Raghu Mohan

Internships in software development are good for both the company and the interns. As a developer, internship projects teach you how to build a successful software product. For a company, interns bring in the diversity and fresh perspectives that are required to take the product to the next level.

But what makes an internship in software development successful? Here are 7 strong signs that tell you whether the 2-6 months you spent during your internship were worthwhile.

1) If you improved your technical skills

At college, you are exposed to various technical concepts. An internship gives hands-on exposure to technical concepts that you learned at school. You can code and build software, from scratch. If you feel your internship has helped improve your technical skills, consider it a job well done.

2) If you learned how to build a product

The best part about interning in a software development team is the opportunity to learn how to build a successful software product. As part of the product team, you interact with stakeholders from different teams and levels of management. You gain a better understanding of the end-user, the business objectives, and the role of software in attaining those goals. Rather than working in isolation, you are part of a team with people from various domains with different levels of experience. This exposure teaches you to manage time and build software per the expectation of stakeholders. If at the end of your internship, you have learned how to build a product, consider it a job well done.

3) If you’ve enhanced your soft skills

Internships are not only about enhancing technical skills, but also about acquiring interpersonal skills. As an intern, you can make friends and network with new people at work. The ability to work in a team with different people is crucial for a successful career in software development. Interning in a software development team also makes you better at presenting ideas clearly. If your internship has made you a better communicator, consider it a job well done.

4) If you've learned something new

Usually, interns are taken based on the merit of what they can do. Interns are tested for their technical skills or are taken based on the merit of their past work. Apart from the project they are assigned to, interns also get exposure to a lot of business operations. This adds a lot of value to one’s professional profile.

At the end of your internship, if you get the "bigger picture," consider it a job well done.

5) When you've built something of lasting impact

In a recent tech event, Max Levchin, one of the founders of PayPal, shared a story of an intern who saved the company from going bust. It was the early 2000s and credit card fraud was hurting PayPal big time. The intern's job was to build an anti-theft system called IGOR that eventually saved the company. The intern died soon after due to a diabetes complication, and Levchin said PayPal may not exist today without him. Not every contribution can be as significant, but the point is that if you know that you've built something of value and can see how it fits in the bigger scheme of things, it's a job well done.

6) If you figured out what you don't want to do

In college, you often want to do something, but you have no idea what or how. An internship is the best way to find out if your dream job is everything that you thought it would be. Often, it is not going to be what you think it is and that's perfectly alright. It will be one less thing on your list when you're trying to figure out what you want to do with your life. You might be really good at what you do too, but if you're not enjoying it, it's not worth pursuing all your life.

Finding out what you don't want to do is just as important as finding out what you love to do. If you come across the former, consider your internship a job well done.

7) If at the end of the internship, you didn't want to leave, and the company also didn't want to let you go

*Sniff*

Congratulations on the full-time offer! Job well done.

Additional tip to rock your internship

Don’t go after money. The second you make your internship decision on the basis of money, 99% of the time, you would have made a compromise. There would be that job which sounded like something right up your alley, but you didn't take it, because there was this other, probably more boring job, which paid more.

Try not to do that. If you didn't, it's already a job well done.

Internship at HackerEarth

At HackerEarth, we have a strong support system for interns. We have an open and collaborative work culture. Our full-time software engineers and product managers are always available to help and mentor new interns. View current internship opportunities here: https://www.hackerearth.com/companies/hackerearth/jobs/

Did you know there exists a global study where five of the top ten spots are filled by India? You heard that right! A 2014 LinkedIn study tracked the movement of tech talent across the globe and found that Bangalore grows tech talent faster than other city in the world. Thanks to a burgeoning base of startups, Bangalore has stepped out of the shadow of its widely-used "Silicon Valley of India" sobriquet and leapfrogged the US as a beehive of tech talent. Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Gurgaon followed the leader closely on the list. Though it is hardly a surprise to anybody anymore, these findings re-affirm that India is home to the biggest pool of technology talent.

Despite this abundance of talent, Indian companies, especially startups, are still clamoring for coders to meet their fast-paced business needs. They claim that a shortage of skilled workers in the industry has resulted in skyrocketing wages and put a dampener on expansion plans. At first blush, none of it adds up; how can one explain the dearth of tech talent in the mother ship despite it still being the hub of technology services outsourcing? Well, much ink has been spilled on the debate and as you would have observed, the ecosystem is divided on the verdict.



Have we thrown in the towel too early?

Here's our take - There's enough of tech talent to go around, and excellent ones at that. So, it may be premature to write this quest off as a wild goose chase. It is true that great developers with superior skill sets and a great cultural fit to the organization are rare to come by. Having said that, we must not be hasty to think of them as unicorns. Perhaps we need to redefine "tech talent" altogether.

During my time at HackerEarth, I have come to believe that if you expect to harvest the best tech talent and retain them, you will have to veer off the beaten path.

1. Look in uncanny places

One of the lesser-known reasons that the best talent in the business is still untapped is the heavy emphasis on pedigree. Without undermining the importance of formal education, we can safely say that it is no longer the deal-breaker it once used to be. Today, the technology industry collectively struggles with filling up positions fast enough to deliver projects that make a real business impact. The only programmers who can live up to that expectation are those that have hands-on experience rather than just a Computer Science or Information Technology degree from a premier institute.

India spews a whopping 1.5 million engineers annually but 20-33% of them are struggling to get placed. As a result, they often they end up in jobs they are over-qualified for. The scenario is naturally more challenging for students from tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Clearly, traditional campus recruitment do them little justice; the process is in dire need of a face-lift. The best-kept secrets of tech talent are no longer hidden only in paper-and-pen resumes and job portals. From our experience, we have seen that apart from social media and anecdotal referrals, students from small towns often emerge as winners on online hiring platforms that test their expertise vis-a-vis their peers with more sophisticated backgrounds. Coding bootcamps and hackathons are not only fun and collaborative; they are unconventional platforms that are turning the spotlight on skill rather than merely on educational qualifications. Through this gamification of sorts, companies are equipped with rich analytics and intelligent ranking and better poised to make hiring decisions based on merit.

2. Fix the gender gap

Although India witnesses a higher influx of female talent in the technology ecosystem than its counterpart in Silicon Valley, we still have miles to go. According to a 2015 report by McKinsey & Co., India has the greatest shot at a substantial incremental GDP opportunity if gender parity is achieved. This could mean an increase of 16% in the country's GDP by 2025. Today, 30% of engineering graduates in the country are women and even the best of them shy away from technology entrepreneurship. The time has come for companies to cast their nets wider, identify women with great technical prowess and nurture them to become the leaders of tomorrow.

3. Find the sweet spot

Gone are the days when every candidate was satisfied with a well-defined career path and satisfactory increments in their salaries. In the quest for tech talent, recruiters can no longer be Procrustean in their approach. A little bit of research into their motivators goes a long way in finding that "sweet spot" which gives creates a win-win situation for both. Studies now show that each class of applicants puts different perks on top of their priority lists. For instance, men are shown to be drawn toward excellent compensation and benefits, challenging work, and good organizational culture. Women, on the other hand, prefer a good work-life balance, cordial relationships with peers, and flexible work arrangements. In short, the talent you consciously pursue is the talent you will get.

Conclusion

It may seem expensive in the short-term, but the "right" people are a worthy investment that is sure to give businesses an edge in a competitive market. The way we see it, the buck must not stop there. The Indian tech market is witnessing exponential growth and the need of the hour is a disruption in the recruitment scenario. One of the challenges we see in the goal of bridging the talent gap is the lack of scalability. The technology sector in the country is fairly young and the higher rungs of the career ladder are feeling the pinch. The way forward is to encourage and nurture the new breed of tech talent for years to come. Who knows, someday the needles won't be too deep in the haystack.

If addressing the lack of women is a top priority for your organization, then come and be a part of HackerEarth's International Women's Hackathon 2017.

March 8 is International Women's Day (IWD), which is just around the corner. On this day, the United Nations wants the world to specially celebrate women's trials and successes. In keeping with the spirit of International Women's Day, companies such as HackerEarth are organizing events to recognize budding women geniuses in the world of technology.

A little background

In the past 50 years or so, the number of women contributing to the tech community has been quite dismal. Their seemingly "more illustrious" male counterparts have been riding the technology wave and how. Of course, there were exceptions like Anita Borg, but it is fair to say that the majority of the great programmers have been men. Women make up just about 30 percent of the tech workforce.

These facts paint a chauvinistic picture, don't they? There is hope though.

Tech companies as change agents

This problem has been under scrutiny for a while now, and the tech community is happy to do its bit to open doors of opportunity for female developers world over. They want to change the future of male-dominated professions such as engineering and computer science. Thriving tech companies are trying to promote gender diversity at the workplace to bridge the talent gap and bring new perspectives. They recognize that women should not be subjected to deep-seated sexist perceptions. They know that undercurrents of condescension, isolation, and frustration shadow women in tech-related jobs.

They know they can set things right. They are trying.

Especially on IWD, some companies such as Google make a concentrated effort to honor the talent of enterprising women workers. Google's community initiative, the Google Developers Group (GDG), organizes Women Techmakers events, a series of woman-centered activities during Women's Day to make technology less intimidating for women and to encourage more women to take it up. This video made last year is also a truly commendable effort. Google releases great doodles on March 8 every year. Microsoft honors women on IWD with its YouthSpark program. Another company committed to empowering women, Accenture, has a slew of events on IWD. Check out its efforts in 2016 here.

Hackathons—a novel way to get more women in tech

Hackathons have become a fad today, and rightly so. Bright minds, driven and passionate, collaborate and innovate for a few hours to come up with solutions that are simply amazing. Across sectors, companies use hackathons for a host of things from hiring to branding to plain old fun. So why not use it to encourage programming among women?

Away from a male-dominated environment, away from the unconscious insecurity that plagues many women while competing with male coders, away from all sorts of biases, women programmers get a chance to prove their mettle, build their confidence, and assert their technical know-how.

In 2014, the organizers of GDG Delhi suggested that they have a Hackathon, the women tech makers code jam, hosted on HackerEarth, where they would invite women programmers to participate in the hackathon at an assigned place. This would happen across India, wherever feasible through the various GDG chapters. There were awesome prizes to be won. There was a separate leaderboard for programmers who weren't at the GDG organized event and we gave away awesome music gear from Apple for the top 2 winners!

HackerEarth cottoned on to the immense potential of this wonderful initiative. The Bangalore-based company was successful in creating a world record by aggregating 10,000+ women developers in its first outing of International Women’s Hackathon in 2015. It found much success in 2016 as well. Like Sachin Gupta, CEO of HackerEarth, said, "This Hackathon was a testament to equality. Even though we restricted the hackathon only to women, the quality of submissions were no less than any other top hackathon that we have conducted till date. With the help of all our sponsors, we've been able to make a statement, that women can code and women representation in IT is only a question of encouragement."

Now, HackerEarth is ready with the next edition of this tradition of celebrating women programmers. HackerEarth has conducted many women-only hiring challenges as well for companies such as ThoughtWorks and Symantec.

So, what is the point exactly?

Hackathons and other women-centric events are about making women a priority, engaging women early on by using the right channels, doing away with significant existing and potential professional barriers, providing role models, and reinforcing the immeasurable benefits of gender diversity at workplaces.

The sign of a mature and flourishing community is equality. Everyone should have the freedom to do what they want to do—without any sort of bias or prejudice. For all the advancements that the technology community has given the world, you would think that this is a mature community too, right? Well, this current gender disparity suggests otherwise.

High time we worked toward changing this distorted landscape, don’t you think? Say no to "systemic disparagement" and say yes to women empowerment. Honestly, you don't need to wait for special days to do something that is fundamentally right.

If you are a woman developer who is reading this post, perhaps this event will interest you.

We’ve got camps arguing that where you go to college makes all the difference, and then we’ve got the opposition who insist that this choice is not some “sweeping judgment” of your ability. I remember this line from a New York Times blog post: Shiny diplomas from shiny schools help. They do, don’t they? However much I’d like to be idealistic, reality says something else. Even then I can’t help but wonder if a college degree is only as good as its prestigious reputation.

College can be stressful enough. Deciding which one to go to is worse. The faculty that educates the novice programmers, the peer group that bolstered them to learn and build new things, or the infrastructure that provided them with the facilities to program their ideas to reality—everything matters. This debate has been going on for ages. Sigh!

Also read – The reason India does not have enough awesome developers

Did you know that by 2018, India is expected to be home to over 5 million developers? Well, building or honing programming skills never looked more imperative, did it? I agree that you don’t need to depend on top computer courses to become an ace developer, but it can make life so much easier. To that end, we’ve put together a list of the best schools for computer science/information technology courses, in no particular order, in India.

• IIT Bombay
• IIIT Hyderabad
• IIT Kanpur
• IISc
• NIT Trichy
• NIT Warangal
• IIT Kharagpur
• BITS Pilani
• DTU
• NSIT

It came as no surprise in 2016 (yet again) when 67 of the top 100 ranks in the Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced opted for IIT-B. Happily for India, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) is ranked 13 on the Quacquarelli Symonds University Rankings BRICS 2016. IIT Bombay has a very strong computer science program. IIT-B is ranked among the top 100 institutions for computer science on the QS World University Rankings by Subject list. These IIT-ians are a regular feature at ACM ICPCs and many go to the Google Summer of Code program. IIT-B is one of the largest exponents of the startup tech workforce in India. In 2015, for each of the 990 CSE seats across 18 IITs, there were 209 contenders. The 2015 placements at IIT-B saw the average salary increase by 10 to 15 percent, with some students bagging 1-crore offers from Oracle, Microsoft, and Visa.

IIIT Hyderabad has the most experienced CSE faculty in the country. It has a strong coding culture with students consistently qualifying for the ACM-ICPC World Contest finals; the curricula also focus on research. Google selected the most students for GSoC from this “mecca” of computer science—69 in 2014 and 62 in 2015. A unique aspect is its low intake of students, ensuring more focused training.

Read this answer on Quora about IIIT-H. It blends computer science with humanities and cutting-edge research. Even without the IIT tag, students graduate with unique skills and projects that set them apart.

IIT Kanpur is known for top faculty and placements. A 2014 Brown University study listed it among the top 10 contributors of CS faculty to US undergrad programs. In 2016, the first three days of placements brought 315 offers, with Microsoft offering one student a 1.5 crore package for its Redmond office.

IISc ranked 38th in the Global University Employability Ranking by Times Higher Education. Anurag Kumar, IISc Director, said India is making great strides. In 2016, two CS students were offered USD150,000 jobs abroad. Domestic salaries range from Rs. 15 to Rs. 30 lakh a year.

NIT Trichy has strong programming clubs and alumni interaction. Outlook India ranked it 9th in 2016, with 80% of CSE salaries over 10 LPA.

NIT Warangal, established in 1959, has a decent programming culture and strong peer group. Outlook India ranked it 11th in 2016. In 2014, companies like Amazon and CodeNation offered salaries of up to 24 LPA to CSE students.

IIT Kharagpur has notable alumni like Sundar Pichai. It has the largest campus among IITs. Its CSE department hosts BitFest annually. The QS Employability Ranking 2017 ranks it highest among Indian institutions. Some students received up to INR1.5 crore offers in 2016.

IIT Madras contributes significantly to CS faculty in the US. Its tech festival “Shaastra” showcases robotics, Big Data, and coding. Companies like Goldman Sachs and Qualcomm recruit actively. Internships also drive high placement numbers.

BITS Pilani is ranked 3rd by India Today in 2016. Alumni have launched nearly 500 startups since 2013. Quora reviews praise its curriculum, faculty, and peer group.

DTU ranks 13th in Outlook’s Top 100 Engineering Colleges 2016. It added seats in CSE and IT in 2016. In 2015, Google offered an IT student INR1.27 crore. Over 1,200 jobs were offered by 260 companies that year.

NSIT, formerly Delhi Institute of Technology, ranked 12th in 2016 Outlook survey. In 2015, eight students received crore-plus offers from Google. CSE and ECE departments attract top recruiters.

Established in 1919, Banaras Engineering College became IIT BHU in 2012. It has seen international offers during placements, with companies visiting its campus regularly.

This list is compiled from qualitative research. Your list could be different. Which colleges would you add to this? (Or remove?)

Tell us.

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Did you know that the Indian Space Research Organisation wants to “launch a single rocket carrying 83 satellites” in 2017? That would be a world record, you know. India has surely come long way from launching its first indigenous satellite, Aryabhata, in 1975. ISRO has made the country proud. To put a satellite in Mars' orbit at a cost—USD73 million—lesser than the budgets of many Hollywood movies is an amazing feat. That too, in its first attempt, in 2013. NASA's Maven Mars mission set the US space agency back a whopping USD671 million. I remember reading an article where they called our space agency “famously frugal.”

It's a big deal.

Perhaps, this is a post that’s a tad different from what we usually write at HackerEarth. Here’s why. Our audience at HackerEarth is predominantly software engineers who are mostly passionate about what they do. Given the cool things that ISRO is doing currently, it is only normal to be curious about what it takes to work for the organization. Like Dr. U R Rao, chairman of ISRO, said, "Achievements like the Mars Orbiter Mission would attract graduates to ISRO. You need passion to work in ISRO. That's why people who join the organization seldom leave it for another job.”

What does an ISRO software engineer deal with?

In a 2014 Reddit Ask Me Anything session by three ISRO scientists, one question that was asked was what the work is like at ISRO for a software engineer. (These scientists were back in 2015 to answer a slew of new questions.)

The answer goes like this, “The software scene in ISRO is more of an operations thing than research. We need and develop software to run our various systems and these systems are the focus. Apart from user/service software/applications developed at centres like Space Application Centre, we have an intensive network of centres/GROUND-stations and this network is managed by ISTRAC. We use both Linux- and Windows-based platforms and develop for both too. JAVA is the favoured language, but we use C, C++, C#, Python, Perl, etc. a lot too. Whatever gets the work done. At ISTRAC, computer networking is a high priority and in-demand task. Then, there is the requirement of building simulation software. This is done by all centres as per their requirements. Also, India's largest supercomputer is at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, meant for aerospace simulations.”

Are you discouraged? Don’t be. After all, how can a facility that launches rockets not have exciting software systems? Forget about the non-programming and administrative tasks, just focus on those moments where your valuable computing skills are integral to critical processes for a mission.

Who gets to go there?

As an exemplary organization requiring brilliant minds, ISRO has to be discerning about its engineering hires. ISRO's preferred discipline is aerospace engineering, but it doesn’t mean that good minds from any engineering stream don’t stand a chance. ISRO is not partial to elite technical institutions such as IIT or NIT. "We look for strength in fundamentals, wherever the person is from. It is essential to have people from different institutions," said Dr. V Adimurthy, Senior Advisor of Interplanetary Missions.

ISRO Centre	Total Staff	From IITs and NITs
Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Tvm	4,486	43
Space Applications Centre, Ahm	1,183	144
National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyd	864	2

(Source: Times of India)

Linux aficionados have a good chance of landing a job at ISRO. In the same Reddit AMA, one of the scientists said that there's a great affinity toward Linux at ISRO. “Linux is used very widely across all centres/missions/projects. Simulations, operations, servers, networks, analysis: Linux is used everywhere. It is a good OS for all scientific requirements and is developed actively by various scientific groups all over the world, so it never falls short.”

Although they would not answer specific questions about OS, they did say that on-board software for satellites is written in Ada. Who knows, those conversant with the programming language Ada, might have a good chance to work with ISRO too.

And this is what they had to say about a typical workday for an ISRO software engineer: “Not very different from any other programmer’s except for the fact that there is a slight lag in the adoption of new technologies. This is partly due to heritage inertia and partly due to the fact that function is preferred over form. If it ain’t broke… It also depends on the kind of work you get. Development is always exciting. So is stuff like implementing a new network end-to-end, which will push you to learn stuff way beyond what you’ve previously been comfortable with.” Well, nothing is perfect. But then, imagine having a hand in getting a perfect satellite out in space? Come on, lots of us have dreamed of becoming rocket scientists.

Are you “eligible”?

Interestingly, ISRO doesn't mention computer science as one of its preferred degrees. The space agency recruits students from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST). To get into ISRO the scientists said, “You have to be an Indian with a degree or diploma in Mechanical /Electronics/Electrical/Civil disciplines. Open positions include Scientists, Technicians, Technical Assistants, Admin Officers, Purchase Officers, etc. depending on eligibility. There will be an exam for each type of post followed by interview for selection. One can also get into ISRO by enrolling into IIST complete the course and get absorbed.”

Well, you don’t need a degree in computer science to work on their exciting projects. But you need passion and requisite skills for the role. It’s really about priorities and what you value most. Whatever the downside of the job, I would say working with amazing talent will teach you skills you might never find elsewhere. Sleepless days, working tirelessly during a launch—appeals to you?

What are the upsides and downsides of working at ISRO?

I shouldn’t even be writing this bit. Where’s your patriotism, guys?

No, seriously, when you get down to brass tacks, ISRO is no slacker. There might be those within ISRO who believe that there aren't as many perks and services in ISRO as compared to other government services. But on more holistic terms, the starting pay for engineers at ISRO is above industry standards. In its Bangalore facility, an entry-level Scientist/Engineer ‘SC’ gets between 7 and 9LPA, without deductions, per the 7^th Pay Commission. Reading reviews suggest that culture can be a less bohemian or appreciative than you want with motivation and the money can be a little less as well. (Money is not everything. Tell yourself that; you will believe it soon enough.) But if you read reviews on Glassdoor, the wariness should disappear. Despite the perception people have about the cons of working in a government organization, on the whole, most insist that the environment and learning make it worthwhile.

Do you agree?

Share your thoughts in the Comments section.