Name: Tejaswi Pandey
Internship, Co-op, or Research Site: Splunk
Position Title: Incident Response Intern
Major or Program: Information Systems Major, Economics Minor
Current Class Level: Senior
Work Term: Spring 2021 and Summer 2021 (Feb 8 to July 30, 2021)
Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.
Splunk's Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) advised me to learn as much as possible during my six-month internship so that my skills and goals align with the company's mission statement, ensuring I would become a promising candidate for potential hire.
Coming from a nursing background, this conversation helped me overcome my imposter syndrome as many of my fellow interns came from Ivy League and top liberal arts universities worldwide with years of experience in the technology field. The manager assigned me two mentors who helped me to enhance my cybersecurity skills.
My day usually started with CompTIA Security+ and Network+ e-learning. Then, I would meet with my Junior Mentor (Senior Analyst) to understand the materials in-depth. During the day, I attended team meetings, Womxn Employee Resource Group (ERG) sessions and shadowed members from various roles within the company. In between meetings, I did hands-on ethical hacking training.
For a recent project, I built an AWS EC2 instance using an Apache HTTP server. I then installed network security tools to scan for possible vulnerabilities by analyzing a large quantity of logs. During ethical hacking, I collaborated with the Penetration team, actively monitoring network traffic in real-time, detecting active intrusion, and immediately mitigating compromises on the server. Later in the day, I would meet with my second mentor (Principal Analyst) providing project updates, and get feedback.
Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?
A career development program called Year Up helped me obtain a CompTIA Security+ certificate and land a six-month internship at Splunk as an Incident Response and Digital Forensics Intern. At the end of my internship, I received two full-time job offers to start this Fall '21 semester. I am excited to share that I am continuing at Splunk as a full-time Cloud Operations Incident Commander while pursuing my bachelor's degree in Information Systems and minor in Economics at UMBC.
I pro-actively leveraged the following skills during my internship that led me to full-time conversion:
- Communication: I set up a weekly meeting with my team manager to build a professional relationship by updating projects and feedback and taking the initiative by proposing projects to the team. This allowed my manager to advocate for me to senior management during the conversion process and receive recommendations for future employment.
- Networking: I followed Instagram career influencers - Jonathan Javier and Jerry Lee (Wonsulting), Manny Duenas (The Career Doctor), and Emily Durham (Career Coach). I utilized these influencers' content to network with senior management. This allowed me to get insights on upcoming open roles and receive mentorship. I also attended the Women in Tech Conference, where the senior managerial members from FAANG companies and the former First Lady, Michelle Obama, attended as a keynote speaker. Platforms like these educated me to utilize proven strategies to climb the ladder in a heavily male-dominated industry.
- Branding Myself: Being an Economics minor student, I started investing in stocks and cryptocurrency early in my 20's. I would start and end my day by reading the news and understanding the current economic market. At the internship, I usually initiated conversations about the latest cyber breach, inflation, and stocks during happy hours, which created a personal and professional barrier.
- Professionalism: I grew up in Prince George's County, Maryland. And that to me, professionalism was heavily about code-switching. I reflexively or subtly changed how I expressed myself at Splunk while staying true to myself and holding diversity in my team. I quickly adapted to the environment by resonating with one of Splunk's core values, "Open," so that I was not just trying to fit in, but instead, I was culturally compatible.
What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?
It was a dream come true participating at my first Splunk Summer Hackathon in Product and Technology 2021. About 300 Splunk employees participated in the event, and my team made it to the Top 20 Finalists. Another full-time employee and I collaborated and built a “Multi-Cloud Billing Dashboard” using Splunk Cloud interactive Treemap visualization allowing project managers to compare cloud infra-cost and reduce the cost. Even though we only had two days to work on the project, I truly enjoyed jumpstarting new ideas, collaborative working style, and planning future works that can be completed asynchronously.
How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?
Growing up, I did not have many examples to look up to. As a first-generation student from a low-income background, it has been a significant growth opportunity for me to intern and now work as a full-time employee at Splunk. To promote diversity and inclusion, I shared my story in Splunk's intern feature, "Million data points" and "National Intern Day," to showcase that I bring great value to both minds and culture. I aspire to open the door for others from marginalized communities to break into their tech career and lead with courage and authenticity.
What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?
I switched my major from Pre-Nursing to Information Technology in my junior year of college. I had just started taking IT pre-requisite classes and actively applying for an internship. I received rejections from all internships I applied to due to a lack of prior technical experience. I would advise another student to take CompTIA certification for equivalent work experience and demonstrate their passion for technology by attending tech conferences and volunteering at middle school coding classes.
Likewise, most companies offer apprenticeships for those who come from a non-traditional background and would like to breakthrough into a career in technology. Some programs are Google IT Apprenticeship and Residency Program, Microsoft Leap Apprenticeship, Capital One Cyber Program, Accenture Apprenticeship Program, Okta Accelerator Program, Year Up, and Per Scholas.
Please provide a short reflection or quote about what you liked most about your position / earning internship credit / working with the Career Center.
“It's the motivation that leveraged my passion for technology but it's the discipline that got me to the point I am at now.” -Tejaswi
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