Sakshi Taparia spent her summer working as a software engineer for Uber.
It was the usual TnP process. I submitted my CV and gave the written round. I had to get my CV reviewed quite a few times, tech CVs require different things to be highlighted. Companies come in phases, which are “Day 1”, “Day 2” etc and two weeks prior, the shortlisting takes place based on CV and the written round, and then the interviews. Written rounds depend on the company, for example Quant ask probability and discrete math in addition to data structures and
algorithms. So my interview preparation included topics of linear algebra, probability, theory of C++, some puzzles for Quant etc. My written round was average, since I wasn’t as well versed in competitive coding.
Usually companies in Data Science fields don't participate in internships in third year. Quantitative and Software are comparatively more in number. I didn’t have a particular preference for any profile, so I applied to a variety. I was one of the two people who were selected and accepted the internship as I was interested in trying out software development, given its popularity. I was also an Uber She++ sponsee, which helped too.
Uber generally hires for its Hyderabad and Bangalore offices, and I got placed in Hyderabad. I was also shortlisted in Microsoft, Quad-Eye, Goldman Sachs and American Express.
Experience with Lockdown
It wasn’t particularly difficult in terms of the workload and communication. They shipped a laptop with the necessary configurations and it was similar to an office experience, clocking in around 8 hours a day. Most companies don’t stress on a 9-5 time frame and in quarantine too, they offered this flexibility.
I am quite an introvert, so not having face-to-face interaction was a comfort really. And working from my home removed the factor of adjusting to a new environment.
The companies, on their end, made sure the experience was as smooth as possible. People were very responsive on various platforms: SLACK and Zoom. Many companies, including Uber made efforts to make everything available virtual, and seamless.
The Internship
Roughly, my work was to make a back-end for a micro-service that can read log files, and analyse them in an automated way which saves a lot of manual labour. These log files are used by various applications and are transferred back and forth. I was interning with the Payment Integration Team with Uber Hyderabad.
Even if you’re very well-prepared, it's natural that on entering a work industry, you would face a lot of unfamiliar aspects, in technology and otherwise. I had to learn a lot of these things on the go, like a new language “Go”. Uber uses Go and Java mainly in its codes.
Takeaways
I didn’t have a sure idea which kind of sector I'd like to work in, Software or Finance or Data Science. And the internship gave me exposure to the work of software development. I came to the realisation that I didn’t find it intriguing. It was a really great experience, working in such an environment gives a better and more real understanding of working in an industry like this. For the final year placements I targeted Quantitative and Data Science companies. I got my placement as a Quantitative Researcher, Graviton.
Comments