your summer. What will make your internship a success? Have 1-3 slides that you will see every time you open it 

• Timeline: Have a one-slide Gantt chart marking all 16 weeks. Fill it in over time. You will be able to see the clock counting down

• Intern BOM: List all the CAD parts you created with their part numbers. Every company has a different part management system, one thing that is universal is that they suck when trying to track down parts someone else made. Document! Yours!

• Important Links: You can have a dedicated slide or just link things as you go. Linking resources, design justifications, spec. sheets, etc will be super helpful for you to find in the future along with any other coworker 

• Beyond these basic ones, it’s up to you. More documentation is better than less. Don’t let it fall off as the summer progresses

What is RISK? Well, it connects to the first point. Your biggest risk is not finishing your project/objective. Given the very very tight timeline, de-risking everything is essential to finishing. What will take the longest to design? What has the longest lead time? What requirements aren’t defined yet? What is out of your control? Do you need to test anything? Managing risk starts day one. Tackle the problems that are most urgent and inhibit you from addressing other things. What is not important? Just because someone told you to do something doesn’t mean you should do it. It might not be the right choice. It is very easy to spend multiple weeks going down a rabbit hole someone else started digging. Question everything.

By questioning everything, I don’t mean pestering your manager 24/7. Yes, you won’t know everything. But a key to being a successful intern is spreading your questions and gathering information from many people. The other engineers on your team will have answers. Project managers will have answers,  Other interns can answer the basic questions you are too embarrassed to ask. Never be complacent because you don’t know something.

Powerpoint CAD works. Many times during your summer, making a bunch of colorful labeled blocks in PowerPoint may be a better way to convey an idea than actually CADing, especially if it’s just a cross section. That is fine! And, it's probably faster. Use this tool often!

Relationships impact your internship in dozens of different ways. Yes, you should get to know your team, yes, you should get to know other interns. These are simple. But, what can make the real difference is how you form relationships with colleagues on other projects/teams. Doing this early in your internship is key. It gives you the ability to leverage these relationships later in your internship to get things you might not be able to get otherwise. You might be able to get the shop to turn around parts faster for you. You might be able to get 1 on 1 advice from an expert on the aerodynamics team. What form the support may come in is hard to predict. So. form lots of relationships and figure out what you need later. Plus you’ll hopefully make some friends along the way!

Bringing everyone involved with your project into one room a couple of times during the summer will be invaluable. I like to do this via a requirements review 2-3 weeks into the summer. What are your goals? What problems are you solving first, last? What are you unsure of? What resources do you need? What do you know? What do you not know? What do you not know you don’t know? Get these all out on the table. Get feedback, take notes, and listen to other stakeholders discuss things with each other. It is so so valuable.

6-8 weeks in I think it is time for a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) / Mid Point Presentation. This has two key aspects. It lets you share with everyone what you have been up to. What has worked? What didn’t work? What roadblocks are you facing? It also lets you create slides on that work that you can then use again for your final presentation. In 6 weeks, the things you did 6 weeks before will seem like a distant memory. Having quality slides you can reference and slide in (pun intended) will make your final presentation much easier to prepare.

2-3 days before your last day you should host a final presentation. Invite EVERYONE. Coworkers you met in the lunch lines, everyone you Slacked/Teamsed, recruiters, interns, etc. This is the lasting impression you will make that will be crucial to people remembering in weeks and months who you are, and potentially the key to getting a return offer. Make it 60 minutes. You won’t be able to do it in 30. Why rush?  I think the best way to structure your presentation is to spend the first 20 providing a summary of your work that anyone at the company will understand. One slide per major thing you did. Make sure to give good context and illustrate the problems you solved. The following 40 can be a combination of technical deep dive and Q&A. This portion is targeted at your team and your manager’s manager. For each slide in the 20 mins overview have 3-5 backups supporting design decisions to discuss later. Have exploded views, all your calculations, walk through your interfaces, and show design progressions of parts. Also, link to the documentation you have created (more on this later). At the end of the day, in three weeks or two months when someone wants to remember what you worked on. This will be the first thing they look at. Make it clean, readable, and content-heavy. It doesn’t necessarily have to be aesthetic (though it helps if it is), but it absolutely can’t be disorganized or ugly.

Note: during your panel interview for full time employment, it is typical for the people interviewing you to pull up your final presentation slide deck and look at it in advance, asking you relevant questions throughout the interview.

The final step to a successful internship is a clean handoff. You need to take everything you have done over the last 12-16 weeks and put it all in one place along with a guide. Did you make a new assembly? Make sure it is released (or whatever your company does for change management). Make sure the BOM is accurate. Did you get parts quoted? Link the quotes and contacts. All your emails will disappear along with those correspondences. What are all the little things you have learned about what you are working on that aren’t important enough to be documented yet? Write them down. Create a how-to guide for any project you have done in case someone needs to replicate it later. Also, add everyone you met on LinkedIn, and ideally, write down their email. You never know when you might need it.

Hopefully, some of these words of advice help you in the future!

Good Luck In Your Next Internship!!