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A Refined Plan

Last updated: 16/01/2026 Genre: Life Planning

After a month of holiday giving me clear thoughts, I've come up with a more refined plan for my future, and this is how it will unfold:

Overview

Oxford Engineering takes 4 years to complete, and I'm currently only a third of the way through my second year. Most big corporations only offer internships to penultimate year students, which would be second year students for Bachelors Degrees. Unfortunately, this means third year students for Integrated Masters, so even if I were to apply this summer, I wouldn't be eligible. Sure, some of them may look for extremely talented ~~antepenultimate~~ (actually is a word wtf) students, but you need a really good CV to begin with, and I don't think mine is quite there yet. So it'll be lost opportunity cost.

Even if I'm considered "top-notch" for tech internships, coming from a generic Engineering degree will still put me at a disadvantage compared to nerdy CS students (we haven't specialised yet) Not to mention my disdain for leetcode-style technical interviews, which do nothing to demonstrate real-world programming abilities. Unfortunately most mainstream tech companies still rely on these kinds of interviews, and since I'm not prepared to solve hard leetcode problems in an interview, I'll not be applying for big corporate internships this summer until I get my skills up to par.

I've mentioned earlier that I am highly interested in med-tech and would love to make a startup in that field, but it's still too early to do a billion-dollar startup right now. Statistics show that almost all successful startups are founded by people in their late 20s or early 30s, so I'll still do a startup later in life, for now I'll dickride some big tech company for capital. But for now it's definitely possible to get an internship in a med-tech company somewhere near the golden triangle (London, Cambridge, Oxford), so I'll be putting my luck into applying for them this summer, then doing a big corporate internship next summer

Having looked around a few companies offering internships, I've decided to aim for Palantir's FDSE role, for the following reasons:

Palantir leans libertarian but is willing to work and compromise with more authoritarian governments if it means more business. Literally textbook version of me.
FDSE isn't your average SWE, because it involves working with clients to design custom solutions for them. Verbal communication is a complete death sentence for your average CS grads, but in this case, I'm all fine with it. You also have to travel a crap ton which is fun because staying in the same place and doing the same projects everyday bores me yet i can't be assed to move entirely out of my own will. They say that for FDSE you don't code as much, which is perfect since I don't enjoy the process of coding (which takes up lots of my time), I just enjoy making stuff work.
Palantir projects may involve working with healthcare providers, which is insanely important to my future plans of doing a med-tech startup, as I'll be able to form connections and experience knowing what they actually need and what isn't already being done.
Palantir is American, so they might sponsor a visa for me to somewhere in the US after a few years in the UK, which is perfect for med-tech startups (No shit, but Europe hasn't had anything close to what the US has in startup potential for a few decades already)

Execution

A plan may sound good but is only valid if you execute it properly, so here's how I plan to do it:

Phase 1: Hillary, Easter and Trinity Term 2026

It's not really possible for me to create a shiny CV in a month so I'll just spend time doing Uni Work while wrapping up my personal Project.

Uni Work

I actually believe that I'm only spending 40% of the time in revising compared to the top Engineering bro in our college. If I can get it up to around 60%, I think it's probably enough to surpass his average. Any more would give diminishing returns IMO. Exams would start in TT week 4 (early June or late May, don't remember), so I have 4 months to grind this thing up, which is surprisingly a lot if I remain consistent in what I do.

Here's the planned averages for each paper:

Mathematics (A1): Aim for 85%. Last year i somehow got 91% in my prelims, don't ask me why.
Electronic and Information (A2): Aim for 95%. There are always 2 questions related to computer engineering, so the plan is to spend 30 minutes to completely ace that section for free 40 marks. I haven't decided on what to attempt for the remaining 60 marks, but for now I don't think Control systems is too big of a problem. However, since we haven't started sensors yet, I'll have to see how it goes.
Mechanics (A3): Aim for 70%. Unfortunately am very weak at this subject, but I'll try to grind a few Truss and Mohr circle problems to see if I can secure at least 40%. The rest I cannot guarantee anything for now.
Energy (A4): Aim for 75%. Thermofluids is by far my weakest topic but I might be able to balance that out with some good marks in electrical power (I don't know what connections Electrical power has with Thermofluids but whatever)
Labs (A5): There's not really anything much to aim for here but not to screw up and try to get 90% overall.

This would put me at a weighted average of 82% overall, probably thrusting me into top 10 of my year group. I'm not going to beat the chinese nerds who gets 90 in every single paper but I think this is a reasonable target. Scoring 95% in A2 would also be a massive advantage for applying to Big Tech as I can show it on my CV as proof of my programming abilities.

A final note is that this should hopefully prevent me from getting screwed over by my tutors for having abysmal scores in collection papers. Have you not seen how I did last year? I did just fine in the exams even without proper revision lol.

Wrapping up Evoku

I'd like to finish Evoku by the end of HT26, because ultimately it's just a side project. Mutliplayer Sudoku with powerups isn't really an interesting project in the eyes of big tech companies. If Evoku gets popular somehow, I'll definitely keep working on it - but if the MVP doesn't get too much traction, I'll just shelve it for now.

Finding for Med-Tech Internships

My computer engineering tutor is from the Info-Engineering branch and he might have connections with people from the med-tech field. While going through the two tutorials on Computer Engineering this term (I will need to impress him with my abilities - shouldn't be too hard, as I'm probably top if not the best in programming out of my entire cohort currently), I'll approach him and discuss my interest in med-tech and see if he can help me find any related internship opportunities.

If he can help - great, I'll take any offers. If he can't and refers me to other people, I'll approach them as well. Even if that doesn't work, I'll still try to contact companies through Oxford Innovation and other tech parks around here. Spinouts from the department work as well - we'll see.

Random note: This mostly allows me to stay in the UK for the early part of the summer, without having to go back to Hong Kong lol. It's super hot there in the summer and using air conditioning every day gives me some weird sense of guilt lol. I know that the average citizen shouldn't feel guilty for using air conditioning, but the bill goes to my parents so yea…

Phase 2: Summer 2026

This is where the real action happens. Assuming I get an internship in a med-tech company, I'll be spending the first half of my summer working there, as well as making connections. Nothing too much to plan here.

Project 2: Sanctions Detection and Analysis

After Evoku is done, I'll probably start working on a project that involves scraping data from Russian markets on sanctioned goods and analysing the price changes over time to determine if supply chain disruptions are working as intended or not. This is definitely something that Palantir themselves are doing or at least have access to, but since there really isn't a public service anywhere regarding something like this, doing it yourself would look more unique on a CV. It shouldn't be too difficult to implement as well (considering my prior knowledge with botting evasion and proxy rotation… IYKYK).

Russian Travel without going to Russia

For the second half of the summer, I'll have to decide on where to travel to, as staying in the UK will be rentally expensive, even for a month (My college accommodation gives only a 9 month lease!)

Unfortunately, I realised that if I travel to Russia or Belarus, I'll probably not be able to obtain a UKGov security clearance later on, as they are technically considered hostile states and I might be flagged for it (or at least be declared a security risk). So I'll probably be going to either Eastern Europe (Lithuania/Latvia) or the Caucasus again (Armenia/Azerbaijan), both because I'm still too poor for central Europe, and also the fact that these countries have a heavy Russian influence - this will help me with both my Russian language skills, as well as understanding of geopolitics in the region.

A good thing is that as a BNO Visa holder, a security clearance should be way easier for me to obtain compared to other international students. I just have to make sure I meet the residency requirements. (4 years should be enough for a clearance - but if they ask for 5, I can still work in some non-confidential projects until I hit that mark)

I'll also try to elevate my Russian to early B2 by the end of the summer. Understanding Russian better is always a plus for the role, since you might be required to work with data related to Russia (or countries that can speak and conduct business in Russian, such as Ukraine and Kazakhstan).

Another plus is that I'll be able to display my abilities to maintain working efficiency while remotely deployed in a foreign country. "Travelling to border states to check supply chains" sounds like a pretty job-relevant skill to have for this exact position.

Leetcode Prep

I'm pretty sure my CS friends would not doubt my ability to solve medium leetcode problems; I also display knowledge of DSA in certain scripts that I write (Apparently the Terri opening search engine I made already incorporates Bitmasking, BFS, Alpha-Beta Pruning and Dynamic Programming, which is pretty neat. Didn't really know a lot of these terms previously).

However, solving these problems quickly, understanding the technical terms and knowing the optional methods to solve them is a different story. So I'll mostly be grinding medium-hard leetcode problems for the next few months to get my speed up.

Phase 3: Michaelmas Term 2026

By this time I should have completed my med-tech internship and be back in Oxford for my 3rd year. If I do obtain the aforementioned academic results, I should be able to choose Computing/Medical Engineering modules for my 3rd year. I'm also interested in taking the EEM (Engineering Entrepreneurship and Management) pathway if possible, to prepare me for my future med-tech startup plans. EEM only takes up 20 students in a year, so I'll have to make sure I top the class to get in. Rank 10 should be enough to secure a spot.

Late September-early October is also when big tech companies start recruiting for their internships, so I'll have exactly what experience needed to apply, as well as the correct timing to do so. Even if I don't get Palantir, I can still try for FAANG, even if they are standard SWE roles and I may get bored of them quickly.

Conclusion

This plan is definitely more refined than my previous one, and I believe it gives me a better chance of success. We'll see how it goes in the next year.

Удачи и мне, и тебе!

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