Credits - Gaurav Mishra, B.Tech, Mechanical Engineering 2024

Where was your third year summer internship? Domain, Company, and City

My internship was at Adobe, Noida office. It offered me a stipend of 1 lakh per month.
The domain of my work was AI / ML, specifically deep learning research. I was developing an AI model to understand the structure of websites, e-posters, etc.

Can you tell us about the work you were assigned during your internship? What were your responsibilities?

The work can be classified into two parts. The first was defending the research topic, essentially answering the question, “Why do you want to explore a particular field?” This was to help the company understand where their resources were being allocated.
The second part involved actually doing the work and making progress in that area.

Describe a typical day at your internship. What tools, software, or equipment did you use in your work?

My usual day started around 9 am. The office had gym facilities, so I used to work out early, followed by a shower and breakfast at the office. My actual workday began around 10 am. We had weekly update meetings, but most of the work was self-driven. The company culture encouraged idea-sharing, so we often discussed and implemented new ideas.
The first half of the workday lasted until around 12 pm, followed by lunch at the office. After lunch, we spent some time in the game room or recreational area, playing TT. Work resumed around 2 pm and continued until about 5:30-6 pm. Many interns stayed at the company for dinner, so in the evening, we played badminton at the company’s courts. I usually went back home around 9 pm, relaxed, talked to my parents, and went to sleep around 11-12 pm.
Adobe offered flexible timings, so although the whole day was spent at the office, the fully productive hours were generally around 5-6 hours.
I used Python throughout my internship since deep learning heavily relies on it. For some data acquisition, my co-intern worked with JAVA for a while. I also used Visual Studio Code and Git.

What is something you didn’t know would be a relevant skill to have but helped you in your internship, or what was a skill you were surprised to figure out you needed for your internship?

Initially, I thought that a technical internship wouldn’t require much interaction with people. However, I quickly realized that talking among a group, where everyone was new, was a valuable skill to develop. Being able to interact freely with seniors was also very helpful.
Another surprise was the importance of presentations. In college, presentations often get the least importance, and we tend to prepare last-minute slides without a proper script. However, at Adobe, delivering presentations properly was a big deal. I learned to create well-prepared presentations with significant effort.
It’s not just important to do the work, but also to present it effectively.

Tell me about your transition to the city, accommodation (PG, hostel, rented apartment, relatives), food, and transportation. Was it compensated by the company? Did they help in any way?

Regarding food, all meals were provided by the company. Lunch and dinner were free, while breakfast and snacks were available at a very subsidized rate.
For accommodation, I found a flat near the office where three of us shared the space, all working at Adobe. I found this flat through the interns’ WhatsApp group, where someone posted about an available room. The rent was 15k per month for one room. The company didn’t provide direct reimbursement for the stay, but they offered a relocation bonus.
In terms of transport, the company had a shuttle system with a fixed route, allowing employees to catch a shuttle from a nearby stop. Since I lived very close to the office, around 1 km, I walked to the office every day.
Weekends were mostly spent going out with friends, partying, or hanging out at each other’s places. The other interns were from IITs, BITS, and some from DTU.
Regarding my experience in Noida, it wasn’t the greatest, and the city didn’t feel very safe. However, after making friends with co-interns, I felt more at home. Exploring the city with them was fun, and having people to spend time with helped me not miss home as much.

Your personal goals and journey and how this internship shaped/affected the same.

Initially, I was focused on “doing well in the internship and securing a PPO.” Reflecting on it now, I feel that the experience would have been better if I hadn’t stressed so much about getting the PPO and competing with others.
After the internship, I realized that deep learning research often involves feeding more data to improve the model. This made me question whether I wanted to continue in ML as a career. For my future plans, I’m considering pursuing a master’s abroad in either CS or ML after one year of work at Adobe. I’ve discovered different interests after working in the field. Although I’m not keen on further studying, I believe that obtaining a master’s can significantly improve the pay and type of work I’ll be doing.

How is the work culture at the company?

The work culture at Adobe is excellent. There’s flexibility in terms of “work from home,” as long as you’re completing your tasks. If you don’t show up to work someday, no one will question you, except the manager who might ask about your progress.
Adobe is increasingly adopting a horizontal hierarchy. At the intern level, we were initially afraid of managers. However, it turned out that you could approach the managers anytime. In fact, there were no specific manager offices or cubicles; everyone worked in one big open space.

Any memorable experience you’d like to share?

One memorable experience happened at the end of the internship during the final presentation to the VP of Adobe India. We were all lined up to give 2-minute presentations, and everyone was stressed initially. However, things calmed down eventually. After the presentations and the official end of the internship, we were expecting a cake celebration from the company. But they seemed to forget it was our last day, so we all chipped in and bought a cake for ourselves.
Another memorable experience was attending a metal band concert for the first time in my life.

Any advice for people going to work in the same company? If you could go back, is there anything you would do differently during your internship?

Make good relationships, even with full-time employees. Don’t stress too much about the PPO.