Technology Stories from UCLA Students
Meet Ishan Juneja, an INTERN at ZOOX!
Tell us about your Role:
As a Safety Strategy and Operations Intern at Zoox, I would strengthen the company’s safety management system through data driven analysis and research. I would scrape and aggregate safety related data from internal and external sources, analyze real world driving events, and identify patterns in incidents, edge cases, and operational anomalies. By translating these insights into clear recommendations, I would help guide engineering teams in prioritizing risk mitigations and system improvements. I would also support cross functional safety reviews and create reports that inform strategic decisions, ensuring proactive engineering efforts that advance autonomous vehicle safety and responsible deployment
Tell us about your recruitment Process
The process consisted of four rounds. After submitting my application, I had an initial 45 minute conversation with a recruiter focused on overall fit and learning more about the company and team. The next stage was a take home assessment in which I prepared a mock safety related report, giving me a clearer understanding of the type of work the role may involve. I then had a technical and behavioral interview with the hiring manager. The final stage was a virtual super day with two team members, which included a mix of technical discussions and behavioral questions.
why did you choose to pursue Technology?
There are several reasons I am drawn to technology. Growing up in Cupertino, innovation was part of the culture. Many of my peers were building apps, discussing new hardware releases, or experimenting with side projects, which naturally shaped my curiosity. Being in that environment made technology feel tangible and within reach.
I am also deeply impact driven. I constantly ask myself what I am working on and who it will help. Technology determines the direction of our future, whether through autonomous vehicles, software platforms, or tools that increase access and efficiency. It operates at scale, which means the work can meaningfully affect millions of people.
I am motivated by challenge as well. Working through technical problems can feel almost meditative. At times, it is just me and my computer, fully immersed in debugging or hacking away at a complex puzzle. That state of focus and iteration is incredibly fulfilling.
What excites me most is how technology exists everywhere. It powers apps like Beli, the headphones I wear every day, and even the systems behind the coffee I drink. It spans consumer products, enterprise tools, and social impact platforms. Whether as a software engineer at a startup or a product manager at a nonprofit, technology allows me to explore different roles while building skills that translate across industries.
What are your career plans going forward:
Honestly, I do not have everything figured out yet, and I am okay with that. I am still early in my career, so right now my main goal is to learn, build real skills, and expose myself to meaningful work that challenges me. I want to stay curious and give myself room to grow rather than locking into one rigid plan too soon.
In the near future, if I genuinely enjoy the work and the people, I would love to continue at Zoox. Being part of something at the forefront of technology is exciting, and I would want to grow with it and contribute in a way that feels impactful.
At the same time, I care about developing as a person beyond just my career. I want to travel, explore different fields, learn new crafts, and experience different ways of thinking. I think those experiences will ultimately make me better at whatever I choose to pursue long term.
Meet Philena nguyen, an intern at Servicenow!
Tell us about your role:
I was previously a Partner Management Intern at ServiceNow. At ServiceNow, I was placed on the global KPMG account (one of ServiceNow’s biggest partners). I worked on a variety of projects related to partner engagement, go-to-market strategy, marketing, data analysis, and sales operations. It was a very classic B2B strategy role.
Tell us about your recruitment process
I applied in January. Had a phone screen with a recruiter in February (30 mins), a first round interview (30 mins) the next week, and a final interview with the hiring manager three days later (30 mins). I received my offer 2 days after. It was all behavioral questions.
why did you choose to pursue Technology?
I knew I wanted to go into tech because of the vast number of opportunities it provides. Within a tech company, it is relatively easy to try different roles internally and learn from different teams. Whether it’s sales, product, or engineering, you can benefit a lot from working at a tech company (and I genuinely find the work interesting).
What are your career plans going forward:
I am an incoming Product Management Intern at Capital One in McLean, Virginia. I hope to continue working in tech post-grad in mid-to-big tech.
meet Karl Wang, an intern at Adobe!
Tell us about your role:
I was previously a Sales Velocity Analyst Intern at Adobe. The Sales Velocity position is a unique role that focuses on the construction and management of demonstration solutions for the technical pre-sales teams at Adobe. As an intern, I was tasked with analyzing the critical business problems that surrounded the team and greater Adobe ecosystem, and I applied analytics and research skills to generate and present new data. I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to work at the intersection between internal and external facing teams, allowing me to explore the entire spectrum of what business looks like in the technology industry.
Tell us about your recruitment process
I applied in mid-October and received the first interview invitation in late October. The first round interview was a take home assessment where I completed an online interview and created a slide deck pitching two distinct Adobe products to a client of my choosing. The second round interview was a presentation of the slides I had submitted. There was a panel present who questioned me about my decisionmaking and overall business acumen.
why did you choose to pursue Technology?
As a college student with limited professional experience, I have used a very broad set of professional goals and values to determine my career decisions. At the core of those values is ensuring that the role that I work has a positive effect on both my personal life and the overall systems surrounding it. Technology, to me, is the perfect blend of these two goals. Importantly, much of the technology industry offers a culture that focuses on protecting the worker and their personal goals. As an individual whose personal life matters just as much if not more than my professional life, this balance has become increasingly important to me, and I find that the overall approach to worker’s freedom employed by the technology industry aligns keenly with my own. Technology also appeals to me in that it has a generally positive impact on the world. As I have explored more and more companies, I have realized that the overall output of the company is something that is of the utmost importance to me. Within the technology industry, firms are often exploring unknown territory, advancing underdeveloped fields, and accelerating growth across the scientific realm. As a young professional, knowing that the work I am doing is providing positive utility across society is highly fulfilling and something I will continue to seek out. In short, technology serves to provide an important foundation that aligns with all of my goals as I lead and begin my own professional journey.
What are your career plans going forward:
Incoming Finance Intern at Google
Meet Kimi Cui, an Intern at Coinbase!
Tell us about your role:
I work on the institutional side of Coinbase, supporting the Sales, Trading, and Prime team! My role sits between finance and data, primarily building tools and dashboards that help the team understand staking flows, client activity, and broader market conditions across tokens and validators. In other words, a lot of the work consists of taking messy, fragmented data and turning it into something that’ll help the team sell and execute large institutional trades—for example, building SQL pipelines, designing visualizations, or digging into institutional trading activity to surface trends the team can act on. Since Coinbase and the crypto industry is still rapidly evolving, the work isn’t rigidly defined and I’m often figuring out the industry and system while using it—which I enjoy!—forcing me to think commercially and technically at the same time.
Tell us about your recruitment process
I applied as a sophomore and went through an online assessment, a recruiter call, and two team interviews. The team rounds were fast-paced and focused on how you think—quick logic, mental math, and scenario-based questions around markets and institutional trading. I prepared by studying market structure in crypto and actually opening my own crypto wallet to better understand how the product works from the ground up. I also reached out to people in crypto and institutional S&T to understand how coverage teams operate. The process definitely sounded intimidating at first, but it ultimately felt very conversational and open as they were only looking for clarity of thought and the ability to break down complex problems under pressure!
why did you choose to pursue Technology?
I’m drawn to technology because of its innovative work culture. Things move especially fast, and what feels advanced today can look completely different a year from now. I initially hoped to pursue a career in business, however, after interning at Coinbase in Summer 2025, I realized how much more I enjoy working in a space where the end goal isn’t fully defined and where projects continue evolving instead of reaching a clean finish line. It keeps me learning and refining my expertise within a specific niche, and it’s especially exciting in the crypto industry!
What are your career plans going forward:
I plan on staying in fintech and continuing to work at Coinbase, ideally moving more towards the data engineering side of my team! I enjoy working on the infrastructure behind trading and institutional operations and I also want to just continue exploring crypto as a whole. I’m fully aware of how much the market sentiment swings, but I truly believe there’s real potential in crypto and that it’s worth it to stay involved while it’s growing rather than step in once everything’s already settled.