Intern of the Week: Felix Dogbe for Computer Science!

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 10:13:32 -0400
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Name: Felix Dogbe

Internship, Co-op, or Research Site: Amazon Web Service

Position Title: Cloud Infrastructure Architect

Major or Program: Computer Science

Current Class Level: Master's Student

Work Term: Summer

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.

Executive Partners with big firms need quantitative data and metrics to make critical business decisions. Typically, data gathering for these firms involve an extensive process and various teams that would be able to support the requests which impact the speed and effectiveness of decision making. To address this problem, l had to develop an Alexa Skill which queries data and processes the raw data into meaningful information. The Alexa Skill says or prints out (using the visual feature) the needed response to be used in making those critical decisions. This saves the organization a significant amount of time and directs their focus on reaching business goals and satisfying customers.

I designed and deployed the underlying infrastructure components of the solution, including the resources to be provisioned for the Alexa Skill. Some resources deployed include AWS S3 buckets, Lambda, Secret Manager, KMS, Glue, Athena, Eventbridge, Alexa skill, and others. I used AWS CodePipeline service and developed a collection of stacks deployed through the CI/CD framework. The stacks in AWS CloudFormation made it easier to deploy and manage the resources provisioned in minutes.

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?

I came across the internship opportunity as l scrolled through Amazon jobs (the website). I submitted my internship application in mid December 2020 with an aim of landing a Summer 2021 internship position. I received offers from other companies but l felt my interest aligned best with AWS. l went through 3 rounds of interviews with the first being a self paced programming assignment. The second was a pair programming interview which is meant to understand the candidate's technical skills more in-depth, and lasted for about an hour. The final stage was the behavioral interview which was centered around Amazon's 14 Leadership Principles. The whole interview process took about a month and 2 days later l received an offer for an internship.

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?

I most enjoyed the learning experience and the opportunity to join a team of highly skilled Amazonians in undertaking the project. It was an eye opening experience into the field of Cloud computing and getting the chance to interact with diverse people who share a similar goal was super fun. I had the chance to visit Seattle where l met other teammates, took a trip to The Spheres and visited the Space Needle.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

With easy access to the Amazon Alexa Skill, executive partners will be able to get the necessary information needed to make critical business decisions. This saves the organization a significant amount of time and directs their focus on reaching business goals and satisfying customers.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

"Make a plan, start applying early and apply to as many internship opportunities as you can! Although you may receive a few rejections, don't let that deter you from reapplying. You learn from your experiences and the more interviews you partake in the better you become at interviewing.

Also, be open to relocating (out of state), experience other places and visit new sites. Some companies offer relocation packages to assist interns moving to a new city."

Please provide a short reflection or quote about what you liked most about your position / earning internship credit / working with the Career Center.

"Learn and be curious", this is the quote that resonated with me during my internship. Leaders/problem solvers are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them. Internships are an amazing way to learn and get experience as you prepare for your respective career field upon graduation.