Hood Computer Science Student Interns at CISCO

Yashraj Sinha, a student in Hood’s Master in Computer Science program, completed an internship with Cisco Inc. this summer. Yashraj is an international student from India, where he worked for Bosch and Cisco prior to starting his graduate studies at Hood. He answers questions about his experience below.

Yashraj Sinha

Program

Computer Science (M.S.)

Department

Computer Science & Information Technology

Graduate Student

Math & Computer Sciences

How did you land the position?

I updated my profile on the main job boards—LinkedIn, Dice, Monster and CareerBuilder. I also visited the career pages of all major companies in the Embedded Systems domain and submitted applications for as many relevant opportunities as possible. I found this specific opportunity on the Cisco Career portal. The interview was a two round process but I had a head start since I had already worked for Cisco back in India.

What were your responsibilities and achievements?

My main task was to develop Hardware Diagnostic Software for next generation Terabit speed routers—the first routers of that speed category in the world.

My major achievement was building a bootable Linux ISO image containing Diagnostic Software for the routers. I was also able to take full responsibility for the task and worked independently most of the time.

Any advice for students interested in interning?

Start applying early, as early as five months before your target start date. Remember that it’s a numbers game. The more jobs you apply to, the higher your chances of landing an offer.