Empowering interns to become successful engineers

Internships can provide on-the-job training and professional development for individuals starting their career. For that reason, companies should create positive experiences for interns to grow into successful professionals. Interns at Intuit have a wide scope of learning opportunities, often connecting with teams across platforms for project requirements. The key is to help our interns absorb knowledge and put their learnings into practice for greater outcomes. 

Our interns Nikhil S. Kashyap and Rhea Ravi Sharma share their internship experiences. They joined Intuit India as summer interns last May. They were also part of this year’s 6-month internship and were offered full-time roles. Nikhil and Rhea had the opportunity to work on projects aligned with their interests, also adding value to their personal and professional development. Read on to know what they have to say. 

What is the most important aspect of your internship that helped you grow your career? 

Nikhil: The company’s practice of assigning a buddy to every new hire made a positive impact on my learning. My buddy gave me tips to adapt to the new environment. I also have a mentor who helps me with learning new concepts and clarify my doubts on the tech front. The internship has enhanced my team-building skills and helped me realize how diverse a team can be. I can talk about a problem statement with a leader who is much older than me, or with a peer.

Rhea: The 6-month internship gave me a lot of time to learn. I worked on many projects while interacting with teams and engineers from different time zones. They helped me learn how to write better code and interpret software requirements. These efforts deepen my understanding of tech to become a successful engineer. 

How has your internship deepened your interest and knowledge in tech? 

Nikhil: I’m passionate about machine learning. And I have had the opportunity to work on modern technologies like GraphQL. Working on a machine learning project for customers has been amazing. My learnings have been quite extensive. I realized that there is a constant need to improvise, debug, and rework until the desired outcome. Optimizing and making things work has been a huge learning experience for me. In fact, my knowledge of finance has increased as a result of the internship. I’ve gained insights into expert profiles, onboarding process, tax forms, and much more. 

Rhea: My role as an intern is quite like an employee. I got to work on several repositories. I’m involved in the team’s everyday activities. I communicate with other teams for requirements—and even work on code that is not written by my team. I enjoy working on website development, which is a core focus area for QuickBooks Online Advanced. Also, the training that interns have is quite like employees. So my learning experience is quite enhanced. I had an opportunity to work on the backend of a feature that we’re building. I enjoyed the process while learning more about building APIs. Engineers should learn both front-end and back-end to become a full-stack developer. 

What are your key learnings that build your tech capabilities? 

Nikhil: The agile culture at Intuit opens up new avenues for learning. It has encouraged me to keep mini goals that are achievable. This way, I’m not overwhelmed, and I see results in the short-term. Having small goals helps me focus on achieving quantifiable results needed for engineers. Moreover, self-learning is much appreciated at Intuit. I have access to digital learning platforms to learn about SpringBoard, Java, AWS, and the like. I also learned the importance of documenting my work, as shared by my mentor. The process is needed because teams and customers worldwide use our products. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, and if something new is identified, then documenting helps teams scale the work. 

Rhea: I’m always interested in learning new things and had the opportunity to be part of the training provided by my manager. The leadership team was also very supportive in enabling me to learn faster. They encouraged me to take the time to learn new concepts. I’m very proud of the work I’ve done so far at Intuit. The company’s Global Engineering Days (GED) held twice a year allowed me to work on an idea that I’m passionate about. GED has been a great opportunity for me to work on several projects and new concepts. Before GED, I used to work on projects that were assigned to me by the team. Now I’m confident about learning new concepts and working on my own.  

Do you feel that Intuit’s mission aligns with your long-term goals as an engineer? 

Nikhil: I’m fascinated by computer science. Understanding a problem statement and solving a problem can be interesting. The field of computer science has a plethora of problems to solve and that excites me a lot. Tech, in particular, is so fast-paced that it’s amazing to see how things progress—changing people’s lives.  And that’s how I connect with Intuit. Our tech helps change people’s financial lives and I want to be a big part of that. 

Rhea: Technology can impact the lives of people and that’s why I decided to join this field. Technology can transform the financial needs of small businesses through products and services. I receive critical and positive feedback from customers which builds my tech capabilities. When I look at the stats and know the number of customers using a feature that I contributed to—it is amazing. And that’s what I love about Intuit. 

If you’re looking for a way to create innovative solutions while helping the world, we’re always looking for great talent to join us at Intuit. Visit our careers website to learn more and apply for open roles.