This week is my first week @ Yelp, and I ❤ed it!

[FIREWORKS !!!]

[SCREAMING !!!]

It was my first time being here in the US. I am here for internship @ Yelp as a Software Engineer Intern for six months.

I was well-guided and firmly welcomed during the first week. The overall on-boarding process was quite mature.

After exploring the Yelp HQ building with Krista — our Intern Program Manager and the New Engineer Orientation, I was introduced to my team, and also my mentor Andrew.

My hands got dirty and busy at the very first day. I mean, really dirty. I even started writing python code on the first day. Besides that, Engineering Wiki is here to help me to go through the processes.

Although some of the engineering processes are heavy, many automations are here to save your time. For example, there are many well-defined git hooks. My favourite part is marley — a bot build upon HUBOT on Yelp’s IRC channel. Marley knows everythings — traffic split, who is pushing code, etc. And he/she also does many funny things like sending your LOVE to someone else.

Yelp seems like data-driven now, which I found really interesting. Data always makes me think, although I am not a Data Science expert.

In a word, Yelp has a fantastic engineering culture. You are always welcomed to bring up your new ideas and just make it happen with your team. Which is highly appreciated.

Tech stuff aside, Yelp HQ is a fantastic place for working. I actually would like to take it as living and playing funny stuff instead of working. They have in-house cafe which makes great cafe, and also a pingpong table here for people to play with. You get on-demand beverages and snacks on each floor, which is a privilege I am using carefully (oh, calories again!). I hope I can achieve a great work-life balance here

My favorite part is the social gene of this company. @ Yelp, People chat and exchange ideas at lunch, talking about many interesting things. To be honest, I just didn’t get many things they were talking about at the beginning, but I think I am starting to catch up. And even though, I can still get many great ideas from other, even it was just five days!

Hopefully everything will go pretty well and enjoyable in the coming weeks. Great thanks to my team and all my friends here @ Yelp.