School of Information Sciences

Internship Spotlight: Amazon

Adarsh Agarwal

MS/IM student Adarsh Agarwal discusses his summer internship at Amazon.

What is your research focus at the iSchool?

I am majoring in information management with a focus on data science and analytics.

Where do you intern, and what is your role?

I am currently interning at Amazon-Seattle as a software development engineer intern. In this role, I am working on building software as services and AWS cloud infrastructure to support those services.

How did you find out about the internship?

I found out about this internship during a campus career fair in fall 2019, when I attended Amazon's booth.

What new skills have you acquired?

Some of the skills include building software as a service and working with AWS CDK (Cloud Development Kit) to build scalable infrastructure to support my service. The internship project will help me enhance my design thinking abilities. Amazon interns are given complete ownership of their projects, from requirements gathering to delivery, so ownership and successful delivery are important qualities to gain.

What do you like best about working at the company?

Amazon enforces their fourteen leadership principles. Everyone strongly adheres to these principles, which is a big factor in why Amazon is so successful today. Also, they greatly support the professional development of their interns.

What would you advise current students who are interested in an internship opportunity?

The job application process is almost entirely virtual now and is heavily dependent on a good resume with decent projects and work experience, especially for technical roles. I recommend working on some solid technical projects to build a good profile. Work experience is optional, although it definitely adds brownie points. The University of Illinois Research Park has multiple opportunities that provide both work experience and interesting technical projects.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Get to know Jade Carthans, BSIS student

Jade Carthans is interested in how human-centered design, machine learning, and data analytics can come together to solve critical problems that impact organizations and individuals. She gained firsthand experience in these areas through internships with Microsoft and State Farm.

Jade Carthans

Ravury selected to serve on Homecoming Court

BSIS student Lauren Ravury has a new item to add to her resume: member of the 2025 Homecoming Court at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Ravury's resume is already impressive. She serves as president of the Student Alumni Ambassadors (SAA), an organization dedicated to fostering school spirit at the U. of I. Last year, she served as president of the Asian Pre-Law Association, a stint that led to her receiving the Outstanding Asian & Asian American Undergraduate Student Leader Award from the Asian American Cultural Center and the association being named the 2025 Outstanding Asian & Asian American Student Organization.

Lauren Ravury

Illini 4000 journey leaves lasting impact on Patllollu

As a member of the Illini 4000, BSIS student Riddhima Patllollu biked from New York City to San Francisco to raise awareness of cancer and raise funds for cancer research. Patllollu, a junior from New Jersey, decided to join the nonprofit organization in her freshman year to expand her worldview and mark a new chapter in her life. 

Riddhima Patllollu

iSchool to present research at TPRC 2025

iSchool faculty, staff, and students will participate in the Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy (TPRC 2025), which will be held from September 18–20 in Washington, DC.

Get to know Simit Shah, MSIM student

Simit Shah worked as a consultant for Deloitte in India before enrolling in the MSIM program to strengthen his analytical and business skills. Over the summer, he applied the knowledge gained from his iSchool coursework during an internship as a technology risk consultant at EY.

Simit Shah

School of Information Sciences

501 E. Daniel St.

MC-493

Champaign, IL

61820-6211

Voice: (217) 333-3280

Fax: (217) 244-3302

Email: ischool@illinois.edu

Back to top