Adding colors to Buttons.
Making images look more polished.
Helping Notion Search deliver faster, better results.
Gen Z is entering the workforce just as hybrid work and AI change the nature of work itself. It's a fraught moment to move from a college campus to a corporate one, but a solid internship can ease the pain.
Our 12-week engineering internship puts aspiring employees on Notion teams and assigns them complex challenges — including those listed up top — that matter to our users. We held our first program last year and recently completed a second. Here’s a look at Notion’s 10-member Winter ‘24 cohort — who they are, what projects they tackled, and a few lessons they learned along the way.
Buckling down: what I spent my time doing
Each intern is placed with an engineering, product, or design team in our San Francisco or New York office, assigned a manager and a mentor, and given ownership of a project that we expect to push live by the end of their stint.
“On my fourth day at Notion I shipped Button Block Colors. Seeing how the community reacted — both internally and external to Notion — taught me how much the little things matter in building a smooth customer experience that get people to really love your product. ”
Isabelle
Georgia Tech University Project Management Intern
“My project focused on improving the feel and finish of images across Notion, including long-awaited bug fixes 🎷🐛, polish ✨🖼️, and adding highly requested features like editing images within Notion ✂️. ”
Hao
University of Washington Docs & Wiki Intern
“For a visually impaired user, having images described out loud can mean the difference between a page that works for you and one that doesn’t. I implemented a highly requested accessibility feature that lets users add this kind of alt text to image blocks. I like looking back and thinking about how the work I just did will change the Notion experience for so many people. ”
Henry
UC Berkeley Web Infrastructure Intern
Listening in: what I learned from my teammates
What does feedback mean at Notion?
For an engineering intern, it means lots of things: constant brainstorming with teammates and colleagues, daily checkins with your mentor, and mid-point and final performance reviews from your manager. In the final week of your internship, it means standing up at a company meeting and demoing what you’ve built, sharing what you learned, and hearing what your colleagues think.
Be kind and direct is a core Notion value. It basically means don’t be a jerk, but don’t hold back either. We’re all here to grow, and that doesn’t always have to be easy.
“The first week of my internship, the Search team had an hacking offsite with the AI team. We ended up in a meeting room drawing out the systems for how some things worked. It was like college, in the best way!”
Adanna
MIT Search Intern
“A memorable experience during my internship involved a meeting with Akshay (cofounder, CPO), Fuzzy (CTO), and Rama (CFO) to determine the direction we would follow for my product. Presenting to and hearing from half of the executive team in a meeting about my intern project was a unique experience that I doubt I could find anywhere else. ”
Sebastian
University of Toronto Monetization Intern
“Since everyone uses Notion internally, the features you work on as an intern affect everyone at the company, so you need to be prepared to hear strong opinions. But you learn quickly that people have lots of worthwhile insights to offer. ”
Emma
UC Berkeley Developer Infrastructure Intern
“Not being afraid to ask questions is a core value this company really believes in. There’s even an internal Slack channel called #no-dumb-questions — you just ask whatever you need to know, then sit back and watch as Notinos stop in to fill in the answers. ”
Alex
University of Pennsylvania Enterprise Team Intern
Trying it out: my own favorite Notion feature
Becoming a Notino starts with being an avid, even obsessive Notion user — a quality that describes most of the Class of Winter ‘24. As a parting question, we asked this year’s interns to share their favorite feature and how they use it.
“I recently cataloged my entire wardrobe into a Notion database to make picking out outfits easier.”
Hao
University of Washington Docs & Wiki Intern
“One of my favorite Notion features was developed by a teammate who didn’t like always going first for standup meetings — so they built a fun Easter egg that allowed lists to be in randomized order 🎲. ”
Grace
Carnegie Mellon University Serving Infrastructure Intern
“Notion AI Q&A: smart assistant that can help you with various tasks across Notion. It was also so fun to work on a project for my favorite feature :) ”
Constance
Stanford University Mobile Team Intern
“@-remind is a life saver. ”
Ishani
University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign Workspaces Intern
Thank you, Class of ‘24. Now, about 2025…
All of this just confirms that the next generation of builders has the craft we’re seeking. We offer a heartfelt thank you to our Winter ‘24 interns — you’ve infused our products and culture with energy and new ideas, and left us all the better for it.
And hey — all you students out there who are reading this? Check our RippleMatch page in late July for our next round of Winter and Summer internship opportunities. Hope to see you in our Class of ‘25!
