HubSpot.

I've interned at HubSpot twice as a Software Engineer, on the FinTech team. I landed the first one in my first year of university, about a year after I wrote my first line of code.

Getting there in first year

I had no roadmap, no connections in tech, and honestly no idea where it would lead. I just knew I wanted to learn, so I started small:

• Writing simple programs.
• Debugging errors that made no sense.
• Watching tutorials late at night.
• Building projects that barely worked at first.

I also did 100 Days of Code: The Complete Python Pro Bootcamp on Udemy. It's hands-on and full of projects, and finishing them gave me real work I could show, which helped me stand out.

A lot of people told me landing an internship in first year was extremely unlikely. If I'd listened to "it's too early" or "it's too competitive", I probably wouldn't have tried in the first place.

The process

1. Online assessment
2. Behavioural recruiter call
3. Two technical interviews, back to back:
   • Coding: DSA.
   • System design for backend interns, or a JavaScript interview for frontend interns. I had the JavaScript interview.
4. Offer

As always, I took the earliest dates I could (why).

How it went

Coming from first year, I expected to feel out of place, but HubSpot was incredibly welcoming. With support from my team, I was able to contribute real value, and my ideas were genuinely heard, just like any other engineer's.

The return offer

At the end of my first internship I got a return offer, so I didn't interview again for the second one. My recruiter was really helpful and transparent through both the hiring and the conversion process.

I also had an offer from AWS, but I chose to go back to HubSpot because of the culture. It's inclusive, collaborative, and empowering, and I felt valued every day as an intern. HubSpot's values, HEART, are qualities I saw in action every day:

• Humble
• Empathetic
• Adaptable
• Remarkable
• Transparent

The biggest lesson from all of it wasn't a specific language or framework. It was learning to stay consistent, embrace mistakes, and keep building even when things felt overwhelming.