Ben - Almaden 2004

As an Extreme Blue™ technical intern in Almaden, Ben worked with six undergraduate interns writing three disaster recovery applications. He's currently pursuing his master's degree at Colorado State University--where he also graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science.

Ben, what were your day-to-day project activities and responsibilities with Extreme Blue?

Toward the beginning of the program, we spent a lot of time working on architecture and design documents. Afterward, I spent most of my time coding. I had a specific section of our program that I worked on, and I tried to meet the schedule that our team had set for deliverables.

As a technical intern, what impact did the business interns have on you?

The business interns really taught me a lot about what it takes to get things done in a business environment. As a programmer, I've often been sheltered from dealing with people on a higher level, or selling the product I am working on. Working side-by-side with someone doing these things really taught me about the process of rolling out a new product.

What was the biggest surprise about the Extreme Blue program?

I was really shocked by how cool all of the people are that I'm working with. In the past as an intern I usually hung out with a handful of people. With EB, we had social things going on every night of the week, often with at least twelve people involved. The managers were really cool to--they go out of their way to connect people with contacts in the fields that they are interested in.

Why do you think you were selected for this internship, and what inspired you to apply?

I think I was selected for Extreme Blue because I had a really positive recommendation from my manager last year. I heard of Extreme Blue the first summer that I worked for IBM. At that time, it seemed like a program that would be impossible to get into. All of my managers always encouraged me to apply, so I did.

What would you say has been the most memorable thing about your experience here?

The most memorable moment I had was making it to the top of Half Dome. We all went on a trip to Yosemite and we did Half Dome as a big hike. Up at the top there is a really tough section called The Stairs, which kills your legs. Then there is a section where you have to use steel cables to make it up a steep rock face. When I got to the top I couldn't believe it. It had taken everything I had to make it up there, and it is definitely one of the three hardest things I've done in my life.

Could you share a little about your background with IBM and describe your areas of interest?

My first internship was working for IBM over the summer of 2002 in Tucson, AZ. I worked on device driver code for tape libraries. In the summer of 2003, I worked again for IBM again in Tucson--this time as technical lead on a Speed Team. My job was to design the programs and act as a technical resource for the rest of the interns. I also did a lot of documentation and got to do some coding.