Internship at ViacomCBS | Video Technology Group

My Summer 2021 (Virtual) Video Software Engineer Internship at ViacomCBS

A quick overview of my experiences during an incredibly challenging, but just as equally rewarding internship

During the summer of 2020, I received my first taste of a virtual work environment. While I was able to gain plenty of experience and learn a lot, I found that the virtual setting was less than desirable. The company I was working for obviously wasn’t expecting a pandemic and wasn’t exactly prepared for a fully virtual internship. Because of this, my time there ended up being largely centered around work, with little time to truly understand and become a part of the company’s culture. When I was offered the video software engineer intern position at ViacomCBS, I was thrilled, but I was also slightly reluctant because I knew it was going to be another virtual experience. I immediately assumed it would be similar to the one I had at my previous internship. Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

In this article, I’ll be sharing my experience working as a virtual intern at ViacomCBS.

The Start

Let’s just say things got off to a rocky start. I was blocked during my first couple days because I received a faulty laptop. When I finally did get a working laptop, I was sent the wrong charger — effectively wiping out my entire first week. Although this was frustrating, my manager made sure I had something to do and would frequently check up with and bug IT about the status of my equipment (thank you Sarah!). Aside from that, I was also able to meet with and get to know many of the other members of the team. Everyone was friendly and did their best to welcome me into the culture. Right from the get-go I was noticing a big difference between my previous internship and this one.

My Virtual Work Setup

The Team

During my time at ViacomCBS, I worked under the live squad, which is a subgroup of the Video Technology Group. Like the name suggests, the live squad builds/maintains the backend systems required to run the multiple live streaming services offered across ViacomCBS. These services include Paramount+, CBS Sports, and others. Being responsible for such a major component requires a team of intelligent and dedicated individuals, and fortunately this is exactly what the live squad has. Everyone I worked with had extensive knowledge about the codebase and could easily answer most questions I had. Also, the whole team was willing to help each other out at any time. It’s no wonder the team worked so well together, and could easily push out new features and fixes. I immediately felt comfortable with consulting any of the team members with any question I had, no matter how small it might’ve been. I was able to rebound quickly from my scrapped first week because of how supportive and helpful everyone on the team was. The support system I had here was something that was missing at my previous internship. It eased many of the tensions and worries I had about working in a virtual environment again. (Big shoutout to everyone on the live squad: Jeel, Rafael, Allison and Kuba!)

The Work

After taking a look at the enormous codebase I would be working with, I started to get a little anxious. I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to handle my assigned tasks with no prior knowledge. Thankfully, I was given relatively small and simple tasks to work on in the beginning. This allowed me to work through specific parts of the codebase and become familiar with each one as I worked on a certain task. I was also allowed to choose from a variety of small tasks to work on. I specifically picked tasks that would take me to different areas of the codebase each time so that I could familiarize myself with it. And so for the first few weeks of my internship, I continued to work on small features and bug fixes all throughout the codebase. It was small work, but it was still relevant, as it would all eventually go into production.

About midway through my internship, I was assigned a completely new task. This task would be much larger than any of the other ones I had taken on before. A big component of live streaming is ad insertion. Obviously, ads are where most of the revenue is brought in, so ad insertion is one of the most critical aspects. For my project, I was tasked with building a service heavily related to this. This was real work that would become of great convenience to some of the teams here, so I became motivated to work hard on it. During this process I had to build an API, setup a database, and work with a variety of technologies, many of which I hadn’t worked with before. This was a service that I had to build from the ground up, so I had to think about every little thing, from documentation all the way up to the logic for each API endpoint. It was extremely challenging, as I’d never taken on a task like this before, but seeing the amount of progress I’d made at the end made it all worth it. I was really proud of what I ended up with and I’m grateful for the opportunity I was given to take free rein over this project and make many of the decisions for myself. Of course, I couldn’t have done it without the help of my mentor and manager (shoutout to Jeel and Krystal!), who guided me throughout the entire process and supported me whenever I needed it.

Brief Internship Timeline

Through the ten weeks of working on bug fixes, minor features, and the ad insertion project, I was able to learn so much. I became familiar with Python development and now feel comfortable with it. I also learned about many new technologies such as Flask, PostgreSQL, AWS MediaLive services, Google Ad Manager, Docker, and much more. On top of all that, I got a great understanding of the overall software development process as well. Picking up/writing issues, creating pull requests, and writing tests all seem like trivial things, but learning how to properly do them really helps improve efficiency for yourself and the team.

The Culture

While the actual work was obviously the most important factor for me, I also wanted to experience the culture of the company. I’m happy to say that, although the internship was virtual, it didn’t stop me from having tons of fun along the way. The Campus to Career team at ViacomCBS did a fantastic job of setting up virtual activities/events for interns to partake in. These activities included career strategy sessions, trivia games, and even live music events. They also made us feel appreciated by sending us some swag to welcome us to the company and giving us a little gift on national intern day! I was able to connect with other interns and get to know them through the events and chatting on Slack. It was a great experience, and something that was completely missing at my previous internship. Outside of that, I had plenty of chances to connect with my team members as well. We had a few coffee chats where we just got to kick back and talk about things not related to work. I also checked in regularly with my mentors for quick chats and to let them know how things were going. These were all things that I wasn’t expecting during a virtual internship, but having them there made the summer a great one.

Tokens of appreciation from ViacomCBS!

The End

My time at ViacomCBS was incredible. During my ten weeks, I was truly challenged, but it pushed me to dig deep, learn more and soak in as much as I possibly could. I can confidently say that I’m now a much better software engineer than I was when I first began working here. ViacomCBS exceeded every expectation I had for a virtual internship and gave me an experience that I’m grateful for. In fact it was so great that I’m coming back to work here in the Fall! I can’t wait to collaborate with all the remarkable people here again and continue to learn more!

*** Special thanks to my mentor (Jeel), my colleagues (Rafael, Allison, Nishant, and Kuba), and my managers (Krystal and Sarah)