Name: Yolanda Belisario
Hometown: San Tome, Anzoategui, Venezuela.
Where did you intern? What did you do there?
I interned at Assurant Inc. Since my first day at Assurant, I was exposed to different technologies and methodologies. The very first day I was invited to join their Daily Scrum Meeting and I got to meet the entire team. My first assignments were focused on getting me up to speed with the technologies that were being used by the whole team, technologies and concepts such as; networking, firewalls, security, python, ansible, DevSecOps, DNS, reporting, dashboarding, data analytics, among others. After the first month, I got assigned the task of developing a thorough analysis of one of the projects that were at the moment recently delivered by the team. This task allowed me to recognize the high business and technical value DevSecOps brings to the enterprise. Also, it exposed me to the use of ServiceNow as a reporting tool, as well as it gave me the opportunity to work side by side with other teams across the Enterprise. I learned tons of information from the very finest Engineers of today’s industry. My final assignment was to deliver an end-to-end automation solution for the migration of the configuration of the current Global Traffic Manager. The learning curve was extremely big. First, I had to learn all the basic concepts about how the internet works, as well as the process that occurs behind the scenes when a user wants to connect to a web service using their browser. Then, my manager and mentor taught me all the basic knowledge in one of our weekly sessions. Having the basic knowledge allowed me to conduct interviews with all the engineers that were involved in the manual migration process. Lastly, after I gathered all the information, I started developing an automated solution. The automation is saving tones of time in labor. The number of entries that needed to be migrated was around 1000 and the migration of a single point took around one hour counting the manual execution and coordination across the teams. The solution I developed takes less than a minute for every 10 entries, so it allows the engineers to migrate extremely fast. In addition, the risk of error is nearly eliminated by virtue of how the automation was designed. The automation is currently on the process of being used, so in a short amount of time, I am going to be able to say that all Assurant’s clients are using something I CREATED while being an intern.
How did you get your internship?
I got the internship thanks to the first day of my Advanced Software Engineering class. The professor introduced a former student who wanted to see the performance of the class and help mentor and facilitate the class as an industry professional. This former student was there the day I presented my idea for the class project and he told me: This is a go big or go home type of project, are you sure you can deliver it with the amount of time you have? -Yes, I am. Months passed and I presented my final product in the Senior Showcase. During the showcase, I saw this former student walking around and talking to people and I felt the necessity of showing him what I accomplished, but more importantly, I wanted to show him that I decided to go big instead of going home. Lucky me, this former student was recruiting and after I explained to him the final project, he offered me to come to Assurant’s campus for an onsite interview.
SAVE THE DATE: Assurant Day
– 10:30 AM Meet & Greet at the CASE Breezeway
– 12:30 PM Info Session and Panel with Pizza
What advice do you have for those beginning the internship process?
(1) Ask as many questions as you want (2) Do not hesitate if you need to ask for help (3) Try to take advantage of all the resources that are given to you during the time of the internship.
What projects did you work on?
(1) Data reporting (2) Delivering the end-to-end automation process for the migration and life cycle management of DNS based global application load balancing services.
What is your major?
I completed my B.S. in Computer Science in Summer 2019 and I am currently finishing the M.S. in Computer Science following the 4+1 program offered at FIU
How did your internship connect back to your coursework?
All my coursework gave me the theoretical knowledge I needed to understand the different projects that were being developed in the team. Also, the internship taught me that at the end of the day, everything we learn in school gets applied in the real world.
What was the coolest thing about your internship or that happened during your internship?
The coolest thing that happened to me in the internship was definitely having the chance to reach people that have been in the field for years. This internship gave me the opportunity to interact and work side-by-side with engineers that are extremely humble and smart. Also, it showed me how important having a team that cares about your development is. Having a wonderful and caring team is the best thing that has happened to me in this field, and it was thanks to Assurant.
What did you like most about your experience?
(1) Being able to deliver highly complex work. (2) See something that I created from scratch being indirectly used by many of our clients all around the world. Extremely cool!!
What did you learn about yourself?
I learned that there is no reason to feel ashamed for having an accent because people only care about the quality of the information you are delivering. Also, I learned that I have to own my failures as big as I own my successes because it is common in this industry to have a great deal among failures (bugs)
How did the position increase your professional confidence?
It increased my professional confidence by exposing me to technologies I did not have any idea about. It taught me how quickly the learning process can be when it is combined with a good mentor. Before this internship, I didn’t feel prepared to go to the workforce, but now, I am extremely confident that if I do not have all the skills I need to succeed, I for sure have the means and the talent to go get them.
How did you expand your professional network?
This question is very funny because I literally got to talk with Assurant’s CEO. At Assurant, everybody was extremely friendly and regardless of their position, everyone had their door open to help and collaborate. I met people from Software Development, security, infrastructure, data analysis, data applications, human resources, marketing and much more.
How did it help you prove yourself in the “real-world?”
It helped me by giving me tools that I am always going to use in my professional life. This internship filled the gap between academia and real work. I learned how to apply some school concepts in real-life scenarios. Also, this internship taught me how to trust my skills and go with my gut when coding.