Barely a week after my 3rd year semester exams, I set off to pursue my summer internship at Samsung Research Institute - Bangalore (SRI-B). Who knew that the 2 months, of which I was initially apprehensive, would turn out to be the best moments of my life.
Starting with SRI-B's welcome for the summer interns, none of us imagined a royal 5-star suite accommodation, 3 course buffet spreads, a truly motivating orientation programme (except for those tiresome form filling jobs) and bus travel to-from office and the hotel for a whole week. Samsung made us feel very special.
In the orientation programme, we were allocated the team we would be working with and were assigned a mentor (a reporting manager). The entire team had a HR whom we could contact in case of queries.The working style in SRI-B is disciplined and employee-friendly. Their intranet hosts all employee related information, which also enables us to raise workflow requests pertaining to system, network or workspace issues. The best part is that these requests are attended swiftly.We were given Samsung mail ids to send and receive official mails. In addition they have a messenger service to ping any other employee. In short, for two months, I was also treated as a regular SRI-B employee. :)
Coming to my internship project, I was part of the Web-Engine and Runtime Team. I was asked to develop a Buddy Chat Client to be incorporated in a user's browsing session. I started with the requirements, design documentation and study of Chat APIs. Things went on smooth till a major break occurred. The initial idea was to develop a Facebook based chat client. Due to Facebook's permission changes in its Chat API (which had occurred only a week or 2 before commencing the module), I was afraid if my project would be stalled and didn't know what I would do for the rest of my intern period. When I approached my Manager, I suggested to change the chat client from being Facebook based to a Google Hangout client, since both operated on the same messaging protocol standards. My Manager understood the technical difficulty and allowed me to go ahead with my suggestion. It did work and the project was back on track :)
Thanks to my Manager's properly drafted project schedule, I worked everyday and loved every moment of work. He was my best critic, giving me apt suggestions. The other team members were also ready to help me anytime. The whole experience taught me that when in R & D, pitfalls are frequent. But it is impossible to come up with something novel without repeated attempts.
Please do not jump into conclusions that I am a workaholic or SRI-B requires workaholics. Fun events in SRI-B happen often. The Interns day celebrations was one such event I got to attend. SRI-B has many online learning courses hosted in their intranet and it helps us in our respective projects big time.I can never forget the team lunch I was part of, despite having a bad cold. Speaking of lunch, food at SRI-B was awesome!!! The lunch and dinner happens to be free and is a wonderful spread from 2 different caterers. More the variety!
On why SRI-B is a great place to work, SRI-B has people working on all possible software domains. Technical support, flexible work environment, friendly team members, I think all what i have told above covers it all.
SRI-B's summer internship acquainted me with many fellow students from premier institutions of the country. Be it my roommate in the hotel, my PG roommates, 'board-room' mates (L7 Board Room, ORION, thats where interns of our team were put up), it was nice knowing them all. The PG where i was staying was right behind SRI-B. I was lucky to be there, as the place was high in demand due to its close proximity to Samsung. My roomies were 2 other interns (Sidhdhi and Priyanka) from VJTI, Mumbai and 2 HRs from SRI-B.
Life in a PG was different as I had never been in a hostel before. Although my family and a few local relatives helped me get comfortable initially, I was mostly on my own for those 2 months. With my newly found roommates, life had never given me more surprises. Unlimited photos, roaming in malls, gardens, movies, all these were new and wonderful. Being with Sidhdhi and Priyanka taught me to look at life from a different perspective. Somehow I never wanted these two months to end.
On a personal level, this period made me realise that contentment in one's life matters most. As I left SRI-B, back to Chennai, I was extremely contented and ready to face my final year of college, placements , projects, studies.... Things were back to the same, when an announcement came that "Archana! You are placed in Samsung!!!!" It appeared to be a dream when I was one among the 15 chosen from Anna University. But when I recollected my internship days, the corrections and comments given by my manager, I felt extremely happy that SRI-B had accepted me for the work I did.
To conclude, I happened to see this fine Bollywood film called 'Queen' recently. Seeing the lead role and her expeditions, the person I could instantly relate to was me. These 2 months helped me open out, lead an independent life, take my own decisions, let go of my past, smile with content and march ahead to the future.
Starting with SRI-B's welcome for the summer interns, none of us imagined a royal 5-star suite accommodation, 3 course buffet spreads, a truly motivating orientation programme (except for those tiresome form filling jobs) and bus travel to-from office and the hotel for a whole week. Samsung made us feel very special.
 |
| A royal welcome indeed |
In the orientation programme, we were allocated the team we would be working with and were assigned a mentor (a reporting manager). The entire team had a HR whom we could contact in case of queries.The working style in SRI-B is disciplined and employee-friendly. Their intranet hosts all employee related information, which also enables us to raise workflow requests pertaining to system, network or workspace issues. The best part is that these requests are attended swiftly.We were given Samsung mail ids to send and receive official mails. In addition they have a messenger service to ping any other employee. In short, for two months, I was also treated as a regular SRI-B employee. :)
 |
| In my PG terrace, near ORION, Samsung |
Coming to my internship project, I was part of the Web-Engine and Runtime Team. I was asked to develop a Buddy Chat Client to be incorporated in a user's browsing session. I started with the requirements, design documentation and study of Chat APIs. Things went on smooth till a major break occurred. The initial idea was to develop a Facebook based chat client. Due to Facebook's permission changes in its Chat API (which had occurred only a week or 2 before commencing the module), I was afraid if my project would be stalled and didn't know what I would do for the rest of my intern period. When I approached my Manager, I suggested to change the chat client from being Facebook based to a Google Hangout client, since both operated on the same messaging protocol standards. My Manager understood the technical difficulty and allowed me to go ahead with my suggestion. It did work and the project was back on track :)
Thanks to my Manager's properly drafted project schedule, I worked everyday and loved every moment of work. He was my best critic, giving me apt suggestions. The other team members were also ready to help me anytime. The whole experience taught me that when in R & D, pitfalls are frequent. But it is impossible to come up with something novel without repeated attempts.
Please do not jump into conclusions that I am a workaholic or SRI-B requires workaholics. Fun events in SRI-B happen often. The Interns day celebrations was one such event I got to attend. SRI-B has many online learning courses hosted in their intranet and it helps us in our respective projects big time.I can never forget the team lunch I was part of, despite having a bad cold. Speaking of lunch, food at SRI-B was awesome!!! The lunch and dinner happens to be free and is a wonderful spread from 2 different caterers. More the variety!
 |
| With 2 of my team members at "Absolute Barbeque" |
On why SRI-B is a great place to work, SRI-B has people working on all possible software domains. Technical support, flexible work environment, friendly team members, I think all what i have told above covers it all.
SRI-B's summer internship acquainted me with many fellow students from premier institutions of the country. Be it my roommate in the hotel, my PG roommates, 'board-room' mates (L7 Board Room, ORION, thats where interns of our team were put up), it was nice knowing them all. The PG where i was staying was right behind SRI-B. I was lucky to be there, as the place was high in demand due to its close proximity to Samsung. My roomies were 2 other interns (Sidhdhi and Priyanka) from VJTI, Mumbai and 2 HRs from SRI-B.
 |
| How can we miss the roomies' selfie |
Life in a PG was different as I had never been in a hostel before. Although my family and a few local relatives helped me get comfortable initially, I was mostly on my own for those 2 months. With my newly found roommates, life had never given me more surprises. Unlimited photos, roaming in malls, gardens, movies, all these were new and wonderful. Being with Sidhdhi and Priyanka taught me to look at life from a different perspective. Somehow I never wanted these two months to end.
On a personal level, this period made me realise that contentment in one's life matters most. As I left SRI-B, back to Chennai, I was extremely contented and ready to face my final year of college, placements , projects, studies.... Things were back to the same, when an announcement came that "Archana! You are placed in Samsung!!!!" It appeared to be a dream when I was one among the 15 chosen from Anna University. But when I recollected my internship days, the corrections and comments given by my manager, I felt extremely happy that SRI-B had accepted me for the work I did.
To conclude, I happened to see this fine Bollywood film called 'Queen' recently. Seeing the lead role and her expeditions, the person I could instantly relate to was me. These 2 months helped me open out, lead an independent life, take my own decisions, let go of my past, smile with content and march ahead to the future.
