Naren Boddeda, a second year BSc Computer Science student completed a four-week internship with Queen’s International Office as part of our Working Globally from NI Internship Programme. Here is how she got on.
Gaining experience from India
After my first year, I wanted some hands-on experience with working for an organization and gaining some experience in my field, so I decided to do a summer internship. But because of the Covid 19 situation and the travel restrictions, I was in India and needed to find an internship that could be done remotely.
The Working Globally from NI- Internship Programme was the ideal choice for me. It is a summer internship that could be completed from anywhere in the world and, I felt, it is a nice opportunity to gain valuable experience in the early stage of my degree. Working online was something new and I was looking forward to it.
Playing to my strengths
I got an internship offer from the International Office. During my interview, I mentioned I completed the module on databases and would like to gain some experience in that therefore I was given a project related to it for my internship. Before the internship started, the Global Opportunities team had set up a call with me and they briefed all the important details regarding the internship.
It was four weeks long and each week I was given specific tasks. There was no stringent pressure of deadlines and the international office had wonderful people to work with. I was given two mentors to help me catch up with my work and reach out if I had any queries. I had catch-up calls, in MS Teams, twice a week with my mentors. For the first week, I was given an introduction to my work and, also some time to settle in. I started my data analysis project in the second week. It was nice to work with real-world situations and complete impactful projects. I also had a group project with a few other interns to review new campaigns, which was a nice online collaborative session. Every week I had something new to do and I had a steady amount to workload. I also got an insight into how the international office in Queen’s functions. Overall, it was a great experience and gave a head-start to my career.
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