Pooja Ganesh, a final year Computer Science student at CEG interned at Chronus. This software company was started by the 1993 batch alumni from our very own college. The internship was two months long and she obtained the internship after several rounds of interviews conducted.

Working in the industry was very different from college she says. The work environment seemed to be at ease and informal. Typical corporate culture is followed where everyone is called by name, from the CEO to the office boy.

No dress code was enforced, timings were flexible and to make sure their employees could enjoy the comfort of a little recreation and relaxation while still in office, there were bean bags and even ping pong tables.

Though the work environment looks like a lot of fun, Pooja says that working was very result oriented and needed a lot of effort. So its only natural that a disciplined work ethic and a strongly dedicated attitude be observed. College academics didn’t help too much while working, as the syllabus we study is very fundamental and what they expect at work is of a much different level. But fundamentals of programming learnt as a part of course work did help, she adds. Though the first two days of her internship seemed too hard as they expected more than she imagined, she successfully coped with the pressures and completed the internship.

To juniors who are keen on interning in the future, Pooja says you just need to be strong with your basics and be prepared on core subjects during the interviews. Routine practice or studying for internship interviews isn’t mandatory as the questions will be unpredictable and will test your programming & thinking capability, but could help nevertheless. On an ending note, she said that the internship was a great experience to learn new things and gave her a good idea as to what a real job would be like when she graduates at the end of this academic year.

The author is an aspiring singer, avid traveller and feminist who happens to pursue engineering by the by.