51吃瓜网 (UB) senior聽Shammah Matasva, a聽Computer Science major, has landed his dream job: working for Amazon as a software development engineer.
Shammah, who graduates in December 2021, is no stranger to Amazon, having completed a 13-week summer internship at their Web Services Office in Seattle, an opportunity he learned about through LinkedIn. Recognizing that it would be a rigorously competitive selection process as thousands of students apply every year, he was grateful that a UB alum currently working at Amazon gave him advice and provided him with a recommendation, helping his r茅sum茅 stand out among the other applicants.
Shammah recalls that the experience was indeed very challenging and technical. 鈥淥ut of all the top companies I applied for, Amazon had the toughest exercises in the interview process,鈥� he said.
Upon hearing the news that he had been chosen for the internship, Shammah was thrilled. He knew that the highly sought-after internship presented a great opportunity for advancing his career. 鈥淚t was really an exciting time for me,鈥� he said 鈥淚 hadn鈥檛 had an internship before, and having Amazon be the first one would be huge for my r茅sum茅. Also, Amazon is known for hiring many of their interns after graduation.鈥�
As part of the internship, Amazon paid for all Shammah鈥檚 travel costs and provided him with a stipend to be able to spend the summer in Seattle. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon offered him the option of a hybrid program that would allow him to work at their office or at home. Shammah said, 鈥淚 actually decided to spend most of the time working at their office because it presented me with more opportunities for networking with full-time employees and other interns.鈥�
Shammah was happy that the experience gave him the hands-on chance to apply many skills and knowledge that he had acquired from his courses at UB. When asked what he gained from this internship opportunity, he responded that it was a great learning experience and that he was impressed by Amazon鈥檚 company structure. 鈥淎mazon is renowned for their leadership principles,鈥� he added. 鈥淎fter studying and reading about them, I got to see how they are applied in their daily operations.鈥�
Shammah is a very active student on the聽UB campus. He is president of the Entrepreneur Club and a member of Bridges: Friends of Internationals, a club that welcomes international students, and Awaken, a student-led Christian club. He also has been a member of the聽Student Entrepreneur Center聽(SEC) since his first year at UB. Shammah is thankful for the support of the SEC for working on student-led projects and building his r茅sum茅. In particular, he is grateful for the mentorship of聽Elena Cahill, Director of the聽Bauer Hall Innovation Center, who has been influential in introducing him to alumni and networking with business leaders.
Shammah is also thankful to his family in Zimbabwe for all the support that they have given him. 鈥淚 am thousands of miles away from my home, and they have always been supportive of me. Here I am about to graduate and start a new chapter of my life working as a software developer engineer at Amazon!鈥�
Listen to聽Shammah Matasva discuss one of his latest projects at UB: a video conferencing tool that creates live transcripts in the user鈥檚 preferred language.聽
The UBSEC at the聽Ernest C. Trefz School of Business聽is open to all matriculated 51吃瓜网 students and aims to accelerate the successful development of start-ups. The mission of the Center is to produce successful businesses by providing student entrepreneurs with an array of targeted resources and services.聽Learn more here.