Internship: Accolite Digital
Interviewer: Sahana Dinesh
Interviewee: Abirami Mahesh Vijay
GT: Abirami, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and the company you interned at?
Abirami: My name is Abirami Mahesh Vijay, and I am a final year Computer Science student at CEG. The company I interned at this summer was Accolite Digital. They are an IT service and engineering solutions-oriented company. Accolite is based out of the US but has many branches across India.
GT: How did you land an internship at Accolite Digital?
Abirami: CUIC (Centre for University-Industry Collaboration) conducts an internship drive when you are in your third year, and I applied to Accolite through that drive was able to land the internship.
GT: What did your study schedule look like about a month before the internship drive?
Abirami: Our batch found out about the internship drive very late, so I started preparing only after companies started coming for the drive. The tests that I took for the first few companies set my preparation into motion and halfway through the drive, I started revising Data Structures, Operating Systems, and Object-Oriented Programming concepts. Around this time, I started coding on websites like Leetcode and Hackerrank as well.
GT: Did you work on any projects before the internship drive?
Abirami: Other than the projects I did as a part of my coursework, my friend and I learned Python and made a digital dashboard that gave daily updates on the global count of COVID-19 cases. I also worked on a web application to facilitate the leave forms for our college hostels.
GT: What did Accolite’s selection process look like?
Abirami: Like any other company, they started with a PPT (Pre-Placement Talk) where they brief us about the company. Afterwards, we had an online test. Unlike most other companies, Accolite did not test us on quantitative or subject-based aptitude during this round; they asked us three coding questions.
Once I cleared this round, I had a technical interview, which was a live programming or problem-solving round with an interviewer. I was asked three programming questions and I explained to the interviewer how I went about solving these questions. Solving the problem isn’t necessary as long as you explain your approach eloquently. The third round was another technical interview, where I was asked a probability question, I explained my thought process, and we arrived at a solution together. I was also asked about the projects that I had listed on my resume, and a few subject-related questions from Data Structures, Operating Systems, and Object-Oriented Programming concepts. This is how my selection process went and it took place over 5 days.
GT: Hundreds of people would have applied to Accolite, how did you make your resume stand out?
Abirami: As I mentioned, the projects that you do are key to any company selecting you. My projects were oriented towards web application development, and Accolite was looking for someone with experience in the same field. So I think my projects are what made my resume stand out.
GT: What was your role at Accolite?
Abirami: Accolite let us specify what domain we were interested in. I am passionate about front-end development and UI/UX design, so I was given the role of a UI developer and designer. I worked on an internal project - their website, and got to design a few pages of their webpages using a tool called Figma. I ended up developing the front-end for these pages as well, but I also occasionally helped back-end developers integrate it with the front end and the back-end.
GT: How long was your internship and what did your day-to-day look like?
Abirami: My internship started on the 17th of May and went on for 2 months. The advantage of it being online was that I got to work at my own pace. All of the communication was done via Skype. Around 10 am, my mentor would give me a few tasks for the day. I would work on this till about lunchtime and spend the evenings doing college work and any pending work that my mentor assigned to me. It was very flexible because the number of hours I spent on work didn’t matter as long as I met the deadline.
GT: How has your internship benefitted you, did you pick up any new skills along the way?
Abirami: As I mentioned, I was introduced to a tool called Figma that I used to design web pages during my internship. This internship was my first time using this tool, and now I am proficient enough with Figma that I can use this tool in any field. I also learned a few new things about web development that I wasn’t aware of before the internship.
GT: What do you intend to do next?
Abirami: I am planning to pursue my master's degree after I graduate. I am interested in AR/VR (Augmented Reality/ Virtual Reality), Game Development technologies, and ML/AI (Machine Learning/ Artificial Intelligence).
GT: What advice would you give to people aspiring for internships?
Abirami: If you want to land an on-campus internship, start practising coding questions well in advance. There are many resources available on the internet, and practising even 2-3 questions a day will be helpful in the long run. Also revise the concepts that you learnt in your second year, as they are very important to any company that you intern at. In your resume, try to highlight the important things and try not to make it too cluttered. The quantity does not matter. It is the quality that counts.
GT wishes Abirami all the best for her future endeavours and thanks her for sharing her experience with us!
