National Security Innovation Network
X-Force Fellow
Department: OSD-1
My experience
Overview
Worked on multiple DoD which I'm not allowed to fully disclosed. Because of my computer engineering background, a lot of the coding stuff and technical communication I was able to pick up on and also leverage much of. The coolest project was I built an RPA bot for a DoD organization which is now in the works of being scaled to the entire United States. This is heavily team dependent though as I was on the OSD-1 AI Readiness team which got "rebranded" to something else.
The military has their particular way of doing things which does make sense sometimes but as a subscriber of UI/UX, I often had qualms about what my mission partner was nitpicky about. I had technical experience but wasn't always treated like I did with my mission partner project lead.
Pros
remote, somewhat flexible hours, DoD experience, mentors care about you and are a helpful resource
Cons
DoD experience, mission partner work culture dependent, abrupt change in project without much communication, communication at weird hours by mission partner sometimes, waking up early/military time
Impact of work
Time spent working
How did working remote affect your experience?
Was all virtual save for the business trip I took and rendezvous'd with my team. Can get tiring being in front of a screen all day especially at home but flexible to an extent.
Interview advice
Interview Rounds
Interview type
Advice on how to prepare
There's some sort of NSIN newsletter I somehow got added on. That's how I found this fellowship and was down bad for any internship. I wish I would've known the pay's not negotiable. Also was surprised to find out this internship's actually selective despite it being, well at least me here at GT, one of those not FAANG/MANGA/I have a big degree internships.
More questions? Send the reviewer a message!