Lockstep Software Engineering Internship (Summer 2021)

Application Deadline: May 7th, 2021

In late April 2021, Lockstep launched the 2021 Summer Internship for software engineers.  Our goal was to give new programmers, just starting out in their careers, a chance to shine – to learn from our talented senior staff, to get career growth support from our executive team, and to give everyone the experience of contributing to the Lockstep accounting platform.

Since the announcement, our recruiters have been inundated with hundreds of applications, more than we can respond to individually.  We’re so grateful for your support for this project, so let’s take this opportunity to share more information about this program and how it will work.

Internship Program Experience

The Lockstep engineering team is filled with talented senior engineers, each of whom got their start thanks to a mentor who guided us and gave us opportunities early in our career.

This internship program is our way to give back to the next generation of engineers.

In 2007, I launched my first internship program at EEDAR, a small videogame research firm. I documented the trial-and-error process by which I developed my internship strategies for gaming industry publications, and I developed a few key insights:

• Internships work best when they have a clearly defined project.
• Interns need to learn how to solve problems, not just how to execute a few tasks.
• The first few weeks at a new job are critical, and managers must set aside sufficient time to work and coach interns to build their confidence.

I continued developing my ideas on internships when I joined Facebook in 2018. I was surprised to discover that Facebook has a world-renowned internship program that met all my criteria, yet added many great innovations:

• Pairing interns with a senior engineer in addition to a manager.
• Project review, to ensure that it includes a mixture of introductory tasks and long-term vision./li>
• Mini-performance reviews so Interns learn about how others evaluate their performance.
• Recruiting from a widely dispersed geographical area.

When I joined Lockstep, I resolved to create an internship program modeled on these experiences.

The Application Process

Our team is currently hard at work reviewing the applications from intern candidates, and we will be accepting applications until May 17, 2021. We promise to evaluate all candidates fairly. At Lockstep, Inclusion is one of our core values. We don’t discriminate by race, religion, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

That said, to comply with employment laws, this paid internship program is limited to candidates who can legally work in the United States. The internship itself is a remote work internship, and candidates will work with their mentors remotely via Zoom, Slack, email, and other apps.

Applicants to the internship will receive two invitations:

• A questionnaire, to fill out information about your interest in the internship; and
• A fun game-based coding test to gauge your experience level.

We know how difficult it can be, to start out your career only to be faced with tough application processes and online forms. We won’t send you trick questions, and we won’t exclude candidates who don’t guess the right answer. We’ve done our best to make the process fair and to allow each candidate to speak up for themselves in their own words.

For the coding test, we’ve partnered with CodinGame, a fantastic (and fun!) programming evaluation system. Instead of the boring quizzes about terminology, or language-specific tests you may have seen on other sites, CodinGame provides a videogame based programming exercise which helps you think about programming algorithms in a new way.

Codingame allows you to demonstrate your skill by controlling a videogame (with logic based on real world algorithms, of course), and you can write code in whatever programming language you find most comfortable.

Check out CodinGame via YouTube, or try one of the programming tests yourself now!

After the closing date for applications, we will do one final round of reviews with candidates that may include a video interview with senior engineers. We will notify the successful candidates by May 27, 2021.

The Lockstep Internship Experience

Once selected, internship candidates will work with Lockstep to select a start date for their twelve-week internship. The internship itself will be structured in segments:

• A two-week onboarding experience, during which the intern will learn about Lockstep, set up their equipment, and learn about our engineering practices. The intern will begin by writing test suites for simple tasks, and will experience code reviews with senior engineers and see their code ship as part of the Lockstep App Store.
• A two-week project design and prototyping period. Interns will receive project assignments based on their interests and experience, and they will be encouraged to research, experiment, and develop solutions for problems related to their project.
• Six weeks of development work focused on the project, under supervision and with the assistance of senior engineers.
• A two week wrap-up phase, where the intern will document their work, share knowledge with Lockstep engineers, and receive career counseling and advice.

Our goal is to help you start your engineering career in the best possible way: by leading a project and seeing that project succeed. Whether you wind up spending your career with Lockstep (successful interns do receive priority consideration for open positions with Lockstep), or whether you end up at another company, we want you to be proud of the time you spent here with us. We know we will be proud of you.

Application Deadline: May 7th, 2021