Wrapping up my internship at Google has given me a lot to think about. It was a summer filled with challenges, wins, and lessons that I know will stick with me for years. Looking back, a few things stand out the most: 1. Big Tech’s greatest unfair advantage is having no overhead Trying to beat a company like Google on features or technical depth alone is almost impossible. The infrastructure is too vast, the talent density is too high, and the resources are essentially limitless. Startups cannot outmuscle that. What they can do is move faster and distribute better. Speed and reach are the real moats. I saw this play out firsthand this summer, and it completely reframed how I think about competing as a builder. 2. School does not teach most of what you use in Big Tech, and that is okay The tools, coding patterns, and infrastructure I used every day were totally different from what I had learned in class. But school quietly trains you in the things that matter even more: resilience, curiosity, people skills, and the ability to grind through hard problems. The people who say you do not need school to succeed are not entirely wrong, but they are missing the full picture. Education might not give you the map, but it sharpens the mindset. 3. Problem-solving is the way to stand out You may not be the best engineer on your team, and you do not need to be. What actually sets you apart is how quickly you can understand problems, ask the right questions, and push forward confidently even when the path is unclear. Every day brought a dozen unexpected challenges, and the people who stood out were the ones who did not wait for direction. They just figured it out. That ability is the real superpower. And maybe the biggest lesson of all: you can balance fun and growth at the same time. I shipped two major projects at Google, took seven trips, became a LinkedIn poster, worked out for D1 athletics, went out every weekend, met incredible people, built four personal projects, and even learned how to case, which helped me interview and land my offer for this upcoming summer. It was a full, chaotic, unforgettable summer, and I would not trade it for anything.