What My Roblox Intern Application Teaches About Advertising in Tech

^{A column about workplace change.}

This project—I’m linking it below—helped me pass to the intermediate interview stages of an internship at Roblox. Although this will undoubtedly be useful to some of you who wish to get inside the minds of tech recruiters, specifically ones for positions unrelated to CSCI or data analytics (those technical recruiters are a peculiar breed best left undisturbed), the document provides a practical level of knowledge about how online advertising is being adapted for the metaverse and new VR and Web3 technologies and exemplifies how the world’s biggest companies (Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) are vying to turn bleeding-edge metaverse tech into revenue in the short term.

Looking back at the interview process, my point of failure was distinct. I began one of my interviews with a paragraph introduction about my experience at the company. I learned about the company in an AI club with Harvard classmates, cold-call messaged the VP of the department on LinkedIn asking for an internship to be made for the topic I was interested in, etc. etc. I thought this information was useful to communicate at the time, but during a 30-minute session, what they only really cared about was a series of short, rapid-fire questions to assess communication skills and company culture.

Prompt given by Roblox: Identify 2-3 top brands in the entertainment, fashion, beauty and/or sports verticals that have a core demo of 13-24, are innovative and forward thinking, and that you feel our audience would love to engage with. Research what they are doing in the gaming industry and/or on social platforms and put together a proposal presenting why you would recommend we partner with them. Include ideas on how they can enter the metaverse in an authentic way.