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People illustrations by Storyset
“Everyone around me seems to be preparing for competitive coding or stacking up internship offers from big name brands” — fellow mentee at ADPList. This is followed by “How do I land my first internship? Is it even possible given how competitive it has become? How did you do it?”. So here’s an attempt at answering all these questions that I often hear from university graduates who are unsure how to navigate the maze of internships.
My Story
My first official internship [official as in on paper] was in June 2015. It was my summer break after the sophomore year 🇺🇸 [2nd year] of Bachelors degree in University of Mumbai. I always wanted to get a job in the USA and work in the “land of dreams” 💭; to explore what the hype about the world’s superpower is all about and experience it first-hand. Internships, I was told, would play a key role in landing an admit from one of the top educational institutions in the States 🎓.
Prior to 2015, I worked as a trainee with my dad’s computer technician friend post my 12th grade examinations 🧑🏼🔧. The nature of that summer training program however was less about actual software and more about computer hardware. It was also an unofficial arrangement, i.e. nothing on paper for me to show-off. I was involved in doing miscellaneous tasks such as fixing system boot issues, reinstalling Windows operating system, cleaning up RAMs 🧹, trouble-shooting Windows desktop applications ⚙️ and the like. While it didn’t teach me much as far as coding or computer programming is concerned, I did learn how difficult working in real life can be in terms of physical and mental effort. I was age 17 when I learn’t that.
Over to my first brush against real-world programming. It was in 2015 summer, that I first entered the world of technology with Quickwork. As I look back now, 7 and a half years later, it was the point of inflection that launched my career as a software…
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