HKN Underground Guide to VI-A
AT&T Research Labs

Location: Florham Park, NJ
Number of Respondents: 2

          AT&T Research Labs arranges for interns to live in nearby college dormitories for the first 10 weeks of the summer, but the company does not subsidize rent. A free shuttle is provided for the 15-minute commute to work, although one student chose to bike. One student noted that his/her room in the dorm was a single with a decent Internet connection but poor kitchen facilities. For the last 2 weeks of the summer, students must find their own living arrangments outside of the dorm.

          There were many other students working at the company, and there was a good amount of student interaction through lunches, sports, and movies. The company sponsored a few events, including picnics and weekend trips. One student noted that New York City is only one hour away by train.

          The dress was very casual, the working environment was very laid back, and the hours were very flexible. While one respondent found his coworkers and available equipment to be outstanding, the other rated these as average. Both students worked in offices, although one was shared and the other was private.

          Both students worked in applied research on projects that were assigned before arrival. The projects involved research on segmenting news data into coherent stories, and programming/analysis with some graph theory. While one student was extremely happy with the project, the other was somewhat unhappy. The students were not encouraged to try out different groups, and it was somewhat difficult to switch between groups.

          AT&T does not provide health or dental insurance, but it does cover moving costs and 5th year, 1st term tuition. Salary was average.

          The students' impressions of their company varied. While one was extremely impressed and would return after graduation, the other was less so and would not choose AT&T again.

"The project is pretty challenging. I am certainly qualified for the work."
"AT&T is awesome! The researchers here are incredible."
Statistics:
Difficulty in finding housing: 4.0/5
Housing expense: $100/wk
Travel expense: $20
Freedom in defining one's project: 1.5/5
Ease of switching groups between years: 2.0/5
Encouragement to try out different groups: 2.0/5
Satisfaction with current work assignment: 3.5/5
Amount of interaction between students: 4.0/5
Flexibility of hours: 4.5/5
Amount saved during the summer: $3500
Overall impression of the company: 4.0/5

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