“Something is better than nothing- Start coding from today.”
Darshan
Bachelors in Electronics and Communication Engineering, Fourth Year, College of Engineering, Guindy.
Intern
MathWorks
Interviewer: Krish Srinivas (GT)
Interviewee: Darshan
GT: How did you happen to intern at MathWorks?
Darshan: Three months before my internship, I got to know that the CS and IT department students were preparing for their internships. So, with the help of my friends from these departments, I started learning programming, data structures and algorithms. I also learnt CS subjects like DBMS and Operating Systems. I applied for the MathWorks intern offer from CUIC. I cleared the interview process and consequently got to intern there.
GT: What was the selection process for the internship?
Darshan: The first round in the selection process was competitive programming. Though it consisted of only two questions, it was difficult and stressful. After getting selected in the programming round, I was called for an HR Interview, which lasted for about forty-five minutes. Having cleared both the rounds, I was finally selected for the internship at MathWorks.
GT: How was your internship, working from home?
Darshan: Virtual internships will give you the same experience as in-person internships do. At MathWorks, they had arranged for all the required tools and software, which made my virtual internship hassle-free. The onboarding work was smooth and I was also able to communicate well with everyone there. I didn’t face any difficulties, but I think, if it had been an onsite internship, I would have had a better hands-on experience.
GT: Was the domain of your internship project in connection with the curriculum or did you have to learn new topics?
Darshan: The domain assigned to me was ‘Embedded Target’. A project on ‘Networking’ was also allotted. So I had to study a lot to gather information on Computer Networks. I also had to work on MATLAB and Simulink. In terms of working with a software like MATLAB, I think I had an advantage over CS students. Usually, CS students are not exposed to MATLAB, whereas ECE students are introduced to it in their third year. Therefore, the domain of my internship project was, to a certain degree, related to the ECE curriculum. But I still had to study a little more to further understand and work on my project.
GT: Briefly walk us through your internship experience at MathWorks and the project you worked on.
Darshan: My internship experience at MathWorks was really amazing. I was assigned a mentor, who guided me throughout my internship period and also gave me the necessary tools and inputs to complete my project. My project was on ‘TCP Shared Test Utility’. It is a utility that is used in internal MathWorks files and test files. I developed a utility for making TCP collections. I removed the Java socket programming and introduced socket programming using MATLAB. Under my mentor’s guidance, I was able to complete the project successfully.
GT: Please tell us about the challenges and hardships you faced. Were you able to allocate time for other activities?
Darshan: Apart from the projects, I also had workbooks, programming tasks, hackathons and other internal competitions at MathWorks. I had enough time to complete my project and also to schedule other tasks and complete them on time. I didn’t face any hardships, as the people around me were very supportive and helped me whenever needed.
GT: What are your biggest takeaways from this experience?
Darshan: One should always be ready to learn something new and should not complain that it does not fall under their domain of comfort or pursuit. If one works hard to learn and understand something new, they will definitely attain the set goals .
GT: Would you recommend this internship to your juniors? If so, what would you suggest them to do, to get such offers?
Darshan: I would surely recommend this internship to juniors. There exists a stereotype that ECE students are reluctant to learn programming. I would like to emphasize the fact that, programming is your ticket to many dream companies. Many companies use programming skills as one of the selection criteria for internships and placements. I would like to suggest my juniors to start programming today, so that they can find themselves in a better place tomorrow. As they commonly say ‘Something is better than nothing’. So try learning a new programming concept every day. By the time of your internship, you will find yourself strong enough to code.
GT: What are your future plans? What do you have mapped next after this internship?
Darshan: My future plans are to prepare well for my placements and successfully complete my eighth semester project.
GT: What do you think of the Intern Diaries series?
Darshan: It is a truly amazing series. Contacting people from various departments about their internship experience and posting the information on the GT website will help a lot of juniors. The Intern Diaries series will definitely be useful for many students while preparing for their internships.
The Guindy Times thanks Darshan for his time and for providing useful insights into his internship experience. We wish him good luck in all his future endeavours.
