An initiative of CEO Leadership Alliance Orange County (CLAOC)
An initiative of CEO Leadership Alliance Orange County (CLAOC)
BS Computer Science graduate, Cal State Fullerton
When Diamond Ly was a senior at La Quinta High School, she was interested in being a graphic designer. Then she took an AP course on computer science principles and discovered the power of building something out of just a few lines of code. Once she realized computer programming had its own flavor of creativity, she was hooked.
As Diamond neared graduation from Cal State Fullerton with a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science, she was on the hunt for an internship or full-time position in Orange County. She was proud to land a spot in a new summer internship co-created by CLAOC and Evolus.
Diamond worked a hybrid schedule in the Evolus Newport Beach office alongside five other summer interns. She had the opportunity to step onto an engineering team, mentored and guided by Senior Software Engineer Bradley Marques.
“It was rewarding to work with Diamond,” says Bradley. “Over the course of the internship program, I saw her confidence increase not only in her programming ability but also in her professional communication. Her work at Evolus has made a substantial impact in the engineering organization resulting in better deployment outcomes. I am proud to be her mentor and excited to see where she goes in her career.”
Diamond worked on a project to create a web application that would track the latest versions of each service or application being used across Evolus. This application made it more efficient for the developers and QA team to monitor the progress of current and upcoming projects. Along with hands-on quality assurance and engineering experience, she had the chance to connect with the other interns working across the organization and learn about their projects.
Working closely with the Evolus team – sharing meals, office space, and work projects – she also gained an appreciation of how important organizational culture is to a great job experience.
Diamond came away from her internship at Evolus with new knowledge and skills:
Diamond looks forward to working as a software engineer in healthcare or medtech with a focus on increasing access to care. She encourages students having trouble finding an internship to keep trying.
“Rejection is scary, but internships are a really great way to build skills and gain professional experience. Once you’re there, be sure to speak up and ask questions so you learn everything you can.”
