Company News
Engineering intern Skyler Bala said he was first drawn to computer science at UC Davis because sees software development as a form of creative expression with high societal impact. He likes the artistic nature of the role and in the last year, grew his skills and understanding of the tech industry with AppLovin.
Skyler first learned about AppLovin at a career fair and said he struck up a conversation with one of AppLovin’s engineers at the booth.
“The engineer was so in tune with the developer world and the way he carried himself really showed his excitement. We had a conversation about general trends and development in the industry and I was immediately interested.”
Skyler, who had previously interned at a large, Fortune 500 company, said his experience at a big firm taught him a few things.
“I wanted to be around like-minded people who believed in an idea and mission. My previous experience with an internship taught me that I need to be with a company that has a strong culture and a mission.”
He pointed out that while a lot of students look for any internship or to just get a job, he was insistent on finding a company that would foster his growth as an engineer in an environment that thrives on collaboration and exploring new trends and concepts.
“I was respected for my ideas and abilities. I wasn’t treated just as an intern.”
The day after the career fair, Sklyer interviewed with the engineer he initially met at the booth. He was then invited to interview with the rest of the team, who gave him more information about the company culture, values, and goals.
Skyler was impressed by the level of knowledge and hunger the team had. “I liked that the team would constantly share new technologies on Slack and they were in tune with the outside world.”
As an intern in the UI team, Sklyer is in charge of maintaining and developing new features for AppLovin’s core web applications. “I was tasked with building the framework to reduce a lot of ‘code bloat’ for both the developer platform side and for the business side.”
Setting standards and creating concise, clean code provides more efficiency for the engineering teams. He further explained, “This summer I had the opportunity to build an internal frontend, state-management to streamline development operations. The team is always open to new ideas and proposals, and that’s why I think AppLovin is so special. We’re always looking for better ways to get things done.”
When asked about working from home, Skyler said he felt lucky. “My internship wasn’t canceled, and for that, I was grateful.”
Initially, he was concerned about how well he would get to know others on his team and in the company since everyone was at home. Through video calls, remote happy hours, and consistent communication, Sklyer felt welcomed and quickly acclimated to the team.
“In the beginning, the engineering team knew the interns would be shy. But they did a great job of allowing us to get to know each other.”
Skyler’s positive experience as an intern motivated him to apply for a full-time role, saying, “I can’t think of a better place to be. I made this decision very consciously.”
Big reasons that swayed his decisions include the fact that AppLovin is mission-focused. “People who are higher up in the organization are really in tune with how to deliver the best mobile game experience to our users. They are very in tune, and that really caught my eye.”
Skyler, who is currently working at AppLovin part-time, expressed a desire to go full-time after he wraps up his final year at UC Davis. His biggest piece of advice for his classmates and colleagues is to be concerned about your growth in your desired profession.
“I used to be overly concerned about resume prestige or which company pays the most. Now, I’m more concerned about how I will grow in the next 10 years as an engineer and surrounding myself with the right people and team.”
Are you interested in finding an internship with AppLovin or a full-time role? Email our team: [email protected] or see our open positions.
