“What is better than an internship in a company lead by your seniors?”

Kalisha Pathmanaban

Bachelors’ in Geoinformatics Engineering, Batch of 2020, CEG Campus

Intern

Hexamap solutions

Interviewer: Lasithasree Lakshmanan (GT)

Interviewee: Kalisha Pathmanaban

GT: How did you come to know about the Hexamap internship?

Kalisha:  I was made aware of the Hexamap internship through my seniors. Around 30 seniors from my department are working here, and also, its Director Mr. Maharajan Natarajan visited our campus regarding their internship offers. Hexamap solutions are predominantly run by an alumnus of the Geoinformatics department. My area of interest lies in remote sensing and GIS. Since Hexamap’s line of work aligned with my interests, I was excited to do this internship.

GT: What are the skills Hexamap is looking for in an intern?

Kalisha: GIS solutions require more developers. I have trained myself in problem-solving and basic coding skills. Coding is like Mathematics - there's a lot of logic involved. So, concentrating on these skills will help you to gain confidence. These essential skills have helped me crack the internship. The selection process is through an interview and additionally, an aptitude test. But we went through the interview alone. While selecting, they analyzed our resume, personality, and communication skills.  They look for basic skills like problem-solving, preparing simple maps like land cover and land use maps, locating a point and finding the coordinates, etc. They also expect slightly advanced knowledge in GIS and remote sensing.

GT: What made you choose Hexamap?

Kalisha: I cannot say Hexamap is completely developed. However, it is a rapidly growing software company. It has teamed up with leading companies like General Electric, Oracle, etc. and their goals are determined. Hexamap was my first and foremost choice since as a result, I got to work in a very supportive environment, that was made by my seniors themselves. 

GT: What was the project you were working on?

Kalisha: The first phase of my two-month internship had training in Java programming skills. We were assessed based on our capabilities and split into teams accordingly. There were assigned as the following -  Oracle, Esri, GE small world team, open-source, and another team for government projects. I worked in the GE Small World team.

GT: What was the most challenging part of your internship and how did you overcome it?

Kalisha: The most challenging part for me, was working with MAGIC, a backup and highly secured programming language used in the Small World team. We have a lot of sources like the internet and books for debugging errors in programming languages like Java, Python, etc. But in the case of this language, the sources are numbered. We have hardly ever had a single document as a source for the MAGIC language. I was quite distressed about this programming language as it was completely new to me. But my seniors guided me a lot in debugging errors and I gradually started learning.

GT: Would you recommend Hexamap for others?

Kalisha: I have already recommended the Hexamap internship to my juniors. I would say it is the best place to learn as well as work. You will feel free to clarify your doubts in a friendly environment. It would make wonders in bringing up yourself. Hexamap is in the process of replacing the Java programming language with the MAGIC language. This makes it much easier for the upcoming interns to imbibe.

GT:  What is your advice to juniors regarding internship?

Kalisha: My advice to juniors is to develop problem-solving skills and learn programming languages like Python, Java, etc. from the beginning itself. Some mathematics and problem-solving techniques are essential in any workspace.

GT: What do you think about Intern Diaries series from Guindy times?

Kalisha:  It is a very informative interview series. A lot of students will be benefitted from these interviews, especially the juniors. I have also read some internship articles and I believe they were all up to the mark. All the student interviewers are doing a great job.

GT: Thank You!

The Guindy Times thanks Kalisha for his time and wishes him all the best for his future endeavours.