In this interview, Sylvia Ruiz, Aruba’s university and internship program manager, chats with Palash Sanjay Jain, from Ahmedabad, India, who shares his experiences working in the hectic but satisfying world of DevOps.
Sylvia: Why did you choose the internship at Aruba?
Palash: In my last internship, I worked with some very smart senior software developers. When I came to know they were working on an exciting new project at Aruba Networks, I was totally excited for it. I think it came down to meeting the right people at the right time.
Sylvia: What are your key tasks at Aruba?
Palash: I am working as a site reliability engineer in the Santa Clara, CA, office in the CloudOps team. I have two main tasks, which is to monitor how all applications are performing at any given time, and second, to create a Mission Control Dashboard which is intended primarily for our team but will be extended for other teams.
It’s a perfect fit with my background in software engineering. At school, I learned from my professors about different automation techniques and the software development activities. On this Aruba team, I am experiencing all of them at the same time— which is just perfect. My entire education is coming into use.
Sylvia: How would you describe the corporate culture?
Palash: Aruba is always lively, with sessions like tech talks and activities for interns. We had a lunch session with (Aruba CTO) Partha Narasimhan, where we had an opportunity to ask questions and see how he’s made it to where he is now. Aruba makes you feel at home. My work is useful for the team as well as the company.
Sylvia: Who has been the most inspiring mentor for you?
Palash: On my team, everyone. I am learning something from each team member. I have an amazing manager to work with, and he is always clear on what we need to do. The other people on the team all work hard, too. They are efficient and dedicated to their responsibilities. This is what my colleague told me the other day, “You are here for a greater cause..!!”
Sylvia: What tips would you provide to future students applying for internships?
Palash: For someone who is new looking for new opportunities here, they should be looking at the profiles often, as something new and interesting comes up every week.
Sylvia: What is your most memorable office experience so far?
Palash: So many things. A few weeks after I arrived, there was a daylong hackathon for the entire company, and I won the unique idea category. It was fun seeing my name up there. Also, I enjoyed watching FIFA world cup matches in the Cafeteria!
Sylvia: What is your ideal future career path?
Palash: I am looking for DevOps. I like the DevOps work, hectic, fast moving and vast. It’s super critical, and a lot of people depend on you, which is an important part of my job satisfaction.
Sylvia: What technology do you find the most fascinating?
Palash: I am new to the Kubernetes orchestration, which is used for Docker container deployment. It’s very fascinating and makes me realize the progress in the software engineering field. Everything has become so simple and easy to manage. New applications can be uploaded, and new releases can be made more easily. It’s super fascinating and amazing to see how quickly it is changing. There can be changes every month. It’s important for me to keep learning new things.
Sylvia: What is the one thing most people don’t know about you?
Palash: The first time I flew into the US was to Newark, NJ. While the flight was landing, I saw the New York City skyline on my right. I was totally in awe of it. Then I had a connecting flight to Rochester, and my perceptions changed.
When I came to California for the first time last year for the internship, as soon as I got off the flight in San Jose, I noticed so many software companies. I realized why they call this area the Silicon Valley, as tech companies are everywhere here.
Sylvia: What’s your favorite meme?
Palash: I think this one describes me the best.
