Computer Science Intern in CSIP

Charlie

Education: BS/MS, Computer Science, December 2008

In a number of ways, Charlie’s summer with the NSA was like any other computer science internship. He reported to managers, worked with data, and completed projects that were handed off to him. But in other ways, the experience was completely different: Charlie’s work was classified, for instance, which meant he couldn’t even tell his closest friends the details, and the problems he dealt with on a daily basis were some of the largest facing the nation.

Can you tell us about what you did during your internship? I can’t say much—the work I did was classified! It definitely made me feel pretty important to produce work that, when I showed the results, my managers had to double check that double check that everyone in the room had the proper clearance to see what I did. It definitely gave me the sense that
I was doing something important to help people—especially for internship work.

Did anything surprise you most when you first started? The opportunity to collaborate definitely surprised me. I thought my work would be so secretive that we would all be working by ourselves and wouldn’t talk to other people. But everyone was very open, and if I had a question, anyone was happy to answer at length.

Did the internship meet your expectations? Absolutely. The projects I worked on were the most technical projects you could imagine! And the people inside the NSA are really encouraging, which was awesome for an intern. Add to that the fact that everybody wants you back for a fulltime job when you complete your internship. It was just a great experience.

What are you most proud of in your work? I can’t give many details, but I designed a program that produced exciting enough results that the person I was working for posted them agency-wide. A lot of people at the NSA got to see what I did—sometimes in an internship you’re just getting coffee, so it was neat to know my work was relevant to the people I was working with.

What’s the most fun thing you did? We got to take tours of the Agency’s different facility—and they were really cool! I learned a lot about what’s going on in different departments, and it was really neat to see what kinds of things are happening here.

What was the best part of the experience? I proved that I was able to succeed at the NSA—I figure that there are very few places in life I’ll come across that deal with more demanding problems or have more brilliant individuals working there. The overall self-esteem boost of successfully completing this internship was great.