Meta internship offers chance to 'build things people actually use'
Graduate student Aashna Arun spent the summer as a production engineering intern for the social media company.
Aashna Arun outside her internship at Meta in Menlo Park, Ca. Photo courtesy of Aashna Arun.
When Aashna Arun thinks about computer science, she sees an “ocean of possibilities.”
“There are so many niches beyond just software development,” said Arun, who is pursuing a master's degree in computer science at the Virginia Tech Institute for Advanced Computing and is a graduate of the Amrita School of Engineering in Bangalore, India. “You can dive anywhere into this field and find something new.”
When Arun was searching for summer opportunities, she hoped for a challenge – and Meta’s internship delivered. She was hired as a production engineering intern on the machine learning application scheduler team at the company’s Menlo Park, California, campus. She develops infrastructure tools that support artificial intelligence (AI).
Arun is discovering just how fast paced the field of production engineering can be. She submitted code to production in her first few weeks at Meta, and it was implemented. “Everything happens fast. You get feedback, you iterate, and you build things people actually use,” she said. “That’s the most exciting part.”
This summer, she worked on a project that helped optimize the company’s infrastructure. Her team is building tools to validate data signals that feed into large-scale capacity management for AI workloads. The goal is to help Meta understand how to scale AI infrastructure more intelligently, she said.
Beyond the technical experience, Arun appreciates being able to collaborate with Meta employees. “The people here are incredibly supportive,” she said. “They treat interns like full team members. There’s space to learn, experiment, and contribute meaningfully.”
Aashna Arun
Prior to Meta, Arun interned in DevOps, networking, and machine learning. She credits her coursework with providing her the confidence and knowledge to explore new opportunities.
“I didn’t want to lock myself into a specialization,” she said. “Virginia Tech is giving me space to experiment, work with amazing instructors, and now gain direct experience in industry.”
With graduation approaching in May, Arun is still exploring what’s next, but she’s focused on continuing to grow and make an impact in a limitless field. “I’ve always dreamed of building something people around the world use. Now I’m actually doing that.”
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