Not knowing is okay: Katherine Choi on learning how to ask valuable questions
Q: What is your name, what office do you work out of, and how long have you been at Dropbox?
A: My name is Katherine Choi. I started out as a Launch intern in SF in the summer of 2017, returned to the NYC office as a general software engineering intern in 2018, and will be joining Dropbox Seattle as a full-time software engineer this September!
Q: Where do you call home?
A: I grew up in Seattle and attend school right at home at the University of Washington.
Q: How did you first get interested in engineering?
A: During my senior year of high school, I decided to take Advanced Placement Computer Science (APCS) on a whim. I was always interested in a wide range of fields, but I had no idea how to pursue them all. Computer science opened up a whole new world for me. Being an engineer meant I didn’t have to give up all these other passions. Instead, it gave me the means to pursue these areas of interest by equipping me with the tools to tackle a variety of problems!
Q: What motivated you to come back to Dropbox for another summer?
A: The mentorship! Everyone at Dropbox was so invested in my growth as an engineer and as a person, whether or not they were directly on my team.
Q: Could you tell us about your experience as an intern?
A: Last summer, I implemented the Do Not Disturb feature on the desktop client. I got to participate in my very first bug bash and release my feature to the office! This summer, I am working on improving audio previews on web. One of the coolest things about interning at Dropbox is being able to work on real user-facing features. We are currently preparing for office release and eventually GA release!
In New York, we got to explore the Empire State Building, the Bronx Zoo, and Smorgasburg among many other places!
Q: What’s been your biggest challenge during either summer?
A: In the beginning, I felt overwhelmed by everything. I had never worked with Python or navigated such a large codebase before. Web development was completely new to me, and writing unit tests was nothing like writing tests for a small school project! It seemed like everyone around me knew way more than I did, and I had no idea how to even begin to learn everything.
Fortunately, I had amazing mentors and peer mentors both summers who helped me realize that it was completely okay not to know everything. As an intern, my primary purpose was to learn and ask a lot of good questions. Once I learned how to break tasks down and started tackling problems one by one, I felt more comfortable each time I was faced with something I had never encountered before.
Q: Tell us your favorite intern memory.
A: Last summer, the interns played a lot of Overcooked together. For Hack Week, we decided to host an Overcooked tournament for the entire New York office. Many Dropboxers participated, including all the intern-mentor pairs!
Q: What are you most looking forward to when you join Dropbox full-time in September?
A: Dropbox has the best people, food, and work culture by far! I’m looking forward to reconnecting with the Dropboxers I’ve met over the last two years and working on my first long-term project as a full-time engineer. And, of course, I’m excited for the food!
Q: Can you tell us about how your first year as a Launch intern prepared you for your second summer interning at Dropbox?
A: As a Launch intern, I learned how to ask a lot of valuable questions about how everything worked. Whether it was asking about the different roles in a company or learning how to mock out test objects, my mentor Angela created an environment where I felt comfortable asking lots of questions. I was able to transfer over these skills for my second summer interning at Dropbox (and everywhere else). Instead of wasting time trying to figure things out on my own, I knew when it was more valuable to ask questions!
Q: If you weren’t an engineer, what would you be?
A: I might have gone down a completely different path. Who knows? I may have been the next Bob Ross!
