unpaid internships – Fiona Li interned across a dozen roles—many unpaid—to break into big tech and land a leadership position in AI.
Fiona Li’s resume looks like it belongs to someone much farther along—yet she built it early, one internship at a time.
Her story. shared in an as-told-to conversation. starts with a decision many students never have the luxury to make: she wanted to keep studying without asking her single mother to carry more financial weight.. Financial aid helped, but not enough to erase the pressure of rent.. So she treated her career like something that needed to be “scaled,” not just learned in classrooms.
That meant hunting for internships even when the offers weren’t glamorous.. Li was a communications major at UC Davis. and she says she felt the market didn’t always view that as a strong credential compared with more technical backgrounds.. To stand out, she focused on experience.. While in university. she completed eight paid internships and two unpaid ones—an approach she framed as both learning and proof.
Internships became her credential when her major wasn’t “enough”
Li’s early problem wasn’t motivation; it was visibility.. She came from a university that she describes as a “non-target” school for some big-company hiring—so the usual pipeline of brand-name internships wasn’t simply waiting for her.. In her freshman year. she had limited experience. so she leaned on what she could control: applying widely and translating everyday skills into something recruiters could recognize.
She worked in places that shaped her communication and teaching instincts—boba shop work. piano lessons. dance instruction—and used those experiences as material for applications.. She also took an internship at an e-commerce store where she learned Facebook ads and digital marketing.. That knowledge then became a bridge to other unpaid roles.
There was a practical trick in her approach, too.. Even when her résumé included internships that were unpaid. she says companies didn’t necessarily know which were paid and which were unpaid.. That helped her land her first paid role at DocuSign in 2021. and from there the momentum accelerated: Intel. then Nvidia. and more.
The trade-off: more experience versus grades
As her internship list expanded, Li’s grades suffered.. She cites a 3.1 GPA and frames it as a tough trade-off: time spent building her résumé didn’t leave as much room for academic performance.. She considered whether she should pivot toward an MBA or a master’s degree—paths where grades can carry more weight—but she chose career building instead. saying she doesn’t regret it.
Her reasoning reflects a broader tension in early career planning.. Many students treat internships as résumé decoration.. Li treated them as a substitute for certainty: an ability to demonstrate what she could do. rather than what her major implied.. The underlying message is less about “collecting internships” and more about collecting evidence—projects, responsibilities, and outcomes.
Why she eventually stopped relying on unpaid work
Li describes a threshold moment that many early-career workers eventually reach: unpaid internships are valuable only until learning starts to plateau.. After enough time doing free work, she says you stop gaining skills and start doing tasks.. At that point, she believes it becomes harder to justify continuing without compensation.
Still, she doesn’t reject unpaid opportunities entirely.. If an internship offers strong growth—especially when someone is truly early and has less experience—she argues it can function as a stepping stone.. For her. the key variable wasn’t the label “unpaid” or “paid. ” but the opportunity to keep learning and making progress.
She also pushed back on a common myth: that the number of internships matters most. In her view, what counts is what you produced during those roles—what you learned, what you delivered, and how you developed relationships with managers.
Big tech didn’t arrive on schedule—she hunted it down
The leap to Nvidia didn’t come quickly.. Li says she applied 13 times before landing an internship there.. Her first interview. she recalls. was when she was still a freshman with mostly unpaid internships. and her project wasn’t impactful enough.. Rejection could have ended the story, but it didn’t.. A manager passed her résumé to another team, and that connection turned into an offer.
That sequence matters because it reveals how hiring often works in practice. Decisions aren’t always linear. A rejection from one pathway can still create a second chance—if someone internally sees potential and routes it elsewhere.
Li also addressed the panic cycle students often fall into later in college, when they realize opportunities didn’t appear by themselves. She argues that work and results don’t arrive on schedule, and students must actively pursue them—through cold emails, networking, and persistent outreach.
For her. internships were usually short—often three to six months—so switching roles wasn’t just a strategy; it was baked into the calendar.. She sought variety and breadth rather than trying to stay put.. She didn’t frame the goal as getting a return offer during college; instead. she aimed to learn. create impact. and keep doors open for later.
Lessons for today’s job market: strategy beats luck
Li’s experience comes with an uncomfortable truth: she didn’t have the “wait until junior year” advantage that some students can rely on.. Her single-parent household made delay expensive, and the visibility gap of a non-target school made early traction even more valuable.. That combination shaped a career strategy that looks unusually aggressive—but it was also deeply intentional.
From an economic perspective, her path underscores how early labor markets reward signal over pedigree.. When a student’s formal credentials may not immediately convince employers, internships become a form of proof.. But that proof has to be active.. The real prize isn’t the internship title; it’s the ability to point to work—skills. projects. and outcomes—that transfer across employers.
Her story also highlights the modern reality that startups and large companies are both part of a learning ecosystem.. Li suggests aiming for a mix, aiming for four to five meaningful experiences during college so options remain open.. And she adds a practical portfolio idea: complete at least one internship each summer and leave with tangible work. not just time spent.
In the end. Li’s career arc reads less like a straight line and more like a series of calculated decisions under constraints—financial pressure. competitive hiring. and the need to convert learning into momentum.. For students trying to break into AI and tech. the message is clear: don’t wait for permission to start. but do choose experiences that keep you growing.