Author: openjargon

• 21-year-old Nancy Qi has interned at Google for the last three summers.
• She said she found it important to get to know other Googlers and stay motivated through the summer.
• These are the four tips she recommends to Google interns hoping for a return offer.

Nancy Qi is a 21-year-old student at Columbia and she's spent her last three summers interning at Google.

This summer, she's working with Google Photos on the Android development side in New York City. She previously worked for Google's Core and Shopping team in Sunnyvale and Mountain View.

Qi recommends applying for a Google internship sooner rather than later, as she feels there can be an advantage to interviewing early in your college career. You might not get the highest levels of technical questions as a freshman when interviewing, for example.

But when it comes to getting a return offer, it's about everything that comes after you get the job, according to Qi. She's received two return offers so far and while there's no perfect formula, these are the four tips she recommends to current Google interns hoping to come back.

Get to know your host

Google interns are assigned a host or manager, and Qi said she considers them the "number one most important person in your internship."

At the end of each internship, Qi said hosts have to complete a review of how the intern performed. Some of the metrics can include improvement, communication with the team, and code quality.

Qi said she used to meet with her host once every couple of weeks during her first internship. Now, she said meets with her host basically every day, and it's a game changer. She speaks with her host about the progress she's made and any blocks she encountered.

When you need inspiration, visit a new office

Qi said one of the perks of working at Google is having access to all of its offices. Qi said during her first internship, she visited a different office once a week on her hybrid day and it helped give her a change of scenery and kept her inspired throughout the summer.

"I was walking through all the offices and I would be stunned, my jaw on the floor every day," Qi said. "And I felt so grateful to have that experience."

Qi said visiting different offices keeps her motivated in her internships. She said she "never really lost that feeling of 'Wow, I can't believe I landed this internship.'" She still does this tradition every Friday.

Socialize with your team

Google offers various events to its employees, such as team socials and lunches. Qi recommends taking full advantage of these.

Qi said she thinks these events offer your team a chance to see more of your character, and they may be "more inclined to support you along your career and want you to succeed."

Qi said many of the full-time staff have wisdom to share and she was able to get valuable technical and social advice from an employee she became close to last year.

Aside from networking and career development, Qi said the end-of-year reflection has a slot to add references from other Googlers who saw your technical ability or got to know you. She said she thinks being able to list people can be an important factor for conversion.

Spend time on your evaluation form

Google interns complete a self-reflection at the end of their internship, and Qi said she spends a lot of time on this.

At the end of every week, Qi writes down what she was stuck on and what she accomplished. When she filled out the reflection at the end of her last two summers with the company, she included screenshots and links to those weekly summaries.

She said she thinks it could have helped her receive her return offers because it showed how much effort she put into the internship. Even if she took longer on certain tasks, the reviewer was able to see her problem-solving process and how she approached each issue.

• Elon Musk has been flexing his power as a political influencer in recent years.
• Whoever wins the White House could drastically impact the billionaire's businesses.
• A political strategist told BI Musk needs to "be careful" what he wishes for in the next election.

In recent years, Elon Musk appears to have gone from lightly flirting with politics to having a full-blown love affair with growing his influence in Washington.

As the presidential election inches closer and the billionaire businessman continues teasing the idea of a Trump endorsement, it's becoming clear that Musk has a lot at stake depending on who next leads the country.

While Musk hasn't publicly endorsed any candidate, Business Insider previously reported he bonded with fellow billionaires over a shared distrust of Democrats and privately discussed how best to defeat them in this year's election.

According to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, Musk has also talked with the Trump campaign about taking on a potential advisory role if the former president returns to the White House.

A representative for the Trump campaign declined to comment on The Journal report but acknowledged that Silicon Valley elites like Musk have lined up to support Trump's reelection campaign.

"It has been widely reported and is demonstrated in a number of ways that many of the nation's most important leaders in technology and innovation are concerned with the damage done to their industry by Biden's failures to handle our economy and his moves to overburden innovators with government bureaucracy and unrelenting regulation," Brian Hughes, a senior advisor to the Trump campaign, told BI in a statement.

While Musk is increasingly flexing his political power, whoever wins the White House could drastically impact the billionaire and his businesses. Here's how things could shake out for Musk under a second Trump administration versus a Biden win.

Elon under Trump

Musk previously served on business advisory groups under the first Trump administration but pulled out of the role over disagreements with Trump's 2017 decision to leave the Paris climate accord.

If he were to take on a more formal role in a hypothetical second Trump term, Musk would be taking a gamble on what'd be best for his numerous multi-billion-dollar businesses, Bradley Tusk told BI.

Tusk is a venture capitalist and political strategist whose consulting firm advises startups in highly regulated industries. If he were advising Musk now, Tusk said he'd tell him: "You've got to really be careful what you wish for — for a bunch of reasons."

Under Trump, Tusk said tax cuts and deregulation could lead to a boom for Tesla, X, and SpaceX — especially given Trump's prior push to develop a Space Force. This could also come with a massive increase in political cache but possibly decreased stability in the markets, which Musk relies on to maintain his wealth and power.

"There is the potential to really have a tremendous amount of influence within Trump's administration," Stacey Lee, a law and ethics professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, told BI. "And when you look at the hallmarks of what Trump really respects — he's popular, he has a management style that is more singular in its voice — these are all of the things that Trump really admires, and so does Musk."

"In that regard," she said, "they may be rather odd kindred spirits."

Elon under Biden

In a world where Biden is elected again, Musk might not have the influence he appears to crave, but Tusk said he'd have something that markets and companies rely on for strong growth: stability.

"Musk just got a $55 billion pay package approved under Joe Biden as President — right now, his life's pretty good," Tusk said. "And now we have the choice of a president who genuinely believes in clean energy and someone who actively despises it. So, for those Tesla shareholders, it's a lot better for them if Joe Biden's president. And they just gave Elon $55 billion to do what's best for the company."

However, Lee told BI that a second Biden administration would also be prone to more regulation and pro-union policies, neither of which is very attractive to Musk as a businessman.

"Biden is very traditional in terms of his policies. He is committed to raising corporate taxes," Lee said. "Under Trump, we saw them go from 35% to 21%, and now Trump is saying, 'Hey, if I get in, I'll take it down to 20.' I think that would be music to Musk's ears.'"

A second Trump term could backfire for Musk

"My initial instinct — I think everybody's — would be like, 'Oh, of course, it'd better for Musk under Trump.' But I think ultimately, it'd be much worse," Tusk said.

While Musk might be seduced by the allure of amassing even more power, Tusk said it's a double-edged sword with Trump.

Tusk said Biden doesn't think of Elon as a rival — he probably doesn't think about him at all. But with Trump, as has happened with so many of his one-time allies, his affection for Musk could suddenly flip, making the Tesla CEO a target for his ire.

"On the Trump side, Musk needs to be careful and not go headlong into this. As seductive as it might seem, it really ends badly for basically everybody," Tusk said. "And all the things that he values, the things that sort of makes him happy — the attention and relevance — are the same things that make Trump happy."

"And the one guy you can't win a head-to-head war with is the President of the United States," he added.

Musk and Biden campaign representatives did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• Karl Stanley rode inside OceanGate's Titan submersible in April 2019.
• He raised concerns to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush over the ship's hull shortly after that trip.
• He only learned the true extent of the sub's problems a year after Titan's fatal implosion.

An early passenger on OceanGate's Titan submersible didn't realize how close he was to experiencing the "catastrophic" failure that sealed the vessel's fate in 2023 until a year after the incident.

In April 2019, Karl Stanley, a fellow submersible expert, joined his peer, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, near the Bahamas to take a dive in an early iteration of the Titan vessel.

Stanley, Rush, and two other passengers successfully plunged more than 12,000 feet — a depth that closes in on the Titanic's wreckage, which sits at the bottom of the Atlantic at about 12,500 feet.

But Stanley left with concerns.

In emails shared with Business Insider, Stanley warned Rush about a possible defect in the hull after hearing a cracking sound.

"I think that hull has a defect near that flange, that will only get worse," Stanley wrote to Rush in May 2019. "The only question in my mind is will it fail catastrophically or not."

Stanley urged Rush to take precautions and conduct more tests on the vessel before taking on passengers. But those warnings were largely ignored.

An investigative report published by Wired on June 11 — nearly a year after the fateful Titan expedition — revealed how OceanGate CEO Rush was adamant about cutting costs to build his ship and repeatedly downplayed warnings from his colleagues.

Stanley told BI in a recent interview that he didn't know the extent of the hull's problem — and just how close he was to danger during his dive with Rush — until he read the Wired piece.

Emails between the OceanGate CEO and Stanley shared with BI last year showed Rush dismissing Stanley's concern with the Titan's hull. The CEO wrote at the time that "one experiential data point is not sufficient to determine the integrity of the hull."

However, according to the Wired report, Rush also became concerned about "loud noises the hull was making at depth" around the time of the expedition with Stanley.

According to the report, the issues with the vessel weren't fully confronted until two months after Stanley's dive and just three weeks before the Titan was going to make a trip to the Titanic.

An inspection revealed a crack in the Titan's hull that an unnamed OceanGate pilot described to Rush as "pretty serious," Wired reported.

An internal report viewed by Wired later showed at least an 11-square-foot area where the layers of the carbon fiber hull had separated. According to Wired, this defect forced Rush to delay the trip to the Titanic and build another Titan submersible.

'The more evidence that comes to light, the more my position is reinforced'

Stanley told BI that he was shocked to read the Wired's report revealing more information about his 2019 dive with Rush.

"The doomsday clock got a little bit closer to midnight," Stanley said. "I knew that the hull was not doing great, but the [report on the] visible damage blew my mind."

Stanley said, as more information comes out about the Titan incident, he's frustrated with the people close to Rush, who he felt could've done more to stop the CEO from succumbing to his own ambitions.

"The more evidence that comes to light, the more my position is reinforced," he said. "Stockton had to know on some level how this would end."

On June 18, 2023, a little over four years after Stanley's trip, Rush and four other passengers, who each paid up to $250,000 for a seat inside the Titan, dove to the historical wreckage.

Less than two hours into the dive, the Titan lost communications with its mothership at the surface, sparking a massive international search and rescue effort.

Five days later, US Coast Guard officials announced that the Titan imploded due to a "catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber." The five passengers, including Rush, were instantly killed.

A federal investigation into the implosion continues to this day.

A venture driven by ego

A spokesperson for OceanGate, which ceased all operations shortly after the Titan catastrophe, could not be reached for comment.

Guillermo Söhnlein, the OceanGate co-founder who left the company in 2013, maintained some communication with Rush but told BI in an interview that he can't say if he would've told the CEO to do anything differently because he wasn't always aware of what was happening at the company after his departure.

While he agreed that Rush's Titan project was driven by ego, Söhnlein said that the trait comes with any ambitious innovator, especially in the field of exploration.

"Karl built two of his subs in a garage," Söhnlein, who recently spoke with Stanley, said. "Talk about the manifestation of your ego. He's one of the most experienced sub pilots in the world now."

Stanley continues to operate his submersible for tourists in Honduras. He told BI that last year was his 25th year in business.

"I just surfaced from a 4-hour dive," Stanley wrote to BI on Thursday. "So, I guess things are going well."

• Americans are annoyed about soaring fast-food prices.
• Some diners are turning to independent restaurants, casual dining chains, and home cooking instead.
• Some say they'd rather pay a few extra dollars to have a sit-down meal with their family at Chili's or Applebee's.

As fast-food prices continue to soar, Americans are looking for ways to get more bang for their buck.

Some say they're switching to local Latin restaurants and casual dining chains.

Others are just buying more groceries and cooking at home instead.

Like fast-food prices, grocery prices soared during the pandemic. But grocery prices are now largely back to pre-pandemic levels, while inflation at limited-service restaurants still remains elevated.

And some consumers see the benefit of cooking healthier meals at home.

Chad Frye, a cartoonist and illustrator in California, said that he used to be a "fast-food junkie," eating it around four or five times a week, but that he has cut this down to about twice.

"I do a lot more cooking at home now," Frye said. "It's much more economical."

Thomas Valentine, a 32-year-old from Arizona, said he generally buys prepackaged meals from grocery stores.

"The most cooking I'll do is throw some chicken thighs in the oven and make some instant potatoes or some ramen," he said.

For Jordan Sanchez, a 27-year-old loader for a delivery company who lives in California, eggs and chicken tenders are the go-tos. He said he's started cooking more, both for his health and because of the rising costs of fast food.

Lawrence Milford's family, meanwhile, is recreating a fast-food favorite at home.

To mimic the taste of dining out, the 48-year-old financial planner from Florida, who has two kids, said his wife sometimes cooks McDonald's-like burgers "to make the kids happy."

Grocery stores are fast-food chains' biggest rivals

Executives are spotting the shift toward home cooking, too.

"Many customers are being more exacting about where and how they choose to spend their money," Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan told investors at the company's last earnings call, adding that some customers had been saving money by eating more at home.

McDonald's has acknowledged this, too.

It all comes down to the "delta" — or the gap — between grocery and restaurant inflation, Danilo Gargiulo, a restaurant analyst at Bernstein, previously told BI.

After all, groceries, not rival restaurants, are the biggest competitors to fast-food chains because people are trying to decide whether to eat at home or get fast food, he said. When fast-food prices rise at a faster rate than grocery prices, consumers notice.

Some grocery stores are seeing the effects of customers' changing habits. Walmart US CEO John Furner said at an Oppenheimer conference this week that shoppers had started buying more home-cooking ingredients, such as fresh produce, proteins, and dairy.

R.J. Hottovy, head of analytical research at Placer.ai — an analytics company that tracks footfall — told BI that there had been a shift in traffic away from fast-food chains toward full-service restaurants and discount grocery stores in recent weeks. He attributed this to the price increases at fast-food chains.

Diners are turning to Chili's, Applebee's, and Mexican restaurants

As well as cooking more, people are changing where they dine to save money.

Some consumers told BI they're opting for casual-dining chains, independent restaurants, and their neighborhood Mexican and Latin eateries, meaning they can get better-quality food and enjoy a sit-down meal with their families.

"You can get something that tastes really good for almost the same price at a sit-down," Frye said.

Family-friendly casual-dining chains like Applebee's and Chili's typically have broad menus and offer some entrées for under $15. For many diners, it's about the value proposition.

When Martin Jennings, a 51-year-old truck driver from Florida, and his wife dine out with their kids, they try to visit sit-down restaurants like Chili's or TGI Fridays "and have better quality food than [getting] a hamburger through the drive-thru."

"And it's only a few dollars more. Honestly, it seems lately the only thing we pay extra for is a tip," Jennings said.

For similar reasons, some diners say they're heading to independent restaurants, too.

Brooks Ferrante, a 32-year-old construction worker in Florida, said he'd largely ditched McDonald's and Wendy's for fast-casual chains like Chipotle and local restaurants selling Cuban and Puerto Rican food. He typically spends $10 or $11 on a meal, including tips.

Ben Heyworth, an account executive in Florida, has made a similar change to his dining habits.

He told BI that some Mexican restaurants near where he live sold better-quality food than fast-food chains and charge between $10 and $15 for an entrée and drink.

"I feel like I'm getting more value," he said. "You can sit down, it's got a good atmosphere, better service, better quality food, better options."

• Tesla investors voted on Thursday to approve Elon Musk's multibillion-dollar pay package.
• However, some institutional shareholders told BI that Musk's award was a mistake.
• One investor questioned if Musk is the right person to continue leading Tesla.

Some institutional Tesla shareholders told Business Insider that approving Elon Musk's record-shattering pay package was a mistake and that they have lingering concerns about Musk's ability to lead the company.

Investors representing about 72% of the company's shares voted on Thursday to green-light Musk's $55 billion pay package, which was struck down by a Delaware court in January. The vote doesn't immediately reinstate Musk's award, but it does provide Tesla lawyers with some ammunition when they make their case again in Delaware.

Reuters reported that Vanguard, the largest institutional shareholder with a 7% stake in Tesla, voted to approve the pay package.

Yet despite the majority approval of Musk's pay package, institutional shareholders who spoke to Business Insider were skeptical that the $55 billion stock option is commensurate with his performance and remained concerned about the company's leaders, including Musk.

"Once again it has been solidified that Tesla is a great company with not so great governance," Anders Schelde, chief information officer of AkademikerPension, a Danish pension fund that invests in Tesla, told BI in an email. "We remain invested, but governance is red flag, and I seriously wonder if Tesla would be a better company with or without Mr. Musk, and I think many investors have the same doubts."

AkademikerPension is one of eight institutional Tesla shareholders that cosigned a letter in May advising other investors to vote against both Musk's pay package and the reelection of James Murdoch and Musk's brother, Kimbal Musk, to seats on Tesla's board. Investors voted to retain both men on the board.

It's unclear how many Tesla shares AkademikerPension owned as of June 14.

Shareholders call for board oversight

During Thursday's shareholder meeting, Musk challenged concerns from institutional shareholders, though he did not name specific investors.

"Talking to a lot of the sort of big institutional investors … they're often in like New York, and they don't drive cars," Musk said at the meeting. "So I'll be like, 'Um, have you tried self-driving? You know, the version 12.3?' And they're like, 'Uh no.' OK, well, you should try it. That would be a good thing to do."

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who also cosigned the May letter, told BI in an email that approving the pay package was a "mistake," but that the company should move forward with clear plans to steady growth and ensure Musk is focused on that goal.

"We expect genuine board oversight and a CEO deeply committed to Tesla's growth rather than other ventures," Lander said in a statement. "The Board should ensure its approval is required for any attempts to leverage Tesla's resources for Musk's other ventures, aligning shareholder interests with company goals."

Lander added that the the board should hire a "compensation consultation" to renegotiate an incentive plan for Musk that won't be dilutive to shareholders instead of defending the pay package in court.

Lander's spokesperson told BI that as of April 30, the New York City Retirement System owned more than 3.4 million shares of Tesla stock.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPERs, which, according to the pension fund, owns about 9.2 million Tesla shares, has also been vocal about striking down Musk's pay package.

A CalPERS spokesperson declined to comment but pointed to a statement released a day before the Thursday shareholder vote, which stated that Musk is "entitled to be well compensated for his work," but the current award package is excessive and "highly dilutive to shareholders."

"This exorbitant compensation package is at odds with CalPERS' longstanding views on executive pay," CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost said in the statement. "The compensation is excessive when compared to executives at peer companies, highly dilutive to shareholders, and isn't tied to the long-term profitability of Tesla."

Musk and a spokesperson for Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.