How Intern Projects Shape Careers

When you ask Joey about his internship experience, he says it was far from typical. He successfully completed two high-impact projects, collaborated with leaders on our Data Engineering team, and challenged himself to improve his skills working with a new software, Python. 

All that experience in one summer? Joey says it’s all he could have asked for to jump-start his career. He’s now an all-star Senior Data Science Engineer. 

“Interns get the chance to work on projects that are going to be incredibly impactful, incredibly long-standing, and are going to drive value for coming weeks, months, years, even,” Joey said. “We're hiring someone who we think can be given a fairly complicated, dynamic problem, break it down, understand it, ask lots of questions, and in the end, kind of propose a solution and run with it.” 

In the Summer of 2021, Joey started as an Analytics intern. His first project was supporting the VIP team, helping deliver personalized experiences to high-value players. During one meeting, the team was tasked with migrating some database providers, and they needed someone who knew how to use Python. Joey was the one to physically raise his hand to volunteer to work closely with our Data Engineering team. He had some experience with the software and was empowered to keep improving his skills. 

“The room fell quiet, and me—the little intern—was like, I know some Python…I can figure this out,” Joey recalled. With that growth mindset, Joey continued to excel.  

One of Joey’s more complex projects involved developing a model to rank content cards on the DraftKings’ Sportsbook homepage. Initially, the team’s model struggled to align with front-end requirements, so Joey, his tech lead, and several senior engineers joined forces for a collaborative brainstorming session. Joey describes this experience as both challenging and exhilarating. 

“As soon as the opportunity to collaborate is there, everyone’s ready to jump in,” he says, emphasizing the balance between individual contribution and team-based problem-solving that defines his work. 

After the summer was over, he realized working on our Data Engineering team was more aligned with his career goals. He worked with his recruiter and landed a full-time position and has only moved up from there. 

Joey’s advice for people looking to be an intern here at DraftKings? Be curious and open to collaboration. The culture encourages people to connect, share knowledge, and constantly learn from one another. 

Would you be interested in joining our team? Learn more on our Early Careers page.