Before we get into how my internship went with Virtusa or how I got into the organization, let’s take a look at what an internship is.
Why it matters
In my opinion, an internship is the ideal test ground to understand what you really want to do as a career and learn how exactly your domain of interest works. Consider it a trial use of an app before you really purchase it.
Virtusa?
Virtusa Corporation (NASDAQ) is a multinational company based in America, APAC, and EMEA. It is known for being a provider in IT outsourcing, digital business transformation, and engineering. As of November 26, 2018, Virtusa serves over 2,000 clients in domains such as banking, financial services, insurance, healthcare, telecommunications, media, entertainment, travel, manufacturing, and technology.
Source: Virtusa
Boring part
My first developer memory goes back to the first version of Visual Basic. I loved developing things for people to use. Fast forward to 2015, the first year of my G.C.E. Advanced Level began. My daily routine went on like this:
- Wake up at 3:30 AM
- Go to school and workout
- Swim squad practice for 4 hours
- Have breakfast
- Go to class (and sometimes sleep during class)
- Some days go for extra classes or swimming again
Basically, this was pretty boring. I wasn’t learning anything new or interesting. I had been reminded daily by my father that if I did not study well and get into university, there was no future for me. This kept triggering in my mind every day. One day I questioned myself and started looking at options. Just before our final school vacation, we had a long holiday. That year I decided to drop out of high school to pursue my life as a software engineer. I started doing a diploma equivalent, which was accepted by private education bodies in Sri Lanka.
Might be interesting
Moving forward, I visited an exhibition held at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (B.M.I.C.H.) annually. There I found the possible options and selected a feasible opportunity in education. While walking through the entire exhibition, I found the recruitment fair. Many undergraduates from universities took exams and interviews there. I walked around and asked recruiters if I could join their organization and do an internship. Having completed G.C.E. Ordinary Levels with 1A, I was told by about 90% of recruiters, “No, come back once you’ve completed high school.” I didn’t give up. I kept asking until I met the Manager - Talent Acquisition of Virtusa. He asked me, “What makes you think you can work with us?” I explained my previous encounters with a few projects and how I gradually moved from VB to Java to C++ to .NET. He was willing to give me a chance. He then asked a recruiter from the company and a technical lead to talk with me. After a long conversation, they scheduled me for an interview.
Faced the music
I went in for the interview with my limited knowledge of software development. Once I got there, the recruiter took me to a meeting room full of university undergraduates from local universities. I was the dropout. I was lost. The recruiter handed me a paper and asked me to answer it. Fortunately, it was an IQ examination. I took my time and completed it.
First interview (4 July 2016)
After a week, Virtusa contacted me to come in for an interview. I had no clue what exactly I was preparing for, so I practiced bits and pieces from everything. I went in for the interview. The interview panel asked me why I wanted to work with them. They were shocked to hear a dropout trying to work with them. They asked some of the most fundamental questions in software development, such as printing patterns and object-oriented programming concepts, which I struggled with but managed to answer adequately. A few questions later, the panel started asking me about .NET. I was good at .NET and answered all the questions. Unfortunately, the panel was searching for a Java resource and decided not to go with me as a potential Java hire. After this interview, I gave up my idea of joining Virtusa and applied for a few other places.
Interview (last week of July 2016)
The following week, I received an email asking me to attend another interview at Virtusa. This one became a full .NET interview. I was asked about web services, design patterns, and T-SQL, which I managed to answer pretty easily. I was unable to answer one question.
Interview highlight
I was asked about something called “AngularJS” and whether I was good at it. My answer was: “I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know what it is. I would love to learn it.” I think this statement secured my entry into the company.
HR interview
They asked me about Virtusa and how I got to know about the place. I passed this interview and I was in. The next step was to fill out a booklet of documents.
Coffee with N&N
The first week was really boring but also exciting because it was a new culture. We had a tour of the IT City. I also sat for the HR, Governance & Compliance exams and finally the fire marshals’ training. We were notified of the remuneration and contract specifics, including the transport allowance.
First week
One of the youngest software engineering interns at VirtusaPolaris, I was involved as a full stack developer in Project GoWireless. There was a big learning curve for me because I had not worked with real-time deployments, an actual business domain, version control, or technical documentation. The challenge was to learn and explore the application while implementing requirements with AngularJS. This was an almost decade-old project that was migrating to the latest stack at the time. During my time in the project, I gained hands-on experience with the .NET framework and its components. I was also trained to do technical documentation.
Software engineering gradually lost its appeal to me. My ideal understanding of a software engineer was someone who creates their own applications using their skillset to make life easier. After working in the project above, I realized it was not so wonderful.
Basically, the client gave requirements to our project manager, who then delegated them to the technical lead for a feasibility study, and finally they were delegated to us. We, as developers, didn’t question much; we just delivered the requirements. This was boring. It was an infinite loop of solutions from Stack Overflow and MSDN. It was not so exciting. Therefore, software engineering gradually lost its appeal to me.
Applications Infrastructure Intern
Other than my technical expertise, I represented the company in the President’s Challenge Trophy Mercantile Swimming Championship 2016.
First swimming squad of the company
To be very honest, I had a very limited understanding of systems, networking, or infrastructure. I wanted to learn it. So I made a request to HR to transfer to the Application Infrastructure team. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made. I got a really experienced, qualified, and professional reporting manager. He taught me from scratch about real-time system implementation, networking, monitoring, and cloud-related work. In addition to that, I assisted with an ongoing development project called Proactive Checklists for the Infrastructure Team. I also gained exposure from a project management perspective, starting from meeting minutes to domain knowledge.
GoWireless Package DTC
Through thick and thin
I had met a few friends from IIT who were working at Virtusa. These people were really good at their subject matter. They were the most chilled-out people I’ve met among the other interns at Virtusa. Every day, I would have lunch with them, and I soon understood why my dad recommended IIT for my higher education. Long story short, my internship would not have been the same without these people.
IITIANS
GoKarting
Month 2
Summary
Virtusa is a great company if your objective is to learn and grow, but if your objective is to make a living while doing the above, maybe not. As for the internship, it is not an easy task to function in the corporate environment among 2,000+ professionals in Sri Lanka. However, if you are up to date with the latest tech stack and know your way around it, the internship would help you stand out from the crowd. I’ve also heard that Virtusa’s remuneration is bad, and I somewhat agree. At the same time, I also disagree because of the brand value the company adds to your résumé. I can personally attest that recruiters do not hesitate to consider your application when they see the name Virtusa on your résumé.
Review (based on observations)
- Work–life balance: depends on your project
- Personal growth: depends on your skill
- Remunerations: low
- Visibility: low
- Extra-curricular activities: Toastmasters, swimming, basketball, badminton, table tennis, chess, and rugby
- Recreational activities: pool, gaming, and more
Acknowledgement: I’m writing this after 2 years from the date of completing my internship, so the facts or details may have changed in the present.
Note: I have not been paid to promote the organization, nor will I gain anything from writing this post other than sharing my experience.
Non-disclosure: I will not be discussing specifics on projects, infrastructure, or individuals.