Software Developer Who Converted Internship Into A Full-Time Job Shares Tips

A software developer by profession, Aditi Mahajan worked as a Research & Development intern at the cloud computing company VMWare during her graduation. She managed to convert her 6-month internship into a full-time role with the company. Here’s her story: 

I am passionate about writing clean, well-structured code and believe in the importance of continuous learning and staying updated with the latest industry trends. I am adept at challenging environments where I can apply my analytical skills to overcome obstacles and deliver high-quality software solutions. 

While pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, I landed an internship at VMWare, where I worked as a Research and Development intern. I eventually converted the 6-month internship into a full-time job, as a Member of the Technical Staff. 

The Internship Selection Process

I received the internship offer letter from VMWare during my college campus placement. The process of selection was followed as: 

1. Technical Round: This included 1 coding question, 30 MCQs from computer science fundamentals, and 10 aptitude questions
2. Technical Interview Round: This included 3 questions on coding and a discussion on VMs 
3. Technical Interview Round: There was one question on coding and two hands-on questions on the OOPs concept. 
4. Hiring Manager Round: This was a detailed interview that included everything, from resume discussion to the depths of projects mentioned, previous summer intern project, to questions on security, load balancing, and design patterns. 
5. HR Round: This was the last round in the selection process and lasted for 30 minutes. 

Initially, we were trained on a demo project and also provided product training. I was primarily involved with developing and optimizing the code during my internship.

Post my training, I individually contributed to certain projects, like the following: 

1. Engineered the Desired State Management module embedded with the product Workspace One (Unified Endpoint Management), improving the performance of benchmark tests for handling high-traffic scenarios, by using the k6 metrics tool on a given REST API that overrides the resources on a registered device based on the calculated drift, in a Docker environment. 
2. Enhanced the Workflows functionality for end users by fixing the Angular module to restructure the flow of bulk retrieval of resources via API. 

Some of the technologies that I used during the internship were - Java, Django, MySQL, C#, SQL Server, Angular, Docker, API, JavaScript, and k6.

Converting Internship Into A Full-Time Job

The internship was an enriching learning experience, that taught me several lessons about professional life. Some of these lessons are:  

1. The first step of working with any organization is thoroughly knowing the product, its features, functionalities, and its targeted audience. 
2. Strong basics are prerequisites to working efficiently. 
3. Quality of your work matters, so try to understand every corner of your work. The better you know, the better you do. 
4. Your colleagues can be the best mentors here, along with your manager. So connect with them. 
5. Make as many friends as possible. 
6. And most importantly, ask about everything that you are curious about. This is the knowledge-acquiring phase, so grab as much as possible. 

While these learnings were invaluable, the internship also ended with a few noteworthy achievements, the biggest one being that I converted to full-time employment after 6 months of internship completion. 

Additionally, during the boot camp team project, my team was recognized for "Best Teamwork”. I also actively participated in Women Connecting Women Program. 

Women: The Pillars Of Support 

A challenging task for every new hire is to adjust to a new environment and people, different from college or school. It was hard for me too, but with the support of my colleagues and manager, it became a smooth onboarding process. 

During my internship, I found a college alumnus on the same team I was assigned to. This unexpected encounter turned into a great source of help for me as I could ask for her guidance on my tasks, while also getting an idea on how to increase productivity, management of daily tasks, etc.

Apart from this, I also found another individual who left a mark - my reporting Manager, Suman Rani Singla. A person who was simultaneously jolly, disciplined, and incredibly skilled at work, she inspired me a lot as a professional and as a woman. She used to efficiently manage her kids and work, without leaving even a single place of disagreement. She thoroughly guided me during the internship. 

Tips For Sustaining In This Industry

I had a wonderful experience learning and working on new ideas and solutions and meaningfully contributing to the codebase. From my experience, I would like to share that there are three things for sustaining longer in this industry: 

1. Get your skills as strong as possible. Work to upskill every day. Only upskilling will keep you in the game. 
2. Make the best networks possible. From higher-ups to colleagues to juniors, everyone. You can never predict when your network can turn into an asset. 
3. Follow your conscience. And be empathic while treating others.

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