My Summer at Hortonworks: Part I

It has been a couple of weeks since I joined Hortonworks through its Intern Program and wow, what a time it has been! For all the students out there who are interested in beginning a career in technology and data, I will be periodically blogging about my experiences as a Hortonworks intern.

First up, I have learned that Hortonworks is all about the community. Yes, collaboration across the open source community but also the local community where we live and work. Hortonworks believes it is important to get involved with local organizations to expand its outreach to the community. Last week the Hortonworks team participated in two local youth community efforts.

Career Fair with Citizen’s School

Hortonworks hosted 30 young women from Citizen’s School for a mini career fair. When the women arrived, they visited different stations to learn from Hortonworkers and understand the different jobs one can hold at a company. Activities were set up from each department. The girls learned social media best practices, participated in a Design Thinking workshop, got a glimpse into the world of sales and learned the fine details of programming. After the group workshops, the students attended a networking lunch with Hortonworkers to hear more about specific jobs and answered a few icebreaker questions such as “Are sports or the arts more important in school?”

The career fair was an eye-opening experience for both the nice young ladies who came to participate and the Hortonworkers. I found it interesting to hear the girls speak their minds and learned new things from them. Who knew Facebook was for old people?! The day wrapped up with an ice cream social. What better way to get middle schoolers excited about big data?

Book Drive in Conjunction with Feed the Children

Hortonworks also partnered with Feed the Children to conduct a book drive that supplied Bower’s Elementary School in Santa Clara with 362 new and gently used books. Employees donated books for children ages 5-11 so that they had plenty of educational and fun reading material in their classrooms and for them to take home. The books were delivered to the school by Mark Herring, VP of Developer Evangelism and Community amongst others.

Overall it was a fun and inspiring week giving back. Stay tuned for more of posts about life as a Hortonworks summer intern!

Check out parts II and III!