Day in the Life of a Twitch Intern: Mike Perrone

• Name, position, and when you started at Twitch.

Mike Perrone (Thrice in chat ^_^), Software Engineer Intern, started the beginning of the summer in May. Just recently, I’ve started working part time, remotely from college.

• Where were you prior to starting at Twitch?

I’ve been going to school at Worcester Polytechnic Institute as a Computer Science major, and last summer I was an intern at a Big Data healthcare startup, Kyruus, based out of Boston.

• When you’re not at the office, you’re…

…biking/jogging around the city, eating at one of the many delicious vegan restaurants in San Francisco, or more likely, I’m at my apartment watching Starcraft II on Twitch.

• Where did you hear about Twitch/your position at Twitch?

I cold emailed all the websites that I used and thought were cool from a user perspective and asked them if they were taking interns. Basically the “Spray and Pray” strategy applied to job applications. Twitch was [obviously] on that list, and they responded. So I guess I never heard about the position; I just kind of hoped it existed. Turns out it did!

The Smoulder

• What do you do at Twitch/what does your typical day look like?

I work as a product engineer, which means I work on things like the website, our internal and external APIs, and sometimes the Xbox/PS4 apps. My typical day involves a mix of planning to write code, talking about writing code, asking other people how to write specific pieces of code, reading and commenting on code other people write, and actually writing code. I’ll also take breaks to play video games, obviously.

• What’s the best part about interning at Twitch?

One of the best things about working as an engineer at Twitch is that what you do immediately affects so many users. I remember at the very beginning of my internship, I fixed a tiny bug where a button wasn’t working. It was super simple to fix, but I was really excited about it because it made the experience of millions of people that much better.

An intern specific thing that is great about Twitch is that I never feel like an intern. People regularly find out that I am just an intern after working with me for weeks. Twitch has high standards for full-time employees, and they have high expectations for me as an intern. Shortly after that tiny button bug, I got put on the internationalization project as the lead engineer.

• What’s your favorite perk at Twitch?

The free catered lunch and dinner every day is pretty great, but better than that is what we do after finishing those meals. In the middle of the work day, we go into our gaming lounge and play Super Smash Bros. Melee for an hour or so. Throughout the course of the summer, I’ve gone from not knowing what an aerial is to being able to combo into a juicy SHFFL’d knee

. Shoutouts to Scar, Golf, and Bensw for helping me get there =].

• What advice would you give to someone looking for an internship on the engineering team at Twitch?

Twitch is always looking for good engineers. That means smart people who love to solve problems and work well with other people. There are lots of correct ways to get yourself to that state, but what has worked for me has been valuing my education above most things. I care a lot about learning and getting things right. It’s important to note that education is not equivalent to schooling. I’ve skipped out on classwork a few times to spend time working on my personal projects, and I know that’s been more valuable to me. Find what works for you and push yourself, and Twitch would be glad to consider you. ;)

Are you interested in becoming an engineer here at Twitch? Then check out our careers page!