Summer Internship at TCS – Bhawna from SRM University
Bhawna (right-most) is an engineering student who stepped out of her comfort zone and tried something challenging. Her vision and determination made her travel far and gifted her a lifetime opportunity.
I would say my internship was very different from traditional learning system at the college. I did my internship at Tata Consultancy Services, Chennai in 2014 summer. I got selected as a part of four member team in two step processes; first 80 students were selected among 300 students from Electronics and Telecommunication department & then we were assessed on the basis of long seminars presented by HR and technical team of the organization. I remember the first day of my internship very well. When I entered the gigantic building of TCS, it was surrounded heavily by security on all sides. On being asked about our field of interest, we said that we have heard electronics and telecomm guys are being forced to work as a software engineer and we want to do something related to our own stream. Our project manager welcomed our opinion and asked us to design a platform independent ‘Soft’ Hotspot Network under the project named ‘Comcast’. First week we had no clue how to start and from where to start. The guru mantra we got from our project manager was
1. Follow the baby steps
2. Explore the library
Week 1:
Here we got the first clue and I entered the library and picked different books like android, software development, software languages like C, C#, Java, Python, Eclipse and concluded that we should go for C# or Java.
Week 2:
The project manager gave the second clue; go for Java but which topic of java remained a mystery. Being a telecomm student we didn’t know the ‘J’ of Java but we again started to explore the library.
Week 3:
We came with the topic java native API and finally the project manager agreed that we are on the right track. Meantime we divided our task and I handled the security terms and condition of wifi and the available versions of Huawei in the market. We wrote a mail to our HR regarding the stipend since we used to change 3 local buses and two free shuttles from our college to the office.
Week 4:
We started reading about java API thing, kernals, different OS, USB, Bluetooth etc. Finally we presented the required design. The reply of our mail was “We will discuss and will get back to you.”
Week 5:
We started preparing our document and presentation. During mock review of our presentation with senior members, they suggested us several things, like one should explain using effective images rather than putting many lines in a ppt. They reviewed each and every dot before the final presentation and suggested the edits. Next day we gave our final presentation and received appreciation for our thesis. I remember he said that “This the first time we provided internship to B.Tech undergrad students and I am happy for our decision. For a CSE or MCA student it’s easy to design the software but you people presented the real thesis, we wanted to make you aware of the corporate work culture before you enter here”.
At last we did not get any stipend but went through a great learning. Usually we know that from where we will get the question in the exam but here we didn’t know anything. We picked up random books and kept reading for a week. That’s why I feel that this experience was beyond the traditional learning culture of college. Though we did not receive any stipend but we were offered a job in TCS.
If Bhawna’s internship experience motivates you, you can view the latest Internships in Chennai and latest Engineering internships.
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