Although my role was more toward Cyber Defense/Blue Teaming, I got to experience all aspects of Cybersecurity including Penetration Testing/Red Teaming, Social Engineering, Threat Intelligence & Reverse Engineering.
Name: Aakash Raman
Major: PM - Cyber Security
Employer: IBM
Location: Austin, TX
How did you find the internship/co-op? What was the interview process like? I found this internship on Linkedin when I first landed in the United States. IBM was one of my dream companies to work in as I was following them for quite some time in the past. The interview process was an easy one, I had to upload my resume and answer some job-specific questions. Then, there was a Video Interview which consisted of a combination of technical and HR-related questions. Finally, there was a Group Interview that consisted of 4 people asking me questions about my resume, past projects, technical Cybersecurity concepts, and my future goals.
What have been the most interesting aspects of your internship? The most interesting aspect of this internship was the quality of the training. Although my role was more toward Cyber Defense/Blue Teaming, I got to experience all aspects of Cybersecurity including Penetration Testing/Red Teaming, Social Engineering, Threat Intelligence & Reverse Engineering.
What campus activities or courses do you think helped you, or would have helped you, with this internship? Courses such as ENPM691 (Hacking of C Programs & Unix Binaries), ENPM694 (Networks & Protocols), ENPM665 (Cloud Security), ENPM693 (Network Security), and ENPM685 (Security Tools for Information Security) really helped me in this internship. These courses gave me the fundamental practical knowledge that helped me build my skillset during the internship.
Was there diversity among your colleagues within the department and throughout your internship/co-op experience? Yes, there was a lot of diversity at IBM. There were multiple Asian, African-American, and Hispanic folks that were part of my team and I got a chance to work with most of them throughout the internship. A lot of them were very knowledgeable in a particular domain and it was great learning from their experiences.
Was there a formal program for all interns at the company? Was peer support available throughout the internship? Yes, there was a formal program for all the interns at IBM. During the initial days, all IBM Interns were taken to the Q2 Football Stadium in Austin to network with each other. Our managers also took us out for lunch and dinner formally during the beginning and middle of the internship.
To celebrate National Intern Day, all the IBM Interns at Austin got unlimited Pizza and a Eye-Bee-M Full Zip Hoodie sent to them too!
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