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Avantika is a NTAT certified student who holds a Bachelor's Degree in B.E. from Vasavi College of Engineering, Hyderabad. Having worked in UI Automation Testing she has an excellent eye for coding, and now hopes to expand her skills set with an MBA in entrepreneurship from a reputed foreign university. She has a keen interest in IOT and considers herself to be a proactive, responsible and creative person.
How does an intern spends his/her first day at Qualcomm? or What skill sets are needed to get Qualcomm hire you? Here are some interesting insights you might want to know, before starting your internship.
1. Tell us more about yourself
A. I am Avantika Nimje, Computer Science graduate from Vasavi College of Engineering, Hyderabad. I have done my schooling at The Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet. I have always been passionate about creating something new and introducing it to this world. I love brainstorming new ideas and like to collaborate with likeminded people. The tag line I chose to define myself is “Be a better version of yourself each day." I love coding and solving real world problems. Two of my favorite hobbies are singing and painting. I like making new friends and travelling to new places. I am blessed to have born in a beautiful family. My dad being an IAS officer and mom a Civil Surgeon Gynaecologist, I have observed their challenging lives and learnt the importance of hard work from them.
2. Where are you doing your internship? Tell us more about your day-to-day tasks you do at your workplace
A. I am currently doing my Internship at Qualcomm India. The internship duration is for 6 months. I am working with the UI Automation Testing team. Worked with tools such as Selenium, Geb and Spock, Maven Framework. I learnt new things from my superiors and team members, collaborating with other teams, giving presentation, organizing small events. It was a wonderful learning experience so far. Day-to-day tasks include, a morning sync up with my Manager to decide the plan for the day, then completing the tasks through the day, and reporting back with the status. Also there are activities conducted by the HR team from time to time to give the interns the flavour of working at Qualcomm, such as movie time, resort outing, IOT contest and coding event.
3. Is this Your first internship? If not then where did you do your previous internship?
A. This is my first internship experience and I'm very happy to be working here at Qualcomm. The office is wonderful and so are the people. You do not address people here as Sir or Madam, instead you address them with their first name, which is pretty cool. You can request your Manager to allow you to get hands on new technology and he/she is very supportive about that.
4. Who do you think is your actual mentor during the internship?
A. Every intern here at Qualcomm is assigned a Mentor when they start the internship. I am lucky to have got the opportunity to work with my Mentor who is also my Manager. He is very supportive and also a jolly person. He has taught me new technologies in such a short span of time and always believes in my ability to solve the tasks. I picked up new technologies in under a month’s time and also finished two projects in 4 months under his guidance. I was also lucky to have the guidance of my senior from Vasavi College Of Engineering. She is a year senior to me and is working with the same team. I received great help from her as well.
5. What would you suggest to your fellow engineering students?
A. I would suggest that we must find the passion in the path that we have chosen for us. If you have an inventive mindset and are ready to solve challenges of the real world and are keen on always learning new things, then you will land amazing jobs and you may also have your own start-up. Be positive, work hard every day toward your goal. Make a list of all those companies that you would like to join and prepare from that point of view. Code with passion and always look at problems around you that could be solved with technology. You will be very enthusiastic to wake up each day and do something for the people.
6. What is so far the best experience/learning you had?
A. The best experience of the internship was to learn the importance of solving new challenges everyday. Be it Time Management, being confident at workplace and making new connections, or learning new technologies. The IOT challenge here at Qualcomm was also incredible. Competing among interns in different teams, solving real world problems using IOT and then presenting your ideas to the judges was amazing. I feel more confident about myself each day and I feel happy and enthusiastic to work and learn new things.
7. What will be your next steps in your profession and how will this internship help you get there?
A. I plan to do my MBA in Entrepreneurship from a top foreign university. For an MBA, work experience is important as we get comfortable with the subjects we are dealing with during our course as we had the opportunity to experience them at workplace. Understanding how the company works end to end and then using these learning’s to start my own company that helps millions has always been my dream and I work towards it each day.
8. Tell us more about your first day at Qualcomm's office
A. On the first day at my office, I met different interns from different cities and colleges such as the IIT’s and BIT’s. It was fun making new friends. We had a presentation session that gave us a background on what the company does and what are the latest technologies it is working on. We had a brainstorming session, in which interns were divided into teams and each team was supposed to come up with a solution for real world problems using the domain of AI and IOT. It was fun collaborating with talented interns and coming up with new ideas and presenting it to the HR team. We were also introduced to our managers and team members. Finally there was a cake cutting session to celebrate the start of our wonderful journey here at Qualcomm. One of the best days I will always remember.
9. What according to you are the 5 most essential skills for engineering undergraduates?
A. The five most essential skills are Team Collaboration, Leadership, Communication and Presentation, Passion to learn new things, adaptability. Also working on new projects to have a hands on experience on technologies.
10. You gave your NTAT in JNTU, 2015 how was your experience with the questions?
A. I had written the NTAT exam in the year 2015. It was an awesome experience. The questions were challenging but the task of finishing the paper in a short time was even more challenging. I did well at the exam. Switch idea is a wonderful organization, helping millions of students achieve their dreams of working with top companies. If you clear this test, it opens up the doors to amazing opportunities for you. So go ahead and crack this test.